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KQED's Forum

Translators on the Art of Translating

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Literary translators are why we can read poems, novels and essays written in languages we don’t speak, exposing us to otherwise inaccessible ideas and worlds. But even though translators wrestle page by page, paragraph by paragraph, line by line, to convey meaning,humor and pathos, their names don’t always appear on book covers. And translators say their industry is mired in problems of inequitable pay, a lack of diversity and an undervaluing of heritage speakers. We’ll talk with a panel of literary translators about the joys and challenges of their work. Tell us: Have you ever attempted to translate a literary text? What did you notice? What’s your favorite work in translation? Guests: Bruna Dantas Lobato, translates from Portuguese; advocate for translators not working into their first language; novelist and author of the forthcoming novel, "Blue Light Hours" - she has just been longlisted for the National Book Award; Jennifer Croft, author, the forthcoming novel "The Extinction of Irena Rey"; translator for Polish Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk; advocate for translators Soje, translates from Korean; poet; creator of Chogwa - which presents multiple translations of the same poem in each issue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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From KQED.

0:50.1

The From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.

0:53.3

I'm Mina Kim.

0:56.5

Literary translators are why we are exposed to novels, poems, essays, written in languages we don't speak, why we have access to new

1:02.5

ideas and worlds. Translators strive to convey meaning, humor, emotion in every sentence,

1:07.9

but their work often goes unrecognized and underpaid.

1:11.6

This hour, we sit down with translators working to bring more visibility to the field

1:15.2

and learn why literary translation should be treated as an art in its own right.

1:20.3

Tell us, have you ever attempted to translate text?

1:23.1

What did you notice?

1:24.5

Forum is next after this news.

1:36.7

Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Their names often don't appear on book covers, but

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