Between Texts

The literary translator perches between two different texts with distinct cultural origins and political histories. Depending on the languages involved, her eyes may travel from right to left or left to right; they may even close for a nap. She might prepare a snack, email friends, or scroll through her social media feeds. Perhaps she’ll take a walk to think through a particularly knotty problem. Always she’ll return to the texts; she’ll return to the words.

A collection of essays, River in an Ocean illuminates this tangled process by inviting readers into the rooms of many diverse artists, writers, and literary translators. The names of translators do not always appear on the ­covers of books, and their work is frequently ­misunderstood or vaguely likened to a “bridge” or “musical interpretation.” This insightful volume offers twelve points of view that aim to change such perceptions by asking: What is translation? What does it look like to do...