In Other Words PDF
Preview In Other Words
ALSO BY JHUMPA LAHIRI The Lowland Unaccustomed Earth The Namesake Interpreter of Maladies Cover Also by Jhumpa Lahiri Title Page Copyright A Note on Using This eBook Author’s Note In Other Words In Altre Parole AUTHOR’S NOTE Readers may ask why I chose not to translate this book myself from Italian into English. I explain my motivation, in part, in the chapter called “The Hairy Adolescent.” There I describe the surprising difficulty of translating from Italian, a language in which I had only begun to express myself creatively, into English, the language of my previous books. I was reluctant to move back and forth between the two. My impulse at the time was to protect my Italian. Returning to English was disorienting, frustrating, also discouraging. It made me acutely aware of how limited my Italian was compared with my English. It made me question the value of the experiment I had undertaken. My Italian is still limited compared with my English. And yet it is the sole language in which I continue to write. Apart from obligatory correspondence, I have written exclusively in Italian for more than two years now. These few words are, in fact, the first formal prose I have composed in English since my last book, The Lowland, was completed, in 2012. Writing in Italian is a choice on my part, a risk that I feel inspired to take. It requires a strict discipline that I am compelled, at the moment, to maintain. Translating the book myself would have broken that discipline; it would have meant reengaging intimately with English, wrestling with it, rather than with Italian. In addition, had I translated this book, the temptation would have been to improve it, to make it stronger by means of my stronger language. But I wanted the translation of In altre parole to render my Italian honestly, without smoothing out its rough edges, without neutralizing its oddness, without manipulating its character. I instinctively felt, when I learned that the book would be published in English, that another translator, one with more experience and with greater objectivity, was best suited to perform this operation. I am therefore grateful to Ann Goldstein for bringing this book to English-language readers. I O W N THER ORDS For Paola Basirico, Angelo De Gennaro, and Alice Peretti …I needed a different language: a language that was a place of affection and reflection. —ANTONIO TABUCCHI CONTENTS DEDICATION EPIGRAPH THE CROSSING THE DICTIONARY LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT EXILE THE CONVERSATIONS THE RENUNCIATION READING WITH A DICTIONARY GATHERING WORDS THE DIARY THE STORY THE EXCHANGE THE FRAGILE SHELTER IMPOSSIBILITY VENICE THE IMPERFECT THE HAIRY ADOLESCENT THE SECOND EXILE THE WALL THE TRIANGLE THE METAMORPHOSIS PLUMBING THE DEPTHS THE SCAFFOLDING HALF-LIGHT AFTERWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A Note About the Author A Note About the Translator
Description:The list of books you might like
