My Favourite English Translations from International Writing
This curated collection of writing influences me and I’ve also captured images that go along with the sentiment of each of them.
Uncountable
From The Bird Hypothesis by Lidia Jorge
“It was a text by Borges – ‘I close my eyes and I see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second, maybe less. I don’t know how many birds I see. Was there a definite number of them or an indefinite number?’ – and he had been repeating it to himself ever since, his eyes closed. The crucial lines, however, were best said out loud – ‘If God exists, the number is definite, because God will know how many birds I saw. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because no one will ever know the number for certain.’”
Deepened Spaces
From Silenceâ by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
“The silence defined walls, covered tables, framed pictures. The silence carved out contours, sharpened edges, deepened spaces. Everything was palpable and alive, dense with its own reality.”
Lost Track and Fell Silent
From Fox Hollow by Joy Castro
“they’d stood on a bluff, her back pressed to him, and waited for a train they could hear in the distance. When it arrived, clacking far below them, she began to count aloud the empty coal cars. At one point, she got distracted and lost track and fell silent, thinking perhaps she’d jumped ahead by ten. Was it eighty or ninety?”
Contemplation
From The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
“and he seemed altogether absorbed in contemplation of the patch of earth immediately before his eyes … I was counting blades of grass, he said, by way of apology”
A Yawn of Sky
From The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
“Amber, which allegedly keeps you awake, was off somewhere else, the wind, from the southeast, as the weather-board said, fell slowly asleep, the broad expanse of sky, which had surely overexerted itself, could not stop yawning”
Where the Trees Flirt With the Sky
From The Heart of the Leopard Children by Wilfred N’Sonde
“Don’t worry, I’ll show you around the country of the leopard children, where the trees flirt with the sky, so tall they almost touch it. On the way, we’ll stop by my crib where we hang out and goof off in building hallways. I’ll take you to the place where we live side by side with the dead. I’ll teach you to speak to them, just like they do with me in my head, and you’ll close your eyes and see the light, yes, the light before you, a few inches from your forehead! I’ll tell you about Mireille …”
The Light Gave Them Away
From A Fox from the Koya River Changes into a Woman and Rides on a Horse
“When about ten men had fixed their arrows to their bowstrings and aimed at her, the man thought he could set her free and so he loosened his grip. At that, the girl turned into a fox and ran off yelping. All the guards vanished instantly as well, and all the lights went out too, and it was pitch dark.”
The One That Rises
From Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis
“Manolios placed his hand on the knee of Pope Fotis, who, absorbed in his meditations, said nothing.
‘How ought we to love God, Father?’, he asked in a whisper.
‘By loving men, my son’
‘And how ought we to love men?’
‘By trying to guide them along the right path.’
‘And what is the right path?’
‘The one that rises.’ ”
Vayadamma Sankara
From On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman
“It was Rose who, together with Suren, stood at the bottom, her eyes squinting against the sun, looking up at the banner that fluttered above their heads, the one that announced the death, with Devi’s name and the words Vayadamma Sankara beneath it.
‘What does it mean?’ Rose asked him.
‘Nothing lasts,’ he said, simply.”
Stability
From “Listening to Autumn Wind”,Three Thousand Li, transalted by Kim Iryeop
“It is strange that I am still stable of body and spirit. It gives me great comfort, though I have transgressed the precept. Autumn wind always blows cold, the leaves fall off, the frost falls down. Blizzards may come, but I will remain calm in my cabin. I will smile silently.”
The Real Him: Marriage
“The Bird Hypothesis: by Someone Someone
“When his excitement died down, he looked again at her. Looking at her up close, he saw that she wasn’t scary. In time, he gradually saw that she was more sincere and innocent than everyone else. Then, after more days had passed, he spoke up,
‘If I get a place somewhere, will you come too?’
‘Of course,’ the scary woman answered. ‘Why do you even ask? We’re married, aren’t we?’
But he wasn’t able to find a place. Not being able to wait, she wrote her home. Her parents sent money, and she found them a place. So they started living together.”
