The Reykjavik Grapevine is a great online & physical newspaper about life in Reykjavik! Mainly in English (I’d like to read more in Icelandic, but I’m not at the level of reading the newspaper yet haha), but there is lots of cultural & current events information to read about. They have also been reporting on the recent volcano that has erupted & fissured in the Reykjanes area, and their youtube videos are great!

I had a bookmark as a kid with a quote from Anaïs Nin, and as an adult I’ve read one of her romance novels. I didn’t know much about her history, and LitHub had a wonderful article about her! Now I know I should go looking for her works in Spanish or French, considering that she lived in those countries for parts of her life.

Una obra de teatro en audio y gratis su spotify por el Public Theater de New York! There is an audio play for free on Spotify by the Public Theater in New York! It is a bilingual English/Spanish version of Romeo y Julieta. It’s on my to-listen-list, it looks like fun. The main actress for Julieta, Lupita Nyong’o, had a funny and touching interview with Stephen Colbert that I watched here too.

There has been a controversy over the translation of Amanda Gorman’s poem that she read for the recent presidential inauguration. There were multiple articles that I’ve read over the past few weeks, but these two seem to sum it up best. The Guardian writes about 2 of the initial translators here, and Asymptote Journal reports on the larger debate among translators there.

I think because this issue has been brought up, yes they should choose black translators who can relate to Gorman’s experiences in order to translate her poem properly into other languages. But in general, I think any translator can recreate an author’s work in another language. If you are an expert at translating poetry from English into French, then I think that qualifies someone to translate any author’s poem from English into French for example. For an issue such as this, I think it falls on behalf of the publishing house to choose a qualified translator and then an editor who is sensitive to the material being translated. These publishing houses should have known that her poem would require black translators with similar experiences.

The New York Public Library launches its first World Literature Festival highlighting its multicultural collections and resources for New York’s diverse communities! When I lived in New York, I definitely took advantage of my NYPL membership. It was a free way to find a bathroom when I was wandering the city, or to be able to access a map/the internet/printing if I needed it. But they also had a large collection of books that weren’t in English! The little tiny branch around the corner from me on 6^th Avenue (Jefferson Market Library) was in an old church, and happened to have books written in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Chinese, etc…so many languages all in one place! And free access! I borrowed a couple of Spanish books that year, which I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. So I’m happy that they’re having a festival to celebrate this.

Have you come across any intriguing language articles? Feel free to send me the links!

Do zobaczenia później! xx