Famous Translators

Articles

jorge luis borges life
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High-Quality Translation Philosophy with Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges, a translation scholar that has changed the way translation is perceived forever, and some of his works are detailed in this article by the Professional Spanish Translation Company MotaWord.
Portuguese translation
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Portuguese Translation in Poetry with Fernando Pessoa

This Famous Translators article by MotaWord focuses on Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet, writer, and philosopher of the 20th century, and his well-known works that have influenced generations since their publication.
endgame samuel beckett
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The Self-Translated Author: Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett, most of whose work was written in French first, then translated into English by himself, is the subject of this Famous Translators article alongside the core themes of his works.
stan lee
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Translating the Work of a Real-Life Superhero - Remembering Stan Lee

This blog post commemorates Stan Lee, a significant figure in comic book culture, whose works have been translated into more than 11 languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
Hitoshi Igarashi
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Deadly Translation: The Politics of Hitoshi Igarashi’s Japanese Version of The Satanic Verses

This blog elaborates on Hitoshi Igarashi and his tragic death following translating The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.
soul mountain gao xingjian
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One Man’s Soul Mountain: Translating Gao Xingjian

Gao Xingjian, a Nobel laureate, was an innovative Chinese French translator and this article elaborates on his life as a person of literature and hard work.
the adventures of tintin
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Translating Tintin

Translating literary works is quite a challenge and the beloved comic book Tintin is no exception. You can learn more about some interesting details about the translation of this 90-year-old classic.
chinese translation services
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Chinese Translations Under the Eyes of Censors

While translation is impacted by a number of sociopolitical factors such as censorship, Ken Liu starts to work on a novel translation from Chinese to English, only to realize that the original intention of the source can only be transmitted with a creative approach.
poetry translation
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W.S. Merwin, a Poet Translates the Truth in Poetry

Learn more about the life story of W.S. Merwin, a famous poet, and his translation samples from Japanese, French, Spanish, and Italian.
giovanni pontiero
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Playing with Portuguese: Giovanni Pontiero's Translations

Giovanni Pontiero, a translator of Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian, has a noteworthy career in terms of translation, which you can find more about in this Famous Translators post.
nostradamus
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The Mistranslation of the Mystical Nostradamus

Nostradamus has been an established figure for centuries now. How about hearing his story from a perspective intertwined with mistranslation, mysticism, and prophecy?
stephen king translation
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Translating the Horror Fiction by Stephen King

Stephen King, mostly known for its masterpieces in horror fiction, is one of the most accomplished writers and his works have been translated into more than 50 languages all over the world.
dr seuss german translation
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Oh! The Places You’ll Go...with Translation: The Professional Translator’s Experience with Dr. Seuss

Learn more about the life and works of creative translator Dr. Seuss who have come up with a number of new words in order to find equivalents during his translation of children literature.
shakespeare
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Global Shakespeare: Translating Iambic Pentameter

Translating a literary genius requires a creative and adaptive method by the part of translators and William Shakespeare's literary works are no exception due to the usage of many unique words that helped shape the structure of the English language as we know today.
andersen tales professional translation
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The Professional Translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales

Hans Christian Andersen is an influential figure in children's literature and the translation of his work in a professional manner is certainly a challenging task for any expert translator.
ernst gombrich
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A Little History of Ernst H. Gombrich’s Translation

When it comes to A Little History of the World, Ernst H. Gombrich trusted no one to translate his best-selling work into English.
Jules Verne books
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Redeeming a Mistranslated Jules Verne

Jules Verne has gained popularity as a children's writer, but this was not the case when his works were published for the first time, which in turn affected the quality of their translation.
st jerome
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A Rebel Translator in a Biblical Era: St. Jerome

St. Jerome, a biblical scholar and translator, is the first person to implement a dynamic equivalence concept in his work during an era when a translation was basically about rendering just words.
winnie mandela quotes
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Who Translated Winnie Mandela?

As translation studies are closely interconnected with many branches of the academy and positive sciences, Winnie Mandela's case of political translation is a noteworthy example in this regard.
agatha christie books
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The Most Professionally Translated Author in the World

Being the author 66 detective novels, 66 detective novels, Agatha Christie is one of the most influential writers of all time, holding The Guinness World Record as the best-selling novelist in history.
julia evelina smith
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Julia Evelina Smith: The First And Only Woman To Translate The Bible

Women in translation have had a difficult time gaining a place in the table throughout the history, especially in Bible translation, and Julia Evelina Smith deserves to be praised in this sense with her biblical translation work.
dan brown books
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Translating “Origin” by Dan Brown

Dan Brown is used to working with multiple translators to make sure that the sense of his work is transferred to the target audience and his latest novel called Origin is no exception to this phenomenon.
jacques derrida life
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Thoughts on Translation - Jacques Derrida

Although the philosopher Jacques Derrida is known to hate the translation concept, he also admitted the challenges posed by this interesting yet intellectually rewarding profession and praised those who successfully manage this task.
sabahattin ali poems
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Translating into English - Sabahattin Ali

Sabahattin Ali's Madonna in a Fur Coat (Kürk Mantolu Madonna in Turkish) is an extraordinary piece of work that has changed gender roles and tweaked love and alienation according to its own norms.
ursula k le guin books
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A love for translation - Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin is a writer who enjoys translation as a creative act in addition to writing 21 novels during her lifetime.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez books
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A Duel for Magical Realism: Translating Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez chose the two translators of his work, Edith Grossman and Gregory Rabassa, by himself and provided them with a creative space to reflect the soul of his work into English.
the little prince chinese translation
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The Little Prince - Still Unique Through Translation

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery continues to pose a challenge for translators of all languages due to its short but concise prose and complementary drawings.
stephen hawking translator
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Translating the Universe with Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist that is mostly known for his discoveries regarding black holes and one-of-a-kind speech software which is basically a system that translates what he wants to say.
persepolis
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The Graphic Translation of Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical book called Persepolis sheds light on her childhood and the context of her country at that time with cultural and literary impact on the world later on.
constance garnett
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Constance Garnett: The Imperfect Pioneer of Russian Translation

Although famous Russian writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekov have made an unprecedented influence on world literature, Constance Garnett has contributed to this impact through her translations of their work into English.
We Should All Be Feminists
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Translating Feminism with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose works have been translated into thirty different languages in total, has devoted her life to making feminism understandable by everyone, including those who replace their experiences with emotions deemed masculine.