In this episode, I chat with translator Oonagh Stransky about her love of the Italian language, the importance of small presses, Héloïse Press, and the art of translating books to English.
Oonagh Stransky has translated a range of fiction and nonfiction writers, including Roberto Saviano, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giuseppe Pontiggia, and Carlo Lucarelli. Her work has received important prizes and nominations. Born in Paris, Stransky grew up in the Middle East, London, and the United States and attended Mills College, Middlebury College, and Columbia University. A member of PEN American Center and the American Literary Translators Association, she currently lives in Tuscany.
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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
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bibliophile.
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podcast.
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You're listening to episode 278 .
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Uno Stransky has translated a range of fiction and non-fiction
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writers, including Roberto Saviano, pier Paolo Pasolini,
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giuseppe Pontigia and Carlo Luccarelli.
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Her work has received important prizes and nominations.
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Born in Paris, stransky grew up in the Middle East, london and
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the United States and attended Mills College, middlebury
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College and Columbia University.
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A member of PEN American Center and the American Literary
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Translators Association, una currently lives in Tuscany.
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Hi, una, and welcome to the show.
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It's lovely to have you here.
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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much , Mandy.
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It's wonderful to be here.
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Speaker 1: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Abandonment.
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What a beautiful story.
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It was written in Italian by Erminia del Oro and translated
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by yourself and published by Eloise Press in Canterbury in
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the UK Definitely one of my favorite books of the year.
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But before we talk about Abandonment, let's begin by
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learning about where you were born and raised and what first
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led you to Florence, Italy, and becoming a translator of Italian
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literature.
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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
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It's a pretty long story and I will try and capture it the best
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way I can.
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So I was born in Paris.
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My parents were both American and we traveled around a lot
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because of my father's work.
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I lived in Beirut, in Jeddah and in London before going to
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boarding school for a couple of years outside of Boston, and
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then I went to college in California.
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I heard languages as a result of traveling and also at home
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Arabic and French and at home my father spoke Czech with his mom
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and I studied French throughout school, and my stepmother is
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French, so we spoke French at home and French became one of
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the key languages in my life, in the sense that it was one of
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the languages I was studying for my comparative literature major
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at college, but I never really felt a connection to French the
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way that I felt with Italian, and the first time I went to
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Italy was when I was 19.
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It was winter break from college and I went to visit an
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elderly woman who was a close friend of my grandmother's and
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something about the language just electrified me.
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It was amazing.
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So I got back to college afterwards after this great
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visit with her and in her city, and I decided that I had to
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learn Italian, and that meant taking classes At my college.
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They didn't offer Italian, so I cross-registered at Berkeley
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and I took classes there and I joined an.
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Speaker 1: Italian club and what age were you when you decided
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to start learning Italian?
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Speaker 2: So I was about 19 when I started learning Italian
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seriously, and one of the key things that I did to help me
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learn Italian was I applied to go to Middlebury College Summer
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Language Program.
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I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but it's a great
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summer intensive program where you promise to only speak
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Italian, and I got a wonderful grounding in grammar and it
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positioned me very well for learning language later on.
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And then I went to Italy for my junior year abroad and I
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studied at the University of Florence and I had a great time.
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And after college, when I graduated in 1989, I moved back
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to Italy and so I lived there or here, rather, for about five
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years, outside of Florence, this time in the countryside, so
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that was really special.
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After moving back to New York in well gosh, what was it then?
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1994, I started translating.
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Only several years later it must have been seven or eight
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years later First very short pieces and then longer pieces,
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and then in about 2000 or 1999 or 2000, I got my first contract
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for my first book length translation, and it's crazy to
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think that now it's been 24 years that I've been translating
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what I love about translation and Italian, because the Italian
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was already there.
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I knew that I wanted to work in Italian.
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But is that translation kind of welds together my love for
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literature, for stories and books?
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Reading was a very big part of my childhood because it allowed
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me to sort of disappear into a world that was entirely my own.
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And translation also allows me to weld that love of literature
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with a love for books as objects .
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So something that I studied while I was in college was book
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arts and everything about letterpress, printing and
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typography and bookbinding, and so all of these things sort of
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confer together in translation.
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Speaker 1: I've got a quick question for you.
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Speaker 2: When you were a little girl, what language did
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your parents read to you in?
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Was it English?
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When I learned to read, I would spend a long time on my own
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reading and I just loved that.
