🦋 Translation
I've been thinking a lot lately about translation of poetry and how difficult it is, and whether it is worth doing. I'm glad to say that tonight I read an utterly sublime specimen of the genre. It is Tove Jansson's Book About Moomin, Mymble, and Little My, translated by Sophie Hannah and Silvester Mazzarella -- it might be better to say something like "translated by Mazzarella and composed by Hannah" -- in any case they have done a phenomenal job. The book was written in 1952 and not translated until 2001. (In any case this version came out in 2001, and no reference is made to any earlier translation.) The text is integrated flawlessly with the illustrations -- whoever did the lettering ought to have been credited -- the result looks sort of like Dr. Seuss, sort of like Walt Kelly, sort of like Edward Gorey, but mostly like Jansson. Many thanks to Redfox for recommending that I check out Jansson's picture books. I had known of their existence for a couple of years but never sought them out.
posted evening of Friday, October 26th, 2007
➳ More posts about Translation
➳ More posts about Writing Projects
➳ More posts about Projects
➳ More posts about Moomins
➳ More posts about Children's Books
➳ More posts about Tove Jansson
➳ More posts about Readings
I just ordered some for holiday gifts...
posted evening of December 5th, 2007 by Painterofblue
Cool! Let me know how they go over.
posted evening of December 5th, 2007 by Jeremy
i'm on my way to order moomin, mymble, and little my now for
franca and lucia. thanks for the tip.
posted afternoon of December 8th, 2007 by lisa basile
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