tHe bOx mAn

Animated short film inspired by Kobo Abe's novel.

Watch here.

On the equality of languages

I have always been of the persuasion that languages, like men, are born equal. They just grow up differently, in different households, so to speak, in different economies and cultures. Like people and countries, they grow up and grow rich, they fall into poverty, they engage in commerce (they import and export), they dominate others, they stagnate or thrive. I insist that they are never inferior, they are only sometimes afflicted with an inferiority complex in regarding themselves against others. The only way to guard against such feeling is to use any language constantly, in every manner, in all human activity—commerce, industry, science, art, love, understanding others. It is only in exercise (by being spoken and written) that language can stay alive, assert itself and become capable and robust. Otherwise, language withers and dies. Or becomes a ritual remnant like Latin (though ritual as a literary property of language is another story).

It is from this standpoint of equality (without trying to resolve the issues) that I translate. Thus, as in sport, languages can play in the arena of translation. But it is a sport wherefrom only language itself comes out the winner.

...

How does one read, enjoy translation? Perhaps as one would a wrestling match. It is a game of strength that requires style, a game of roughness that demands finesse. For the premise is that both languages are equal in strength, style, and refinement. It is only by these measures that they can meaningfully engage. And it is only through these that the reader becomes not a mere spectator but more or less a pleased participant in the game.

– Marne Kilates, translator's introduction to Dust Devils:
A Bilingual Selection of Poems on Youth by Rio Alma,
edited and translated by Marne Kilates

Winners of 32nd (Philippine) National Book Award

JUAN C. LAYA PRIZE FOR BEST NOVEL IN A PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE

Sa Kasunod ng 909, by Edgar Calabia Samar, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House

 

JUAN C. LAYA PRIZE FOR BEST NOVEL IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Margosatubig: The Story of Salagunting, by Ma. Cecilia Locsin-Nava, translated from Margosatubig (1946), by Ramon L. Muzones, Ateneo de Manila University Press

 

CIRILO F. BAUTISTA PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OF SHORT FICTION IN ENGLISH 

 

After the Body Displaces Water, by Daryll Delgado, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House

 

BEST BOOK OF NONFICTION PROSE IN ENGLISH

 

Hour Before Dawn: The Fall and Uncertain Rise of the Philippine Supreme Court, by Marites Dañguilan Vitug, Cleverheads Publishing

 

BEST BOOK OF NONFICTION PROSE IN FILIPINO

 

Mga Angst ng Isang Di-mahapayang Gatang, by Resty Mendoza Ceña, Visprint

BEST ANTHOLOGY IN ENGLISH

 

Hoard of Thunder: Philippine Short Stories in English, 1990 to 2008, 2 volumes, edited by Gémino H. Abad, University of the Philippines Press

 

PHILIPPINE LITERARY ARTS COUNCIL PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OF POETRY IN ENGLISH

 

Pictures as Poems & Other (Re)Visions, by Marne Kilates, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House

 

BEST BOOK OF POETRY IN FILIPINO

 

Isa Lang ang Pangalan: Mga Tula, by Rebecca T. Añonuevo, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House 

ISAGANI R. CRUZ PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OF LITERARY CRITICISM OR LITERARY HISTORY IN A PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE 

 

Halos Isang Buhay: Ang Manananggal sa Pagsusulat ng Nobela, by Edgar Calabia Samar, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL IN ENGLISH

 

Trese 5: Midnight Tribunal, by Ferdinand Benedict G. Tan and Jonathan A. Baldisimo,  Visprint

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL IN FILIPINO

 

Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila #1, by Carlo Vergara, Visprint

ALFONSO T. ONGPIN PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK ON ART

 

Sacrificial Bodies: The Oblation and the Political Aesthetics of Masculine Representations in Philippine Visual Cultures, by Reuben Ramas Cañete, University of the Philippines Press

Walking through Philippine Theater, 3 volumes, by Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House

Complete list of winners here. The list of finalists are here.

I've read four titles from this list: Margosatubig (review), Halos Isang Buhay, Trese 5, and Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila #1.

Nobel Prize for Lit nominees

Who were ever considered for the big literary prize in the first place?

The nomination database (link) for Nobel Prize for Lit, up to 1950 only, throws some light on the "insularity" of the award. (Warning: database NOT user-friendly.)

The nominees per country here.

The winners.

Sebald's ideal translator

Admittedly, he did not say too much. He was not always listening, often dozing during the papers and discussions that were so revealing to a greenhorn like me. Sebald’s appreciation of literary translation was, it has to be said, rather grudging. The highest praise I heard all weekend from Sebald was in a discussion of – what else? – the challenge of translating long German sentences into English. Sebald was adamant that these long sentences can be translated. What really annoyed him was when the beginnings of clauses used ‘that’ rather than ‘which’ as a conjunction, a failing he found in the new collected translations of Borges. Yet as proof that translators can find the right mechanisms to delay the end of the sentence’s flow he cited the translations of Heinrich von Kleist into English, saying they were “sehr ordentlich” (“as they should be”).

