Translation & World Literature
From Curiosity to Revelation
In a 2012 article, Lawrence Venuti wrote: “World literature cannot be conceptualized apart from translation.” And much of the fiction, poetry, and essays at the heart of WLT would not exist were it not for the translators who take up the challenge of bringing these texts into English. As Andrés Neuman writes elsewhere in this issue, “When books are translated, their authors not only witness a transfer but also a revelation.” In the following pages, we present five perspectives on the translator’s craft.
46 Michael Wood on Rilke
52 Christi A. Merrill on Dalit lit
57 Lucas Klein on Burton Watson
61 Eric Abrahamsen with Andrea Lingenfelter
66 Syed Manzoorul Islam with Rifat Munim
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- By Lucas KleinIllustration from Feng Yunpeng’s Jinshi suo 金石索 (1821; Index of inscription on bronzes and stones), as featured in The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, translated and edite…