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I remember the physical sensation of holding the
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oversized storybooks in my hand, the fairy tales in my hands,
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and looking at the pictures and tracing with my finger along the
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words.
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Yeah, reading was very precious to me.
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Since we moved a lot.
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Seeing my books get packed up and then reappear in a new house
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was very important in terms of continuity.
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It allowed me to feel like oh, this is my room now.
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Okay, I have my things, my books are here, so I am here.
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I know that sounds crazy for a kid to think like that, but no,
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it doesn't sound silly at all.
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Speaker 1: I imagine that your books helped you feel settled.
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Speaker 2: Yes, they helped me settle Exactly.
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Speaker 1: Let's move on to the book Abandonment, which you
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translated from the original text by Herminia del Oro from
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Italian to English.
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This book is beautifully written and it won the English
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Pen Award.
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What drew you to translate this book and how difficult was it
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to find a publisher?
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Speaker 2: All of those are really great questions.
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So this book originally was published in 1991.
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So it's actually a relatively old book.
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I first read it in 2002.
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And well, I don't know, something just happened.
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I was immediately blown away by the story and how it was written
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.
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It's about poverty and hardship , it's about trauma that gets
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passed down, it's about being biracial and not feeling
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accepted and mostly it's about really wanting to find out who
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you are and going after that.
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I guess what especially made me want to translate it was the
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writing was absolutely enchanting.
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I found it.
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It just drew me in.
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I love this story because it's a survival story.
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The main character there are actually two, mother and
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daughter, salas and Mariana.
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But Mariana survives terrible hardships on a daily basis.
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She listens to her inner voice and her dreams.
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She constantly questions the world around her and she stops
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at nothing to seek answers.
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So those elements, they really spoke to me.
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I was also drawn to this book by its descriptions of Eritrea,
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in particular of the natural world.
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It's a country that has long fascinated me and I really liked
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the way that DeLoro describes how nature impacts the soul of
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the people.
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Nature is as important as the characters.
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Sometimes you get that feeling.
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Then there's the style of writing which I mentioned before
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, which shifts from these great descriptions and sensorial
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writing to a lyrical passages filled with dreams and creation
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stories and marginalized figures and outsiders.
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It's a tapestry of life, really .
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Speaker 1: Yes, and it's based on a true story.
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Speaker 2: Exactly so.
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Herminia del Oro, who was born in Eritrea and lived there for
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much of her life but then moved to Milan and now lives in Milan,
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was approached one day by a woman who is the inspiration for
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the figure of Mariana.
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There's a letter, and a letter that exists, and the letter was
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inspiration for Herminia to construct this story.
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Speaker 1: So it is based on a true story, but it does also
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draw on Herminia de Loro's masterful storytelling skills
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and for anyone interested in purchasing a copy of Abandonment
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at a 40% discount, please go to the EloisePresscom website.
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That's H-E-L-O-I-S-E-P-R-E-S-Scom.
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Click on the catalog, click on the cover of Abandonment.
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Bookshopscom Click on the catalog, click on the cover of
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Abandonment and, as you check out, the discount code is the
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word bookshop B-O-O-K-S-H-O-P, and that will be applied at
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checkout and you'll get your 40% discount.
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Thanks, ina at Heloise Press, for doing that.
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It's great.
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Okay, una, how difficult was it for you to find a publisher to
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take on this project?
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Speaker 2: It was very difficult .
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So, like I said, I read it in 2002.
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I was traveling to Milan in 2003.
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And so I wrote to her, to Herminia De Loro, and I said may
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I meet with you?
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And we had hot chocolate in a cafe in the Brera section of
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Milan and I was just.
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I was really amazed by this wonderful woman.
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She was extremely gracious, very low key, she was not
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presumptuous at all, and I told her I loved her book and that I
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wanted to try and translate it.
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Now, keep in mind that at that point, 2003, I had only
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translated one or maybe two books by then, so I was a newbie
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and she didn't have to say, oh, yes, by all means.
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But she did, she encouraged me, she said oh, I'm so grateful to
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you for anything that you can do for this book and for the
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story of Mariana and for Celeste .
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So here we are, 2024.
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And it took me this long or actually the book was finished a
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year ago, but it took me this long to find a publisher for it,
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and the reason for that is that people didn't really know what
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to do with it.
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So I pitched it, because translators periodically are
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asked by publishers to translate books and occasionally they
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also pitch books to publishers.
