Look up “basically” in the dictionary or thesaurus, and you’re likely to find synonyms such as “fundamentally,” “essentially,” “intrinsically,” or even “radically.” Dig down further, and you might find “at heart” or “at bottom,” “for the most part” or “in the main.” These last ones begin to suggest something that translating the word in context… Continue reading Translating Basically
Category: translation
Productive Delay
I stumbled across or — maybe better — waded into the notion of productive delay while writing about the Adriatic as a translational space. I was thinking about how things tend to be when you have to move in and through water, but also how connected it makes everything. Here’s a paragraph from early in… Continue reading Productive Delay
Two Humans Talking Translation
I managed to meet up with Sophie Hughes yesterday, and we had what the Italians call a chiacchierata, a word that feels so right for the unhurried, pure-joy exchange of our talk. I suppose chiacchierare really just means “to chat,” but that English term feels terribly wanting in color and warmth. Also, we both seemed… Continue reading Two Humans Talking Translation
Nastiness, Gentlemen, and People
People, I’m still plugging away at my translation of Notes from Underground. Earlier I wrote about the word choices regarding zloi and zlost’, which lead off the book and present translators with a global interpretive question: is the U-Man spiteful? Or is he bad, evil, wicked? How about angry? These have all been tried, and… Continue reading Nastiness, Gentlemen, and People
The Translator After AI
While Sea of Intimacy proceeds — I expect to have a full draft by later this summer — I seem to have another project developing. Pulling together some of the threads on this site, and looking at other pieces here and here, helped me to see it. At this point, my working title is The… Continue reading The Translator After AI
AI and Literary Translation: Key Questions and Experiments
AI has begun to reshape literary translation, not only in how texts are rendered but in how we understand language, meaning, and interpretation. Over the past several years, I’ve explored this problem through talks, teaching, and a series of experiments and reflections collected on this site. The results are not conclusive. But certain patterns—and certain… Continue reading AI and Literary Translation: Key Questions and Experiments
Looking for Lucy
I just finished an essay that feels freestanding and that could fit in three places in my Sea of Intimacy. I can’t tell whether its potential multifarious placement is a good thing or not. “Looking for Lucy” begins in Split, Croatia, where a sign that says “Lucy” hangs outside the cathedral (once the mausoleum of… Continue reading Looking for Lucy
Adespota on Valentine’s Day
There is no Saint Russell. So I am, as my Italian friend Vanessa once told me, adespota. Vanessa, who is from Le Marche, knew because she is too. With all the names in the world, and a limited number of saints to go around, many of us are. I love the word. It means both… Continue reading Adespota on Valentine’s Day
Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College
I’ve been thinking through the stimulating couple of days I got to spend at the invitation of Kristin Dykstra at St. Michael’s College (SMC) last week. The subject of my talk, and the reason for my visit, was AI and translation. The presentation, entitled “Is It Good? AI Tools, The Practice of Translating, and Inter-cultural… Continue reading Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College
The Sea’s Direction
My book lacked a direction. It was all facts and curiosities and vignettes. A lot was interesting, but coherence kept escaping me. When writing about a river, you can start at the source and make your way to its outlet, a bit like Claudio Magris does with his Danube. But a sea? Where do you… Continue reading The Sea’s Direction
