I read at our book launch last night and I am a good reader. Part of it of course is that my translations take advantage of the music of the English language, so they are easy to read well.
I was also the interpreter for this bilingual event. I am good at this as well, especially since I could contextualize and polish everyone’s comments on the fly. It was said that my intellectual contribution to the evening was an important factor in its success.
To me, the recording doesn’t look as good as it felt. I say “um” more than I realize, and I’m looking old, I think. But the press said this was the most successful of their virtual book launch readings, and clips of it will be around. So now I’m a poet, critic and intellectual, and there is that.
I’ve read twice before. First, a piece of creative nonfiction, at a reading organized by the magazine it came out in, and next, poems from my other translation project.
I remember now that an early translation project I had was of Gonzalo Rojas, and still another was of Regin Dahl. I should perhaps unearth these, and bring them out, now that I’m a literary translator and not just an academic one.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 