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And occasionally they also pitch books to publishers.
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And I pitched this book to mainstream publishers and
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editors and they turned it down because they couldn't see how it
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fit in with the rest of their books.
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I approached academic presses and they said, oh, we love this
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book but we have no money for it .
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And I took it to workshops that I took part in and I got great
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feedback.
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Everybody really enjoyed it.
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And then, about three years ago , I guess now, a couple of
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fellow translators told me about Heloise Press, and so I
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approached Aina Marti about it and said she accepted.
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And ever since then it's just been one exciting adventure
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after the other.
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Speaker 1: And for listeners, I recommend you go to
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EloisePresscom.
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Ina Marti champions worldwide female talent and, as said on
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their website, Eloise's careful selection of books give voice to
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emerging and well-established female writers from home and
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abroad, with a focus on intimate .
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Establish female writers from home and abroad with a focus on
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intimate, visceral and powerful narratives.
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Heloise Press brings together women's stories and literary
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sophistication, and kudos to Ina Marti for taking on Abandonment
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, which was the winner of the English Pen Award.
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It's a brilliant, brilliant book, wonderful story and
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beautiful translation.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, she's absolutely doing some phenomenal
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work at her press and I really applaud her.
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You know, what she's doing is she's creating a space for books
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that would otherwise, you know, get ignored or, you know, never
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be published or never be translated, in my case.
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Speaker 1: That's correct and I encourage everyone listening to
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search out these small and medium presses worldwide,
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because they are taking a chance on brilliant writers who, as
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you said, would otherwise not get read.
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Let's talk about the prose in Abandonment, because it's
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lyrical, colorful and descriptive.
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How difficult was this book to translate from Italian to
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English?
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Speaker 2: That's a really interesting question.
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In my practice in translation, what I like to try and do is I
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keep notes about all the challenges that I encounter
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along the way.
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I found over time that writing these down later is very helpful
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because it helps me understand the book and it offers me a kind
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of a key to understanding it, to explaining it to other people
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.
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So in the case of Abandonment, one of the hardest parts was, or
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one of the hardest, most difficult challenges of the
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translation was capturing the dream sequences in a way that
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maintained the chimerical tone of the original but that was
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also understandable for the reader.
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Then, if you've noticed, there's quite a few words in
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Tigrina, which is one of the original, but that was also
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understandable for the reader.
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Then, if you've noticed, there's quite a few words in Tigrinya,
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which is one of the Eritrean languages in the book.
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So I had to find a way of blending those words and keeping
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them in Tigrinya into the text in a very fluid way.
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I also needed to maintain a gendered use of language for
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certain objects that are very precious to Salaschi, gives them
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male and female pronouns.
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And then I struggled and I hope this comes across, but there's
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a way that Erminia dell'Oro, used the Italian to hint at or
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denote the oppressive force that Italy exerted over Eritrea
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during the colonial period, and so there are certain words that
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are in the Italian which I carried over into the English
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that I chose specific words to try and maintain the harshness
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of the Italian presence in Eritrea, of the Italian presence
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in Eritrea, Also because, even after the colonial period was
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over, all the psychological effects of colonialism were
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still felt for many years.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and I think in many cases the deep wounds of
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colonialism are still raw.
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It's such a sad time Now.
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As a translator, do you feel anything from the original
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writing is lost during translation and do you connect
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with the author if you struggle with certain words or sentences?
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Speaker 2: Well, I tend to think of translation as a recreation
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of a book, right?
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So if I've been very faithful and creative at the same time
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which seems like an oxymoron, but it's not If I understand and
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I feel and I experience the book as well as I possibly can,
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and then I try and hopefully manage to relay those ideas and
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feelings and experiences in English, then I don't feel that
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anything gets lost.
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No, I see the book as a parallel to the original.
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I guess the hardest thing some something that it doesn't get
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lost but it gets changed is that is, wordplay and humor.
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When I encounter word play and humor in in in a text, often I
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have to find alternate solutions that work just as well and go
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down sort of side paths or think laterally instead of just
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focusing on what the words are.
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And overall, I guess I would have to say that I enjoy working
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on my translations without too much author input, which is not
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to say that I won't ask an author if I don't understand
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something or the relevance of something or the implications of
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a certain word and I have done that.
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I've reached out to authors before.
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But generally speaking, I like to take my time and work on the
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translation solo or sola.
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Speaker 1: I should say.
