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Dear Reader,
I've talked elsewhere before about how I (and many other translators) see literary translation as activism. This is because we see our work as not simply bringing stories from one culture or language to another. We see it as a way to preserve, elevate, and celebrate those cultures and languages as well.
Lately, I've also been thinking about how literary translation is also an act of self-care. I haven't come to this discipline in the usual way. I don't have any kind of scholarly pedigree or formal training. I didn't even study Gujarati as a language at school. I learned it at home from my mother and from trying to read her magazines and books because we didn't have any libraries nearby during school holidays. After leaving India, this language and the literature allowed ways to stay connected with my culture and heritage. When I began translating, it was to honor that communal history and literary lineage. And now, more than ever, I experience the act and process of translation as acknowledging, through meditative attention, that which sustains and nurtures me emotionally and intellectually.
Here are a few interesting links from this week:
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