#Women in translation

[yilinwriter]

I have some new co-translations of Li Qingzhao's poetry out in Glyphoria, a publication created by Metatron.

Living in the Song dynasty, Li Qingzhao was China's most celebrated female poet. The poem I translated is my favourite poem of hers and touches on female friendship and sisterhood.

#poetry #chinese poetry #song dynasty #translation #namethetranslator #诗 #宋词 #李清照 #women in translation

[whilereadingandwalking]

Chiara Lagani and Mara Cerri come together for this gorgeous graphic novel adaptation of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein. They tell a condensed version of this story, still as poetic and lovely as the original, but accompanied by gorgeous drawings of shadowy painted scenes, depicting beautifully the emotions on the faces of the two protagonists, the exposing feeling of growing into a woman's body in a world of sexual harassment and leers, the mix of uncertainty and familiarity that lights their world. Fans of the Neapolitan novels will have to get their hands on this adaptation!

Content warnings for sexual assault, sexual harassment.

#elena ferrante #neapolitan novels #my brilliant friend #women in translation #graphic novels #my book reviews

[poetlcs]

sharing some books I read recently and recommend for women in translation month!

for more: @world-literatures

Two Sisters by Ngarta Jinny Bent & Jukuna Mona Chuguna (Translated from Walmajarri by Eirlys Richards and Pat Lowe)

The only known books translated from this Indigenous Australian language, tells sisters Ngarta and Jakuna's experience living in traditional Walmajarri ways.

2. Human Acts by Han Kang (Translated from South Korean by Deborah Smith)

Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend's corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice.

3. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

Short story collection exploring the realities of modern Argentina. So well written - with stories that are as engrossing and captivating as they are macabre and horrifying.

4. Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza (Translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead)

In the Buenos Aires art world, a master forger has achieved legendary status. Rumored to be a woman, she seems especially gifted at forging canvases by the painter Mariette Lydis, a portraitist of Argentine high society. On the trail of this mysterious forger is our narrator, an art critic and auction house employee through whose hands counterfeit works have passed.

5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrente (Translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein)

My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

6. Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen (Translated from Danish by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman)

Tove knows she is a misfit, whose childhood is made for a completely different girl. In her working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else.

7. La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel)

The first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, La Bastarda is the story of the orphaned teen Okomo, who lives under the watchful eye of her grandmother and dreams of finding her father. Forbidden from seeking him out, she enlists the help of other village outcasts: her gay uncle and a gang of “mysterious” girls reveling in their so-called indecency. Drawn into their illicit trysts, Okomo finds herself falling in love with their leader and rebelling against the rigid norms of Fang culture.

8. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang)

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast, and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

#women in translation #translated fiction #booklr #book recommendation #books #mine #i sort of forgot it was this month which feels bad but #I mean I read translated women all the time but still I wanted to do smething

[belle-keys]

“The borders imposed between things here [in Palestine] are many. One must pay attention to them, and navigate them, which ultimately protects everyone from perilous consequences... Well, no going back now, not after crossing so many borders, military ones, geographical ones, physical ones, psychological ones, mental ones."

- Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

#adania shibli #minor detail #book quotes #literary fiction #women in translation #free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #gaza #free gaza #gaza genocide #anti israel #anti imperialism #anti zionisim #migration

[phaedraismyusername]

Just chucking my 10 pence into the ring for Women in Translation month with a handful of recs on the off chance it'll be of use to someone

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

- a short novel about a Korean woman who decides to become a vegetarian after a bad dream and how the people (mainly men) around her react to the decision and her subsequent spiral into stranger and stranger behaviour.

Convenience Store Woman by Sakaya Murata

- the story follows a neuro-divergent middle aged Japanese woman who loves her job at a convenience store more than anything and just wants to be left alone to do what makes her happy and how the people around her pressure her into conforming to what society expects from her (finding a man, getting a "real job", etc) and how those expectations negatively impact her life.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

- a strange winding Argentinian novel about a dying woman and a young boy sitting in hospital together and telling stories. I don't really know the best way to sell you on this one other than you'll have to try it to know if you'll like it lol. But if you like a whole lot of weird and appreciate narratives and themes around environmental abuse then this could be for you.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

- another Argentinian book but this time it's just a straight up consumption horror lol. It follows a man who works at an abattoir essentially in a dystopian society where animal meat is now poisonous to people so they've started breeding and mass-processing humans for meat instead. Does what it says on the tin and pulls absolutely no punches in the process lol.