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I've noticed lately that I'm reading more translated books,
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as are many of my friends, and I'm wondering do you feel
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translated books are becoming more popular and if so, is this
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due to publishers responding to reader demand?
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Speaker 2: Definitely.
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One thing I can say is that translation has certainly
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proliferated and changed a great deal since I started
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translating 20 years ago.
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There are a lot more opportunities to talk about
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translation.
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There are more courses that people can take to become
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translators.
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I think translators are just generally more included right,
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and that's also thanks to a lot of younger people who are
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fighting for translators' rights .
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We owe a lot to people who speak up on behalf of
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translators and authors themselves, who have earned a
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certain status and who use that status in a responsible way.
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I also sometimes wonder, though , whether translators aren't
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certain kind of superheroes that are influencing the reading
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habits of people like yourself.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree with you.
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I mean, I would not have read this book had I not been
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introduced to Eloise Press and Ina Marty through my
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daughter-in-law, who is a writer and teaches at the University
00:18:42
of Cork in Ireland in the creative writing department the
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University of Cork in Ireland, in the creative writing
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department.
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And after a conversation with Ina she introduced me to
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abandonment.
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And you know, here we are chatting.
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But that also brings me to one other question.
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It's the cadence of the language that draws me to
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reading translated books.
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They have a kind of musicality about them.
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Do you experience this while translating?
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Speaker 2: musicality about them .
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Do you experience this while translating?
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Well, music is definitely a large part of the craft of
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translation.
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When I work, I go through and I do a first draft, and that is.
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It's a very rough first draft, and then I go back over and over
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and over it and edit, and edit, and edit, so that, generally
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speaking, I would say I will go through a book, I'll edit it
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about six to seven, eight times and until I feel that it is
00:19:34
perfectly polished and ready to be sent in.
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But before I send it in, one thing that I always do is I read
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it out loud.
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It has to capture the music that the original has, and so
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this also goes back to the question that we were talking
00:19:47
about before, where I read with great care.
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So translators have to not just know the language and
00:19:55
understand the culture and get all the references and do that
00:19:59
too, but they just have to read with feeling.
00:20:01
It's very important to read with feeling.
00:20:03
It's very important to read with feeling.
00:20:05
So if the tone is there in the final and if it reads fluidly,
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then I think it's ready to go.
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I'm ready to send it in.
00:20:14
But if there's something that it feels funny or it doesn't
00:20:18
sound quite right, or the music, maybe there's a pitch change of
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some kind that just in Italian we say that makes you trip over
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it a little bit.
00:20:29
Then I'll go back to the original and I'll double check
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and even very late on in the process I might find oh well,
00:20:38
there's that, so let me switch it around.
00:20:40
Yeah, so yes, music is very important, also as a practice
00:20:45
for the translator to listen.
00:20:48
Speaker 1: In essence, music is another language.
00:20:49
Now we've talked about Ina Marty at Heloise Press and the
00:20:53
authors she represents and the books, many of which are
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translated from various languages.
00:20:58
How important are small presses such as Heloise Press in the
00:21:03
publishing world right now?
00:21:08
Speaker 2: Press in the publishing world right now.
00:21:09
Heloise Press is critical for translators because you have a
00:21:10
direct channel of communication with an editor, right.
00:21:15
So you are working.
00:21:16
She's got a ton of things to do , but Ina makes time to talk to
00:21:21
you about your work and when she recognizes that something is
00:21:25
worthy of being translated, then you feel welcomed.
00:21:35
A small press makes you feel like you are stepping into
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somebody's sitting room, into their living room, and you're
00:21:38
working with them and you're conferring with them and
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planning the book together.
00:21:42
It's a great feeling and I also want to mention, since we're
00:21:46
talking about Heloise Press so Ina makes the decisions, but the
00:21:50
editor on the book was a woman named Ruth Clark and Ruth's work
00:21:54
was amazing.
00:21:55
So it would be remiss of me not to mention the great job that
00:22:00
Ruth did working with me on the translation after I handed it in
00:22:04
, you know just like shaping it, and we had some great
00:22:12
discussions about the book and about Herminia del Oro and what
00:22:17
it means for a woman to write about the colonial period.
00:22:21
Speaker 1: I just thought of a question while I was listening
00:22:23
to you and I think you just answered it, though you have
00:22:26
multiple editors, obviously, when you're a translator,
00:22:29
correct?
