A translator on a single decision, and why it took three weeks to make.
We ask a translator we admire to pick one sentence, one word, or one piece of punctuation from a book we are selling, and to explain what the options were. The pieces are short and unfailingly the most read thing we publish.
It is also the clearest argument we know for putting the translator’s name on the front of the book, which is a thing we ask publishers about more often than they would like.
Books in translationEveryone asks whether a translation is faithful. Almost nobody asks what it was being faithful to, which is the only interesting part.From a translator note, March
Four times a year the notes become an evening: four translators, an hour each, and questions from the room.
Translators at the table