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PODCAST

Paraphrasis Podcast

Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard

Paraphrasis is a podcast dedicated to the art and practice of literary translation, brought to you by a team of graduate students in the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard. www.paraphrasispodcast.com

society & culture language learning

All Episodes

18:55

Fiona Bell on The Talnikov Family by Avdotya Panaeva

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/10/01

In this episode, Fiona Bell discusses her translation of The Talnikov Family by Avdotya Panaeva, now out with Columbia University Press. Originally published in 1848, The Talnikov Family fictionalizes Panaeva’s precarious childhood in a family of actors in St. Petersburg. Fiona and Anna discuss bringing 19th century literature to life (if not the 19th century author) and the place of women in the Russian literary canon then and now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with

en

2:51

Bonus: Daniel Hahn on "truco"

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/09/17

“Truco,” a card game popular in Argentina, is a game of tricks, deception, and power plays. It is also a structuring feature of Martín Kohan’s Confession. Can a translator teach English-language readers the rules? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

19:34

Daniel Hahn on Confession by Martín Kohan

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/09/03

Daniel Hahn reflects on his translation of Martín Kohan’s Confession (Charco Press), a slim volume that wrestles with personal passions and political complicity. Focused on the legacies of Argentina’s last military dictatorship, the novel opens with the intimate desires of a young girl only to spiral into assassination plots, suppressed memories, and card games played with sky-high emotional stakes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to

en

3:42

Sean Gasper Bye on place names

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/08/13

The action of Did This Hand Kill? (Open Letter Books) largely takes places in Lviv, Ukraine, over several different time frames. In this bonus episode, Sean Gasper Bye adresses the city’s fascinating multicultural, multilingual history and how it impacted his Polish to English translation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

17:36

Sean Gasper Bye on Did This Hand Kill? by Cezary...

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/07/30

In this episode, Sean Gasper Bye discusses his 2024 translation of Cezary Łazarewicz's true crime thriller, Did This Hand Kill? (Open Letter Books). This historic who dun’ it explores Rita Gorgonowa’s sensational murder trial, a media event that scandalized interwar Poland. Just as the reader visits the lost world of Lwów, they are left wondering who really killed Gorgonowa's de facto stepdaughter on a cold December's night in 1931… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with

en

3:06

Bonus: Luke Leafgren on walls

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/07/16

As he translated The Tale of the Wall by Nasser Abu Srour, Luke was faced with a problem: how to convey the realities of a Palestinian refugee camp without blanching the figurative richness of Nasser’s writing. In this bonus episode, Luke tells us about two Arabic words for wall and the English equivalents he chose. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

18:11

Luke Leafgren on The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/07/02

Anna sits down with Luke Leafgren for a conversation about his translation of the Palestinian literary memoir The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour, published in April 2024 by Penguin Random House. Anna and Luke dive into urgent topics, discussing the politics of translating Palestinian literature, the challenges of collaborating with an author serving a life sentence in prison, and the groundbreaking qualities of Nasser Abu Srour’s prose, in which literary and philosophical forms inflect a

en

4:14

Bonus: Jess Jensen Mitchell on mama and living authors

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/06/18

Because ‘mama’ is often the first word we ever learn to say, it can be surprisingly challenging to translate. Jess discusses ‘mama’ and its many synonyms, and fills us in on a humorous run-in with a living author… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

18:51

Jess Jensen Mitchell on Self-Sowing by Dominika Słowik

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/06/04

Anna meets Jess Jensen Mitchell in Katowice, Poland — once a hub of Central Europe’s coal mining industry — to talk about her translation of Dominika Słowik’s eco-critical short story collection, Self-Sowing. Jess recalls an adventure that led her to publish a story from the collection, “Blizzard”(Two Lines Journal), and how she learned to find humanity in nonhuman characters. She also hints at an upcoming project. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers

en

3:50

Bonus: Poorna Swami on idioms

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/05/21

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

16:51

Poorna Swami on Murmurs by Safiya Akhtar

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/05/07

In this episode, Poorna Swami discusses her in-progress Urdu to English translation of Murmurs, a collection of love letters written by Safiya Akhtar. While looking for something to read in her grandmother’s study, Poorna found a scintillating glimpse into the tumultuous romance between the author and her poet husband. Anna and Poorna delve into the challenges of translating elaborate declarations of love into a different language and adapting intimate correspondence for performance and

en

3:04

Bonus: Kareem Abdulrahman on character names

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/04/16

Kareem discusses the challenges of translating character names rife with meaning or derived from Kurdish encounters with other world cultures. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

en

18:39

Kareem Abdulrahman on The Last Pomegranate Tree by...

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/04/02

In this episode, Anna talks to Kareem Abdulrahman about his translation of The Last Pomegranate Tree (Archipelago Books) by Bachtyar Ali. Based in Germany, Bachtyar has received the Nelly Sachs Prize (2017) and the Hilde-Domin-Prize (2023). Kareem’s translation was recently shortlisted for the 2023 National Books Critics Circle Award. Kareem tells us about producing the first-ever English translation of a Kurdish novel, finding the universal in Bachtyar’s prose, and his experience of the Kurdish

en

4:25

Bonus: Lara Norgaard on the “warung”

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/03/19

Lara takes us on a journey through Jakarta and Java, exploring the specificity of the Indonesian word “warung.” We learn about the place of the warung in the Indonesian urban ecosystem, its role in Lara’s translation of the novel 24 Hours with Gaspar by Sabda Armandio, and why translators choose to keep words for spaces and food in the original language. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

en

20:37

Lara Norgaard on 24 Hours with Gaspar by Sabda Armandio

Paraphrasis Podcast ·

2024/03/04

In our premiere, we meet Lara Norgaard to learn about her Indonesian to English translation of the genre-bending crime thriller, 24 Hours with Gaspar (Seagull Books). Lara recalls her first, fateful meeting with Sabda Armandio in a Jakarta coffee shop, as well as her process of conveying the humorous and horrifying word play and web of references that make this novel pop. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

en

35 results

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