Category world literature:
French Pop Song of the Week: “En tête à tête” by M
posted June 23, 2010
Posted by Thomas Riggs in music translation world literature
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be at a French rock concert? Well, here you go: Matthieu Chedid, better known by his stage name M, singing “En tête à tête” (about five years ago in Paris). One of France’s most extravagant and innovative rock stars, M combines the driving, rhythmic motion of rock with the elegant evenness of the French language.
Below are the lyrics and a translation.
Gone 2 Paris–for the Shakespeare and Company Literary Festival
posted June 16, 2010
Posted by Erin Brown in Bookselling events literary awards uncategorized world literature
This weekend (June 18-20) in Paris, the much-venerated Shakespeare and Company bookstore is holding its fourth literary festival. Inaugurated in 2003, the festival has since settled into a biannual schedule, running in 2006, 2008, and now 2010. Each festival has centered on a different theme, including “Lost, Beat & New: Three Generations of Writers in Paris”; “Travel in Words: Celebrating Travel Literature”; and “Real Lives: Exploring Memoir and Biography.”
This year’s theme is “Storytelling & Politics”—appropriate, given that Shakespeare and Company founder George Whitman (now in his nineties) has always seen his bookstore as a political vehicle, even describing it as “a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore.” Check out this video to get a sense of the unique literary atmosphere he created.
French Pop Song of the Week: “Respire” by Mickey 3D
posted June 8, 2010
Posted by Thomas Riggs in music translation world literature
France has an environmental movement of its own, and in the last European legislative elections, in 2009, Les Verts (“The Greens”) won 16 percent of the vote in France. Today the country is aswarm in things écolo (“environmental”) and bio (“organic”). It even has a kind of “Al Gore” in the writer and television producer Nicolas Hulot, who has been successful in pressuring French politicians to address environmental issues and is well known for his book and film Le Syndrome du Titanic (click here for the trailer).
If France had an environmental anthem, it might be “Respire” by the French trio Mickey 3D. Led by singer and songwriter Mickaël Furnon (whose nickname is Mickey), the group released its biggest hit, “Respire,” in 2003 on the album Tu vas pas mourir de rire (”You’re Not Going to Die of Laughter”). This simple, upbeat, but gloomy song blends eerily with the animated video the group made for it.
Below are the video, the lyrics, and a translation (note: in France baby boys are said to be found in a cabbage patch).
Children’s Literature in Translation: The Last Frontier?
posted June 1, 2010
Posted by Erin Brown in Children's literature translation world literature
Literature in translation is becoming increasingly visible in the United States these days (emerging, that is, from near-total darkness), especially with the recent announcement of Amazon Crossing, a new publishing imprint that will be devoted to publishing works in translation. (For some useful insight into how Amazon’s latest publishing initiative might affect other publishers of literature in translation, and the market for these books in general, see Chad W. Post’s comments on Three Percent).
Here at TRC we’ve been wondering lately about children’s literature in translation. What are the unique challenges of translating for a young audience? Might children’s imaginative and flexible minds be more receptive to stories from other cultures? In the era of globalization, is it not vital for our children to empathize with and understand a great diversity of stories?
With New Prize, a Bit of Limelight for Young Translators
posted May 19, 2010
Posted by Erin Brown in translation world literature
As Tim Parks, author of Translating Style (revised edition, 2007), remarked in the Guardian recently, the work of the translator is neither glamorous nor lucrative. Even the most talented translator usually remains anonymous unless s/he has the good fortune to work with a literary superstar, like Salman Rushdie or Umberto Eco.
Indeed, Parks argues, the unwritten rule seems to be that the translator should remain anonymous, as neither the author nor the reader of a foreign language work wants to be reminded that the translated text is only a mediated version of the original:
The translator should do his job and then disappear. The great, charismatic, creative writer wants to be all over the globe. And the last thing he wants to accept is that the majority of his readers are not really reading him.
His readers feel the same. They want intimate contact with true greatness. They don’t want to know that this prose was written on survival wages in a maisonette in Bremen, or a high-rise flat in the suburbs of Osaka.
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