Josh Billings (Asymptote) profiles Kafka’s first major English translators
For Willa and Edwin Muir, the Scottish couple whose translations of Franz Kafka, Hermann Broch and many others introduced English-language readers to some of the greatest German modernists, translation was a gift and a curse. On the one hand, it offered them money and a sense of accomplishment; on the other, it encroached on the writing that both of them, at different points in their lives, considered a true calling. But no matter how they thought about it, translation remained a means of survival for the couple: a lifeboat in which they bobbed, happily or at odds, through some of the most treacherous waters of the 20th century. [Read More]
Advertisements
Thank you for calling attention to this fascinating essay. There are so many interesting online journals out there, it’s hard to keep up.
There’s a lot of great stuff out there! Sometimes I have to pull myself away 🙂
Thanks for the link – always been interested in the Muirs so keen to find out more!