Edith Grossman: Why Translation Matters

A couple of passages from Richard Howard’s review of Edith Grossman’s “Why Translation Matters” on The New York Times:

“[…] in the bitter concoction translators are fated to imbibe is the redeeming awareness that despite all the insults and impositions translation sustains in our culture, it is crucial to our sense of ourselves as human.

[…]

Where literature exists, translation exists. Joined at the hip, they are absolutely inseparable, and, in the long run, what happens to one happens to the other. Despite all the difficulties the two have faced, sometimes separately, usually together, they need and nurture each other, and their long-term relationship, often problematic but always illuminating, will surely continue for as long as they both shall live.”

Read the review on The New York Times.