00:22:30
Speaker 2: There's an editor who goes through it and she ought
00:22:34
to, or usually does.
00:22:36
In this case, ruth did speak the language of the book that's
00:22:40
being translated so that they can double check things and you
00:22:44
work with her closely.
00:22:45
And then it gets line edited or proofread by a different editor
00:22:49
so that it goes through and Ina is available.
00:22:52
We bounce some ideas off of her but generally speaking, she
00:22:57
will put the ball back in our court and say you to work it out
00:23:00
or decide how you want to handle it.
00:23:02
I trust you.
00:23:03
Or maybe she'll say no, actually I think this is better,
00:23:06
and so we work as a team.
00:23:08
It's a team effort in the long run.
00:23:10
Speaker 1: Yes, as it needs to be.
00:23:12
Una.
00:23:12
What drew you to relocate to Italy?
00:23:15
Speaker 2: So, it's funny, in 2009, I decided to leave New
00:23:18
York City, where I was living and working as a teacher of
00:23:22
English in the New York City public high schools, to move
00:23:25
back to Italy and spend more time translating and still teach
00:23:31
, but less time teaching, because I had found that in New
00:23:34
York City, with my full-time teaching job, I didn't have the
00:23:38
time that I needed to translate.
00:23:40
Yes, I had summers, but you also need to unwind and I have
00:23:44
children or had children.
00:23:47
They're now adults, so I had other things to take care of and
00:23:51
to do.
00:23:51
But now, well, since I moved back in 2009, I've held down
00:23:58
other jobs, but I've tried to put more energy into translation
00:24:02
and living here.
00:24:03
That has been possible.
00:24:05
Living in New York City, that wasn't possible for me.
00:24:07
I have worked in wineries, I've translated commercial things.
00:24:11
Like I said, I've translated everything from legal agreements
00:24:16
to love letters in order to make ends meet.
00:24:20
But when I have a book, I love to dedicate my time entirely to
00:24:24
translating that book and all my energy goes into the literary
00:24:29
translations.
00:24:30
So in the past I guess in the past what five, six, maybe six
00:24:34
or seven years I've been able to only do literary translations
00:24:39
and that feels to me like a huge achievement and something that
00:24:43
I've only been able to do because I have persisted.
00:24:46
I stayed with my dream, which was to translate literature, and
00:24:51
I've achieved that, so I'm very happy about that.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: And as you were born in Paris, I'm guessing you had
00:24:57
an EU passport.
00:24:58
Speaker 2: No, because actually to have a French passport then
00:25:02
and maybe also now, your mother needs to be French.
00:25:05
So, and my mother wasn't French .
00:25:07
My stepmother was French later, but my mother was American and
00:25:11
I married an Italian after college and then I got Italian
00:25:16
citizenship through that, which was very helpful and that's such
00:25:20
a gift to give to your children .
00:25:22
Speaker 1: I think If you can give them a passport to another
00:25:24
country, what a gift.
00:25:26
Speaker 2: Oh yes.
00:25:26
Well, they've had a bilingual education their whole life, so
00:25:30
good.
00:25:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are lucky children.
00:25:32
While we're talking about Florence, italy, there's a story
00:25:36
that I'd like to introduce people to who have not heard of
00:25:39
it, and that is the story of the mud angels in Florence.
00:25:42
Are you familiar with them?
00:25:44
Yes, I found out about the mud angels while I was in Florence.
00:25:48
I won't go into the intricate story and synchronicity that
00:25:51
helped me find this story, but it was part of a missing link
00:25:55
that I needed for a story I was writing and I just want to share
00:25:59
it with everyone.
00:26:00
So in 1966, florence was flooded .
00:26:03
The banks of the Arno River broke, the city lost a lot of
00:26:07
art and books from the library.
00:26:10
I think almost about 100 people died, and it also actually
00:26:13
flooded in Venice as well.
00:26:14
But I'm just going to stick to Florence for now.
00:26:16
So there are a lot of students backpacking around Europe.
00:26:20
At the time there were students in Florence from America who
00:26:23
were doing a semester abroad, and they ended up helping
00:26:28
retrieve artwork and books from the mud that was just feet deep
00:26:34
in some of the buildings and the streets.
00:26:36
What came out of this tragedy was the advancements made in
00:26:41
book conservation and art restoration.
