The conclusion of a conversation with translator Susan Bernofsky. Read Part One here, and Part Two here. Ryan Mihaly: The Metamorphosis and Robert Walser’s Microscripts both deal with these cramped spaces – Microscripts being these texts written on the back of business cards, newspapers, pamphlets, and so on. And both Walser and Kafka write in this old, highly formal style, . . .
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Part Two of a conversation with translator Susan Bernofsky. Read Part One here. Ryan Mihaly: When did you begin working on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and to what extent did you consult the various other English translations? Susan Bernofsky: I started working on it, I think, in the spring of 2013, about a year before . . .
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Ryan Mihaly: You recently translated The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck, the fourth work of hers that you’ve translated. It seems that the more books she publishes in German, the quicker you translate them into English. How important is it for you to translate her books quickly? Susan Bernofsky: It’s funny, it doesn’t . . .
Read MorePart Two (Link to Part One) In the modern era, reading as well as writing are often solitary acts. Ulysses of course has its public celebration every Bloomsday, while Finnegans Wake has inspired countless monthly or even weekly reading groups. Has your engagement with Joyce been a solo journey, or do you count yourself amongst other . . .
Read MorePart One Marcelo Zabaloy must be a remarkable man, with no shortage of literary ambition and ability. Having completed an unabridged translation of James Joyce’s Ulysses (published in 2015 by el Cuenco de Plata in Buenos Aires), Zabaloy is in the final stages of his next translation. The book? James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. While Ulysses is a certainly a . . .
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Editor’s note: Recently in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Točak—a weekly arts program on the Bosnian national television channel BHTV—dedicated an entire program to the work of Karim Zaimović, a young artist and writer killed during the siege of Sarajevo. One of Zaimović’s stories was the inspiration for a comic published in Massachusetts Review 55.3. What follows below . . .
Read MoreMassachusetts Review: First of all, congratulations on winning the 2013 Jules Chametzky Translation Prize for your work on Anna Piwkowska’s poem, “A letter from Paul Éluard to his wife who is in Cadaqués with Salvador Dali”! Iza Wojciechowska: Thank you! I was delighted when I found out. MR: You certainly deserve it. . . .
Read MoreAn Interview with Ju-Chan and Bruce Fulton Congratulations for having your translation of Kim Tae-yong’s “Pig on Grass” selected for publication in the Massachusetts Review and then for winning the 4th Annual Chametzky Prize for Translation! How did you celebrate?We were beside ourselves with joy and had a glass or two of wine, then forwarded the . . .
Read MoreA Teacher and a Rabbi in Conversation (Parts One; Two; Three) Ilan Stavans: I became a teacher by default, Justin. I wanted to be next to books. What better way to spend one’s life is there? Almost three decades after that decision, I believe it was teaching that chose me and not . . .
Read MoreA Teacher and a Rabbi in Conversation (Link to Part One)(Link to Part Two) Ilan Stavans: You read the biblical stories, it seems to me, to prove a higher morality; I, instead, see them as just stories. They are like Greek mythology: a constellation of characters doing human things in order to . . .
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