Translation as Transhumance - by Mireille Gansel (Paperback)

About the Book

This half-memoir, half-philosophical treatise is a meditation on the art of translation, and its potential for activism and humanist engagement.

Book Synopsis

This half-memoir, half-philosophical treatise is a meditation on the art of translation, and its potential for activism and humanist engagement.

Review Quotes

"A revelation." --Kirkus Reviews

"Rich and moving." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"This is a book full of fascination and joy for anyone involved in or simply curious about translation. Beyond this, with its call to look beyond our own borders, it is a remarkably prescient book for our times." --The Skinny

"A tribute to the courage and bravery required in every true translation." --World Literature Today

"At a time in which words are losing their meanings and border walls are once again growing tall, Gansel illustrates for her reader the difficult work of border crossing." --Cleaver Magazine

"This is a small but richly rewarding book, packed with gems about the challenges and unexpected delights of translation, which will prove irresistible not only to translators but also to all those who have ever wondered just what is involved in translation." --European Literature Network

"In Translation as Transhumance, a venerable, inveterate literary translator, who has made the world her literary home, is herself translated; impeccably so, by prizewinning French specialist, Ros Schwartz. They are two translators who richly deserve each other." --The Jewish Chronicle

"Extraordinarily thoughtful and thought-provoking from beginning to end." --Midwest Book Review

"Deeply insightful and humanistic." --Bookwitty

"In this memoir of a translator's adventures, Mireille Gansel shows us what it means to enter another language through its culture, and to enter the life of another culture through its language. A sensitive and insightful book, which illuminates the difficult, and often underestimated task of translation--and the role of literature in making for a more interconnected and humane world." --Eva Hoffman, author of Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language

"A history not just of twentieth century poetry but of that dark century itself, from the rise of the Nazis to the American bombing of North Vietnam, and yields too a rare insight into the nature of language and the splendors and limitations of translation." --Gabriel Josipovici, author of What Ever Happened to Modernism?

"This memoir tells of a life forged by encounters, by humble desire to reach out to and understand the other. It is a subtle, moving, and at times sad testimony that talks of poetry, the dialogue with consciousness, commitment and values that are essential to literature and to life itself." --Marina Warner, author of Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale

About the Author

Mireille Gansel, who taught German at the University of Lyon, has published translations of a number of distinguished poets including Nelly Sachs, Peter Huchel and Reiner Kunze, as well as letters by Paul Celan. After living for a time in Hanoi in the seventies, she published a volume of classical Vietnamese poetry translated into French.

Ros Schwartz has translated a wide range of Francophone fiction and non-fiction authors. In 2010 she published a new translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, and is currently involved in re-translating a number of Georges Simenon works for Penguin Classics' new Georges Simenon editions. In 2009, she was made Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.