00:26:43
In the show notes I'll make sure to put some links to the
00:26:47
stories about the mud angels, but it's a part of Florentine
00:26:51
history that I think is incredibly important and needs
00:26:54
to be remembered.
00:26:55
I know I will mispronounce it if I try saying mud angels in
00:27:00
Italian Una.
00:27:02
Would you say it for me, you could?
00:27:03
Speaker 2: say Angeli del Fango would be the translation of that
00:27:07
phrase, but I don't know whether they use that.
00:27:09
I've only always heard it in English.
00:27:10
Isn't that funny?
00:27:11
Maybe because people are referring to themselves or to
00:27:16
that period as the Mud Angels, or maybe they were seen as the
00:27:19
foreigners who came and lent a hand.
00:27:21
I know a lot of university students from all over Europe
00:27:25
came.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: Yes, it is a wonderful story For listeners
00:27:28
who may be interested in becoming a translator.
00:27:31
Could you tell us about any organizations that are helpful,
00:27:35
please?
00:27:36
Speaker 2: So there are two very important associations for me.
00:27:38
One is the American Literary Translators Association and one
00:27:42
is Penn.
00:27:42
When I started translating in around 1999, I applied for an
00:27:48
American Literary Translators Association fellowship for young
00:27:53
translators to travel to the conference.
00:27:56
Every year they have a conference and it used to be in
00:28:04
a different city around the United States every year and I
00:28:06
won this travel fellowship and so I guess it was in 2000,.
00:28:08
The conference was held in San Francisco and I attended an
00:28:11
event and I was surrounded, suddenly surrounded by
00:28:15
translators of literature.
00:28:16
It was the most amazing experience because I had been
00:28:21
thinking about doing this work, I had started working and I had
00:28:25
always felt very, very alone in this work and all of a sudden,
00:28:30
wonderful people.
00:28:30
We were all talking about books .
00:28:32
I met other people working in my same language or from my same
00:28:36
language into English, and there were some wonderful panels
00:28:39
and talks and discussions.
00:28:41
And so ever since then, any year that I can actually attend
00:28:46
the ALTA conference, I do.
00:28:50
Since I moved back to Italy, obviously that's been much
00:28:52
harder, but I attended one inoston and chicago.
00:28:55
There was one in new york, of course, the san francisco one,
00:28:58
and then one or two others, and this year, I'm very excited to
00:29:02
say, one of the one of my translations is up for the um.
00:29:06
It's called the ipta award, so italian prose and translation
00:29:11
award, which is governed by alta , and I'm very excited about
00:29:14
that.
00:29:14
The other association that I am proud to be a part of is Penn,
00:29:19
and the reason for that is because it also similarly
00:29:23
offered me that community, that sense of community of
00:29:26
translators.
00:29:27
When I lived in New York City, so between the years of 2000 and
00:29:31
roughly 2009,.
00:29:34
When I was translating I think it was about once a month or
00:29:38
once every couple of months there was a translation
00:29:41
committee meeting down at their headquarters off of Houston
00:29:44
Street, and it was a very small group Maybe there would be 10 of
00:29:49
us, maybe 15, but we would sit around a table and we would
00:29:52
discuss all the problems that we were dealing with, whether it
00:29:54
was publishers or actual textual problems, and then we would all
00:29:59
go out for drinks afterwards.
00:30:00
So it was a great way to talk, work, talk shop and then just
00:30:05
relax and know that there were other people who were going
00:30:08
through some of the similar challenges that you were.
00:30:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's just wonderful being part of a
00:30:13
community.
00:30:13
I think we're involved with the work that you're doing.
00:30:16
Okay, let's talk books.
00:30:18
What are you currently reading?
00:30:20
Speaker 2: Actually, since I'm trying to write about what
00:30:22
attracted me to Italian in the first place, I've been doing a
00:30:26
lot of reading of memoirs and I recently finished A Ghost in the
00:30:30
Throat I don't know if you know it by Dorin Negrifa.
00:30:34
Speaker 1: Yes, I love that book .
00:30:35
In fact, the author, john McGregor, turned me on to it.
00:30:38
It's fabulous.
00:30:40
Speaker 2: I absolutely loved it and it shows the intense and
00:30:47
the embodied kind of connection that one can have with the text
00:30:49
where she translates.
00:30:49
But she relates very closely to this text.
00:30:51
She literally lives through it.
00:30:54
It's a beautiful, beautiful book and so well written.
