For Hopscotch’s second anniversary, we asked a handful of translators to tell us about the “impassable” words that they’d found it tricky to bring into their target languages.
En passant
Erín Moure summons the reader to be constantly attentive to the trembling movement of (and between) languages, in this nimble reflection on the notion of the “intranslatable.”
The Bulgarian Чужбина
Ekaterina Petrova takes the reader on a journey through the many echoes of the Bulgarian word chujbina, expanding on her recently translated anthology «My Brother’s Suitcase».
Byways of Translation
Munawwar Abdulla reviews the cotranslation by Darren Byler and an anonymous ally of Perhat Tursun’s «The Backstreets», the first Uyghur novel to appear in English translation.
The Roundabout of Translation
Jonathan Dunne embarks on a merry-go-round of (re)translation, following two quotations on their literary journey across the English, French, Spanish, and Galician languages.
The Hyper-real magical realism of «Cursed Bunny»
Yoojung Chun delights in the gruesome details and barbed social critique of «Cursed Bunny», Anton Hur’s acclaimed translation of the Korean short story collection by Bora Chung.