– "Among Translators: W.G. Sebald and Translation" by Anthony Vivis, Christine Wilson and Stefan Tobler, introduced by Jo Catling, in In Other Words, Issue 38 [download link (pdf), via]

Anticipated reading events

Dolce Bellezza's The Japanese Literature Challenge 7
1 June 2013 to 30 January 2014



Winstonsdad's Thomas Bernhard Reading Week
1-7 July 2013



Caravana de recuerdos's 2013 Russian Reading

State of translation

We exist in a constant state of translation. We just don’t like it. We don’t like to be reminded that we are translating this experience. Translators remind us of our relationship with language the way not everyone is comfortable with.

—Junot Díaz talks about the translations of his books in various languages (in The Buenos Aires Review)

"The First Night of Interrogation" (poem)

J., a friend of mine who runs a printing press published this collection of poems by the activist Axel Pinpin. Tugmaang Matatabil is a powerful piece of prison literature. The exclamations of Pinpin’s poems lit and ignite one’s perception of the systemic and systematic abuses of power by those in power. It takes guts to convert this personal detestation of corruption into subversion and to fashion from it an indictment of human rights violation committed by the government. The poems renew the tradition of resistance and protest in the writings of National Artist Amado V. Hernandez. 

"Unang Gabi ng Interogasyon" (The First Night of Interrogation) is a key poem in the book. The poet wrote the following as a footnote to the poem:

This poem was extemporaneously recited by the author at the end of his interrogation on the night of April 28, 2006, in an unidentified place in Metro Manila (near the airport and railroad tracks). The writer was challenged by unknown armed men to recite a poem when they learned that he was a poet. He recited this while blindfolded, handcuffed at the back, and with a gun pointed at his head. The poet tried to recall the poem from that time and he first wrote it on the 9th of November 2006 when he was already in prison.

Sebald extract

If he nevertheless persevered with writing, then only, as Jean Starobinski notes, in order to hasten the moment when the pen would fall from his hand and the essential things would be said in the silent embrace of reconciliation and return. Less heroically, but certainly no less correctly, one could also see writing as a continually self-perpetuating compulsive act, evidence that, of all individuals afflicted by the disease of thought, the writer is perhaps the most incurable.

- Max Sebald on Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Before, Bolaño, and after

BEFORE

AFTER

César Aira's forward march

"I don't read very much contemporary literature. There is so much to read. In the past, I remember that one lady told Borges that she read him, that she admired him so, and Borges asked her: But how come? Are you already done with all the good writers? (laughs) I march to that drum."

—César Aira: My ideal is the fairy tale

The librarian's last interview

Related:

The Paris Review interview
Three conversations: "I remember what I've read better than what has happened to me. Clearly one of the most important things that can happen to a man is to read one or another page that moves him. It's a very intense experience, no less intense than others."
Profile of a Writer: Borges (1983): 80 mins. "The film consists of interviews in English with Borges, as well as short dramatizations in Spanish of several of his stories."
etc.

La villa

Group read: Grande Sertão: Veredas

Coming in May is a group reading of a Latin American masterpiece from Brazil: Grande Sertao: Veredas by João Guimarães Rosa (translated into English as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands). We invite readers to join us in reading this novel, in any language, and posting on and discussing it on the last week of May.

The event is hosted by Richard of Caravana de recuerdos, Scott of seraillon, Miguel of St. Orberose, and me. Miguel will read the original Portuguese, Richard the Spanish translation, Scott the French translation, and I the English translation.

Grande Sertao: Veredas (1956) is a notoriously difficult novel, employing puns, word inventions and archaic words from the Portuguese. The writer João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967) was a diplomat, fluent in many languages, and had a wide experience as a doctor in the countryside of Brazil. The novel is about bandit wars in Brazil, about making a pact with the devil, about leadership politics, about the celebration of the flora and fauna of the land, about things not seeming what they are.

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (1963), as translated by James L. Taylor and Harriet de Onís, is generally regarded as a flawed translation. However, this translation is important for giving us the scope of the writer's importance. Unfortunately, this translation is long out of print. A used copy in the Amazon (the bookseller jungle) costs 300 bucks. Only libraries may be the reliable source of a copy.

Here's a rare interview with the Brazilian writer from the Guimarães Rosa specialist blog A Missing Book (On the Devil to Pay in the Backlands).

Max Sebald's residence

RECTORY IN UPGATE, PORINGLAND, NORFOLK
(Photo by: Cameron Self)

Reino de Redonda reading list (2014)

REDONDA COAT OF ARMS

Less than eleven months from now, the Redonda group read, hosted by Richard of Shea's Zibaldone, is in full swing. Redonda is of course the island kingdom of Rey Xavier I.

The reading (and watch) list is pretty solid. It includes book and film masterpieces from the Duke of Deshonra, the late Duke of Vértigo, Duke of Miraflores, Duke of Colores, Duke of Megalópolis, etc., and from the king himself.

Plenty of time to decide which royalty to read.

Links to online interviews with Bolaño translators & editors (updated)

Below are web links to profiles-interviews with Bolaño translators, editors, and publishers in English.

