Translating Max Sessner, I must stretch my understanding of time and be open to the possibility that past and present occur simultaneously and that things I regard as objects, inert and inanimate, are perhaps living their own lives, unimpeded by my ignorance. It takes all my translator's tools—knowledge of both languages, poetic skills, imagination—to keep these magical poems intact as I smuggle them across the border into English.
Francesca Bell on "Encounter" |
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