“False Friends” – a dreadful (albeit apt) name for words in different languages that sound and look similar yet mean something very different. Examples include: Rente (old-age pension) and rent (what we pay monthly or the past tense of “rend”) Fabrik (factory) and fabric (textile) aktuell (right…
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Writers’ Thoughts on Translation
Italo Calvino’s respectful thoughts on translation: I, too, am interested in everything that is done to improve the difficult art of translation, although I used to hesitate when I heard translation called an “art.” Yet, if “art” is understood as…
Lost in Translation
Last summer, a colleague pointed out this graffiti to me. We both snorted with laughter – and we both felt the need to photograph it and share it with as many people as possible. Because I have developed a bad…
Gained in Translation
As a rule, we tend to worry about what gets lost in translation. It’s so easy to lose the phonetic peculiarities and rhythmical beauty of a language, not to mention the connotations certain words bring with them. But there is…
Translation Teamwork
In the imagination, one often pictures the translator as a lone wolf, a quiet sort of person who thrives on solitude and sits, shoulders stooped, in a lonely garret whilst poring over books and making painstaking decisions about the right…
Festivals and Traditions in Switzerland
My translation of the charming Feste & Bräuche in der Schweiz – written by Barbara Piatti, illustrated by Yvonne Rogenmoser, and published by NordSüd – appeared in May 2020. More information at: https://nord-sued.com/programm/festivals-traditions-switzerland/