What is the task of the translator? I think the task depends on the book and on the translator.
Idra NoveyI've never had the impulse for someone else to translate me into my own language. My impulse has always been to translate someone else into mine.
Idra NoveyI've never translated more than one book by any author. But I'm fascinated by translators who have, like Richard Zenith, who's translated so much of Fernando Pessoa's work. I get restless for a new kind of influence. The books I've translated are books I want to learn from as a writer, to be intoxicated by. And translation is an act of writing in itself. It's an act of recreation - of a writer's cadence and tone and everything that distinguishes the voice in the book.
Idra Novey