Confessions by Kanae Minato

- an excellent little Japanese thriller. A class room of teenagers are sat down by their teacher on her last day of work to talk about her resignation after her young daughter died in an accident on school grounds, only for her to reveal that she knows that two of the students are responsible for her death, and the steps she's taken to set her revenge into motion. The rest of the book jumps pov every chapter as you watch the consequences ripple out from there.

and last but not least

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang

- a Chinese sci-fi novel that follows a group of Mars-born teenagers who, after a civil war between planets, have spent their formative years on Earth as delegates and are now returning to Mars and how they deal with that, basically. It's the longest book on this list by far at around 600 pages but the writing is beautiful and the conversations about Mars being a communist ideal while Earth has reached the pinnacle of what capitalism can create are done in a way that doesn't feel at all soapbox-y and feels very fair in exploring the pros and cons of each system. Just an all around excellent book.

#women in translation #wit month #book recs #the vegetarian #convenience store woman #confessions #vagabonds #tender is the flesh #fever dream #sakaya murata #kanae minato #samantha schweblin #han kang #hao jingfang #agustina bazterrica #books #recs

[aboutmercy]

clarice lispector, trans. by idra novey “the passion according to g.h.”

#lowkey a great rumination on Trauma. even though in context that is not what this passage is about #words #clarice lispector #idra novey #quotes #my uploads #the passion according to g.h. #about #excerpts #translated fiction #translated literature #women in translation #lit #literature #quote

[velvetbronte]

“If I could kill you I would then have to make another exactly like you.”

“Why.”

“To tell it to.”

—Anne Carson, The Beauty of a Husband

#anne carson #w #words #poetry #classicism #women in translation #literature #the lovers

[world-literatures]

just read: Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura

This is a complex crime fiction novel loosely based upon the Monster with 21 Faces case. It's also quite lengthy, to me possibly slightly overlong, but still very well plotted and paced.

I'd describe this book as challenging, but rewarding. It's detailed and complex, with a large cast of characters which weave in and out of the narrative. An expansive look at modern Japan, capitalism, greed and crime this novel is thematically rich and immersive.

Some parts were more entertaining then others and yet, I never felt my interest waning. I did find some of the cultural touchpoints and references eluded me - a Japanese person I think would feel more connected to this. And yet I was happy to come along for the ride anyway.

One highlight is the translation - it's excellently done. Meticulous prose that never feels clunky or confusing.

genres: crime

translator:  Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

rating: no rating

themes: capitalism and greed, corporate corruption, crime and justice, post-war Japan

One of Japan’s great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination.

Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.

Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by "the Monster with 21 Faces", Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan’s literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.

#lady joker #kaoru takamura #world fiction #translated fiction #women in translation #east asian lit #asia #japan

[left-handlibrary]

The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (2018, English translation 2022)

Finishing this one off this afternoon. I’ve been feeling a little stressed and under the weather lately, but it’s nice to finally check a book of the list.

#booklr #adult booklr #coffee #aesthetic #bibliophile #library love #women in translation #my books #my photos #books 2023

[whilereadingandwalking]

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder, is a sweet story about a woman who begins working for a mathematician whose memory refreshes every 80 minutes. She and her young son quickly forge a genuine close bond with the professor, a genius who is simply struggling at a point in his life. It's a beautiful, quick read about the beauty of numbers, forging unlikely connections, and Japanese baseball.

Content warnings for dementia, chronic illness, grief, blood, panic attacks

#the housekeeper and the professor #yoko ogawa #yōko agawa #books in translation #the memory police #women in translation #my book reviews

[nolitethoughts]

Greek Lessons by Han Kang

✨🔷⚪️ Greek Lessons by Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won is finally here. I got the first signed edition (swipe for the signature) because I am a signature loving creature. It’s a must. This time it is from @toppingsedin because they put a little rain coat 🧥 on the dust cover and I appreciate the love to keep the books in their pristine condition. It happened before that I got delivered a book and by the time I have managed to bring it inside it was a lettuce because of the rain. Mind you it was my fault because I ask them to leave it at the back door. She is still alive but I’m talking about a 600 pages long chunky bk turn into a whole garden salad after drying. I’m too scared to read it just in case the whole book disintegrates in my hands. So yeah… 😮‍💨 

Back to the book: The synopsis is captivating. “In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.

Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.” From @penguinukbooks

Also it has fairly small dimensions so if you love #koreanlit but maybe you don’t want to commit to read something massive. Or you don’t have much time on your hands but you still want to engage in the beautiful process of reading, I highly recommend it. 

#han kang #korean lit #books to read #bibliophile #book tumblr #women in translation #book recs #tbr shelf #short books

[womenintranslation]

Achy Obejas in Chicago!

#national poetry month #women in translation #university of chicago #poetry in translation #spanish #english translation #humanities

[morebedsidebooks]

10 Must Read Titles by Women in Translation

In honour of Women in Translation Month here are some of the impressive women writers from around the globe I’ve read.

 All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui, translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins

Across countries, cultures, and identity the lesbian French-Algerian author delivers a vivid autofiction novel moving from child to adult.

Another Love by Erzsébet Galgóczi, translated from the Hungarian by Ines Rieder and Felice Newman

This political historical crime novella about the death of a journalist is famously the basis for a lesbian cult film in the 1980s.

 Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek, translated from the Arabic by Emily Danby

Power and trauma where one fumbles around trying to grasp what control or dominance, or the illusion of such, can be had and how this could influence people is center stage in this story of an affluent but stifled Damascus wife sexually grooming her maid.

 Girls Lost by Jessica Schiefauer, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

A dark YA fairytale-like coming-of-age novel utilizing gender transformation to say something about sexism, identity, and perception.

Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker

Literary fiction segues itself into thrilling horror in this challenging novel trying to say something among anxiety and violence about purity, mothers and daughters, teachers and students, best friends and maybe more.

Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen, translated from the Danish version (from Greenlandic by the author) by Anna Halager

A contemporary debut novel with a cast of queer twenty-somethings set during spring in Greenland’s capital city and a night that changes so much.

 Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval, translated from the Norwegian by Marjam Idriss

A bizarre and sensual eco-gothic debut novel featuring a foreign college student adapting to the immersion of a new surroundings, culture, diet, and language with a suffusing ennui and a (queer) sexual consciousness.  

Sparkling Rain, translated from the Japanese by Ronni Alexander, Kimberly Hughes, Claire Maree, Barbara Summerhawk and Laurie Walters

An important anthology of Japanese fiction around women who love women covering some history and selections of works from 1912 into the new millennium.

To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-Young, translated from the Korean by Soje

This post-apocalyptic novel imagining the aftermath of an immensely deadly pandemic is filled with what people lose and leave, while trying to show something that humans can find and still hold onto. In this case love, including a love between two women.

The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha, translated from the Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein

A fantasy travel novel unfolding in untraditional fashion by the device of readers choosing their own route, but at the same time paths countless others have taken before them. 

#Women in translation #wit month #favourite women authors

[phaedraismyusername]

Finished Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval as my first Women in Translation book of the month. It follows the sexual exploration of a Norwegian student while she's studying abroad in Australia and if I had to pick one word to describe it I would choose sticky

#the descriptors in this book are all heavy on the senses #as someone who struggles with textures irl the tactile ones were a lot lol #wit month #women in translation #book recs #jenny hval #paradise rot

[aboutmercy]

And I shivered with extreme pleasure as if finally mindful of the grandeur of an instinct that was bad, total and infinitely sweet—as if finally tasting, and within myself, a grandeur greater than myself. I was getting drunk for the first time with a hatred clear as a fountain, drunk with the desire, justified or not, to kill.

the passion according to g.h by clarice lispector, trans. by idra novey

#what a great string of words. truly #words #currently reading #the passion according to g.h #clarice lispector #idra novey #women in translation #literature #lit #quotes #brazilian literature #women authors #quote #my uploads

[sapphireshorelines]

I used to drip lemon juice onto the living oyster and watched in horror and fascination as it contorted all over. And I was eating the living it . The living it is the God.

I’ll stop for a bit because I know that the God is the world. He is whatever exists. I pray to whatever exists? It’s not dangerous to approach whatever exists. Profound prayer is a meditation upon the nothing. It’s the dry and electrical contact with oneself, an impersonal oneself.

I don’t like when they drip lemon upon my depths and make me contort all over. Are the facts of life lemon on the oyster?

Clarice Lispector, Água Viva

#excerpts #agua viva #clarice lispector #books in translation #women in translation #women authors