00:30:57
And then recently I started Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller,
00:31:02
which is I don't know if you've read that, but it's a beautiful
00:31:04
book, also dealing with some very difficult topics and
00:31:09
mother-daughter relationship that is very complex.
00:31:13
I'm looking at a stack of books here.
00:31:16
Speaker 1: Everyone who is related to writing, publishing
00:31:20
in any field of the publishing industry.
00:31:22
We all have stacks of books that are sitting on our desks,
00:31:26
beside our bed, around the house , in our bookcases, that we both
00:31:31
need to read for work and that we also want to read of our own
00:31:37
need to read for work and that we also want to read of our own.
00:31:39
It's a pretty good problem to have.
00:31:40
And, going back to our earlier conversation, books are like
00:31:42
friends and they help us feel settled.
00:31:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely.
00:31:46
And new friends too, because when you encounter a book and
00:31:50
you're like this book I'm so grateful that I opened this book
00:31:54
and I'm reading these pages it can fill you with wonder.
00:31:57
Una, are you a?
00:31:58
Speaker 1: rereader.
00:31:59
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I am, because I love the first
00:32:04
impressions, but I also like to go back and understand what it
00:32:08
is that triggered that.
00:32:10
Especially as I'm doing more of my own writing now.
00:32:13
That is very important to me.
00:32:14
Curiously, a book that I have reread many, many times is Moby
00:32:19
Dick.
00:32:20
I can't explain.
00:32:22
I mean, I can't explain, it's just.
00:32:25
The prose is amazing and I've always loved that book, since I
00:32:28
read it in college.
00:32:29
But it's been several years now since I've gone back to it.
00:32:32
Maybe I've evolved a little bit .
00:32:34
I'm not sure.
00:32:35
Speaker 1: Maybe you finally extracted what you needed out of
00:32:38
that prose and now you can move on.
00:32:40
Yes, well, I'm the same.
00:32:43
I am a rereader, especially of books that just capture me
00:32:46
immediately.
00:32:47
And, of course, because I interview so many authors, I go
00:32:51
back and often reread the books before I get into conversation
00:32:55
with them.
00:32:56
Whenever I ask this question to authors about rereading books,
00:33:01
I always feel a bit sorry for the ones that say no, I don't
00:33:03
reread.
00:33:04
I feel like they're missing out on secrets.
00:33:06
But in your form of work, I'm sure you are used to rereading
00:33:10
and rereading and rereading.
00:33:12
Speaker 2: It would be strange for a translator not to be a
00:33:14
rereader, since really at the heart of what we do is reading
00:33:15
and rereading.
00:33:16
It would be strange for a translator not to be a rereader,
00:33:16
since really at the heart of what we do is reading and
00:33:19
rereading, and editing and re-editing.
00:33:22
Speaker 1: Well, it's been lovely chatting with you, una,
00:33:24
and getting to know more about you and translations, and
00:33:28
congratulations again on Translating Abandonment, written
00:33:32
by Arminia De Lauro and published through Heloise Press
00:33:36
in England.
00:33:37
Such a beautiful book and I look forward to reading some of
00:33:40
your own writing.
00:33:42
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, mandy.
00:33:43
This has been a wonderful conversation.
00:33:44
I really appreciate it.
00:33:46
I am very, very grateful and I really am so glad that you read
00:33:49
the book and I am very happy that you enjoyed it too.
00:33:52
That's the key thing.
00:33:54
Kudos to you and congratulations on doing such a
00:33:58
great series.
00:33:58
I listened to several other episodes and I was really amazed
00:34:02
by your commitment and your other guests, how they spoke so
00:34:07
eloquently and had so much to share.
00:34:09
It's really really well done.
00:34:13
Speaker 1: You've been listening to my conversation with the
00:34:15
translator, una Strunsky, about her translation of Herminia
00:34:19
Deloro's book Abandonment, published by Heloise Press.
00:34:23
To help the show reach more people, please share episodes
00:34:27
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00:34:30
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00:34:34
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00:34:34
To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to
00:34:38
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00:34:43
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00:34:45
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00:34:51
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00:34:54
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00:34:58
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00:35:01
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00:35:04
The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, mandy
00:35:08
Jackson-Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly,
00:35:12
executive assistant to Mandy Adrian Otterhan, brian Beverly,
00:35:18
executive assistant to Mandy Adrian Otterhan, and graphic
00:35:19
design by Francis Barala.
00:35:19
Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.