Fire-Field
From Fireworks by O Chonghui, as translated by Dr. Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton
“We used to be fire-field farmers, but we got flooded out and here we are. Up in the hills we lived like bandits, down here we catch fish from a tiny boat – some life, eh?”
“The fireworks blossomed into garish patterns in the dark sky while flower lanterns, blooming like lotus fronds, floated downstream. … The grownups looked out at the dark river – looking with faces darker than the surface of the water at the river flowing from distant antiquity and bearing oil-burning flower lanterns.”
Falling Into the Sky
From The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller
“Sky below earth above and grass in between. The grass always held me firmly by the feet so I wouldn’t fall into the sky.”
Sun Slanting Downward(s)
Final paragraph of The Dwarf by Cho Se-hui (1978), translated by Dr. Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton
“The teacher returned the students’ bow and stepped down from his platform. Then he left the classroom. The way he walked was peculiar. Maybe that’s how aliens walk, thought the students.
The winter sun was already slanting downward and the classroom grew dark.”
The Visible Sun
From Popol Vuh, translated by Dennis Tedlock
“There were countless peoples, but there was just one dawn for all tribes.
And when the sun had risen a short distance he was like a person, and his heat was unbearable. Since he revealed himself only when he was born, it is only his reflection that now remains. As they put in the ancient text,
‘The visible sun is not the real one.’
And then, all at once, Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were turned to stone.”
Lookout Station
From A Voyage to India by Gonçalo Tavares
“May beautiful things be your lookout station; for the world, like anything else, only becomes beautiful when beauty is looked upon”
To Dream With Eyes Open
Almaden by Kim Chi-won
“Once in a while the woman daydreamed she was walking in the woods with an affectionate man while the leaves danced with wild abandon. The forest path was like a beautiful detail in a photograph. But this imaginary path had no beginning, nor could she visualize what lay at the end. She only thought of walking there with this man.”
The Living
From Tale of Genji, Chapter 44,
“‘When you were children you quarreled over that cherry. Father said it belonged to you’ — and he nodded to his older sister — ‘and Mother said it belonged to you, and no one said it belonged to me.’
‘I did not exactly cry myself to sleep, but I did feel slighted. It is a very old tree and it somehow makes me aware of how old I am getting myself. And I think of all the people who once looked at it and are no longer living.’”
Never Fear Rejection
From The Human Jungle by Cho Chongnae, as translated by Dr. Bruce (my favourite prof) and Ju-Chan Fulton
“Never fear rejection! It’s an absolute rule, a fundemental condition, an article of faith in working for a general trading company. If they turn you away at the gate, you go back with a smile on your face. You go back ten times, a hundred times. You keep going back till the gate opens. If you don’t have the gumption for that, you might as well pack your bags and go home.”
Land (Toji)
From Land (Vol. 1) by Pak Kyuing-Ni, as translated by Agnita Tennant
“The teacher quoted five Chinese phrases, and went on, ‘But the land is not like that, is it? It awaits as ever the will of heaven and the care of man.’
‘I didn’t get it, sir’
‘When hungry flatter the one who feeds you. When full, turn and go. Gather where it is warm. And turn away from where it’s cold. These are the ways of men.’
Yunbo stood and blinked.”
Writing Pathways
From The Tale of Gengi, Chapter 54, “Writing Practice”
“Writing is, to me, a journey of self-discovery that never ends. It is renewed by any readers who see the work in a different light in another time. It lives, and lives again.”
“The New Year came, but spring seemed far away. The silence of the frozen waters seemed to speak with its own sad voice. Though she had turned away in disgust from the prince who had found her so daunting, she thought all the same of the days when she had known him.
At the writing practice that was her chief pleasure in recesses from her devotions”
Many Mirrors
From In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
“Writing is, to me, a journey of self-discovery that never ends. It is renewed by any readers who see the work in a different light in another time. It lives, and lives again.”
“The New Year came, but spring seemed far away. The silence of the frozen waters seemed to speak with its own sad voice. Though she had turned away in disgust from the prince who had found her so daunting, she thought all the same of the days when she had known him.
“At the writing practice that was her chief pleasure in recesses from her devotions”
