“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…
Blog
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/