A translator’s responsibilities are as formidable as a transplant surgeon’s

The right words must be found not only to render the original’s meaning faithfully but its form and structure too, says Jhumpa Lahiri

From magazine issue: 17 September 2022

Jhumpa Lahiri. [Alamy]

issue 17 September 2022

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Frank Wynne

A translator’s responsibilities are as formidable as a transplant surgeon’s
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When asked what it is we do, translators often resort to metaphors. We liken the act of translation to performing a piece of music, taking on a role in a play, kissing a bride through a veil or building bridges between cultures. But as the peerless Norwegian translator Damion Searls has said, when we sit down to work ‘there’s no metaphor at all really.