The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Literature in Translation
Nineteen thought-provoking essays on the art of translation and its ability to help us understand other cultures and ways of thought by award-winning translators and publishers. Includes recommendations by the essayists of translations that they enjoyed reading. 88 pp. 2014
Preface by NEA Chairman Jane Chu ……………………………………….. i
Introduction by NEA Literature Director Amy Stolls ……………….ii
I.
“Hearing Voices” by Angela Rodel …………………………………………. 2
A translator’s journey begins with a love of Bulgarian music
“Choosing a Twin” by Gregory Pardlo ……………………………………. 5
On kinship, mental yoga, and the rebirth of a poem
“Work of Purpose, Work of Joy” by Charles Waugh ……………….. 9
Giving voice to the invisible and forgotten in Vietnam
“Living with Translation” by Howard Norman …………………….. 13
A writer’s deep and enduring immersion in the joys of translation
II.
“The Collaborative Approach” by Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt ……… 18
A married couple explains how two translators make one work of art
“By the Light of Translation” by Natasha Wimmer ………………. 22
How the slowest kind of reading leads to an act of seeing
“An Act of Imagination” by Philip Boehm …………………………….. 25
The commonalities between a translator and a theater director
“Daring and Doubting” by Russell Scott Valentino ……………….. 29
The translator’s claustrophobic, questioning mind
“The Sharable Rightness of Meaning” by Esther Allen ………….. 33
An ode to the magnificent Michael Henry Heim
III.
“The Myth of the ‘Three Percent Problem’” by Chad W. Post ……. 38
What the statistics on translated books in America really tell us
“A Universe of Layered Worlds” by Olivia E. Sears ………………. 42
The unexpected journey from the exotic to the universal
“Recovering the Culture” by Nicolás Kanellos ……………………… 46
Reaching the Latino community in two languages
“The Value of Publishing Translation” by John O’Brien ………… 50
How one publisher found support from other countries
“Toward an Understanding of Translation” by Rainer Schulte ……………… 53
A reflection on how we communicate and translate in modern-day life
“Engaging the World” by Susan Harris ………………………………… 57
The value of writers’ firsthand perspectives
IV.
“Brokers of Babel” by Edward Gauvin ………………………………….. 62
An argument against fidelity
“A More Complex Occasion” by Pierre Joris ………………………….. 66
Enriching poetry through the imperfect nature of languages
“Carrying Words Through Time” by Kazim Ali ……………………. 70
The transformation of a poet who translates
“The Art of Empathy” by Johanna Warren ……………………………. 73
Learning how to listen
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