(updated Feb. 6, 2013)

CHRIS ANDREWS: Translator of, among others, By Night in Chile and Last Evenings on Earth.

"The Chris Andrews Interview", The Quarterly Conversation

"RTW 2007, E-Panel: Literary Translators", Emerging Writers Network, 18 July 2007

"Interview with Chris Andrews", The Mookse and the Gripes, 16 July 2009

"Found in translation", The Australian, 20 March 2010

"This Week in Fiction: Roberto Bolaño", The Book Bench (The New Yorker), 14 April 2010

"Chris Andrews", Bombsite, June 2012

"Out and About: A Panel Discussion with Bolaño Translators Chris Andrews and Natasha Wimmer", Now That It's Now, 15 November 2012

NATASHA WIMMER: Translator of, among others, The Savage Detectives and Between Parentheses.

"Nine Questions for Natasha Wimmer on The Third Reich by Roberto Bolaño", Conversational Reading

"Interview with Natasha Wimmer", hey small press!

"The Natasha Wimmer Interview", The Quarterly Conversation

"Questions for Translator Natasha Wimmer", The Savage Detectives Amazon page

"Stray Questions for: Natasha Wimmer", Paper Cuts, 21 December 2007

"Natasha Wimmer on Roberto Bolaño’s “2666”", Words Without Borders, 2008 [essay]

See also: "Roberto Bolaño and The Savage Detectives" [pdf, essay]

"Natasha Wimmer on Translating Bolaño’s 2666", Vulture, 14 November 2008

"Interview: Natasha Wimmer, Translator of Roberto Bolaño's 2666", Sound of the City (Village Voice), 25 November 2008

Excerpted in: "Lit Seen: Joshua Ferris at Housing Works, n+1, Bolaño's Hit Translator", Village Voice, 26 November 2008

"Exclusive: Natasha Wimmer Tells Us About Translating the Next Great Latin American Author", Flavorwire, 2 December 2008

"Conversation: Roberto Bolano's '2666'", PBS NewsHour [audio], 23 January 2009

"Natasha Wimmer on Roberto Bolaño and the Translator's Task", Powells.com, undated

"A translator's task – to disappear", Christian Science Monitor, 16 January 2009

"Natasha Wimmer", Publishers Weekly, 12 June 2009

"Natasha Wimmer on Forthcoming Bolano Books", Center for the Art of Translation Blog, 21 September 2009

"TWO VOICES: Translator Natasha Wimmer in Conversation with Daniel Alarcón"

"Lit&Lunch with Translator Natasha Wimmer on Roberto Bolano" [audio], Center for the Art of Translation Blog, 10 October 2009

"Translating Sex", Granta (online only), 17 May 2010

"Editors' Week: Interview with Natasha Wimmer", Center for the Art of Translation Blog, 4 October 2010

"Translating Bolaño: An Interview with Natasha Wimmer", Sampsonia Way, 17 January 2013

LAURA HEALY: Translator of 3 poetry books by Bolaño: The Romantic Dogs, Tres, and The Unknown University.

"Interview with Laura Healy, translator of Roberto Bolaño’s “The Romantic Dogs”", Words Without Borders, 12 March 2010

ERICA MENA: Translator of the poems in Tres, an excerpt of which appeared in Words Without Borders.

"Making the Translator Visible: Erica Mena", Three Percent, 15 December 2009

See also.

PROFILES / INTERVIEWS WITH EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS

"A Writer Whose Posthumous Novel Crowns an Illustrious Career", NYTimes.com, 9 August 2005

"A Writer Crosses Over", The Washington Post, 8 April 2007

"Poets and Gangsters: Discovering Roberto Bolano", NPR, 28 April 2007

"Andrew Wylie Puts Roberto Bolaño On the Market", The New York Observer, 21 October 2008

"Editor Lorin Stein Discusses Roberto Bolano's '2666'" [audio], NPR, 27 January 2009

"Agents & Editors: A Q&A With Jonathan Galassi", Poets & Writers, 1 July 2009

"Chris Faatz Interviews Barbara Epler of New Directions", PowellsBooks.Blog, 5 September 2009

"Q&A with Lorin Stein", Las obras de Roberto Bolaño, 28 January 2010

"Interview – Lorin Stein on Literature", Notes from the Underground, 9 March 2010

"Roberto Bolaño: Literary Lion, Cash Cow?", The Q: GQ, 14 May 2010

"Barbara Epler" [audio], Bookworm on KCRW, 25 March 2010

"This Week in Fiction: The True Bolaño", The New Yorker, 16 January 2012

The Guardian 100 greatest non-fiction books

The Guardian came up with the 100 best nonfiction books in 2011.

 They introduced the list, thus: "After keen debate at the Guardian's books desk, this is our list of the very best factual writing ... "

Under the category "Travel" they included The Rings of Saturn by W. G Sebald. Which is really odd since the book is fiction. In several instances the novel is hardly factual at all.

Max Sebald's grave

PHOTO BY: CAMERON SELF

Young Max Sebald

(When the world was young)