Harshaneeyam Harshaneeyam

Jessica Cohen is an independent translator born in England, raised in Israel, and living in Denver. She translates contemporary Hebrew prose and other creative work. In 2017, she shared the Man Booker International Prize with David Grossman for her translation of A Horse Walks Into a Bar. She has also translated works by major Israeli writers including Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Ronit Matalon and Maya Arad, and by filmmakers Ari Folman and Nadav Lapid. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in translation, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Cohen works with the Authors Guild and the American Literary Translators Association to advocate for literary translators’ recognition, rights, and working conditions.
She spoke about Hebrew Literature, the Authors Guild and working with David Grossman, the famous Israeli Author in this episode.
Transcript:

Harshaneeyam: Welcome to HarshaniumHarshaneeyam, Jessica. Such a pleasure. 
Jessica Cohen: Thank you. It's really a pleasure to be here. 
Harshaneeyam: Your father, Professor Stanley Cohen, was a human rights activist and your mother too, Ruth Cohen,. Sshe was an artist. And what kind of impact did your parents have on you as far as your literary sensibilities are concerned?
Jessica Cohen: I'm not sure if it's entirely accurate to describe him as an activist. He was definitely an intellectual. And I think his activism was in the form of writing and thinking and calling things out that he saw. My mother was more of an activist in the sense that she was that sort of out on the barricades protesting and, and organizing.
They both grew up in South Africa and I think developed a sense of the world and of justice or injustice, what they saw growing up under apartheid. And that was something they carried with them very much. And so I think Tthere was a way in which growing up in that household, I think I absorbed this sense of the importance of empathy with people who were not like us or who were less fortunate than us.
And that's something they both definitely felt strongly about. And I, the reason I think that's connected to a literary sensibility is that I think Ggood writing necessitates empathy, both on the part of the writer, definitely, and the reader. That's really, I think, what most good fiction does, its allows you to step into someone else's life, someone who you could never be, but might be through reading.
I was born in England, but we moved to Israel when I was seven. And so my schooling was always in Hebrew and my social life was in Hebrew, but everything at home was in English. My parents were both voracious readers. My sister and I also grew up reading a lot. The house was full of books everywhere you looked.
And so I definitely, I think was raised with an appreciation for literature and reading and writing. And that's something I've always had. So I assume that. Tthat in some ways affected my choice of career, to live with literature. My dad, when I think of both of them, some of their biggest heroes were writers.
Pictures up in my dad's office were Samuel Beckett, George Orwell. My mother had a framed portrait of Virginia Woolf up on her wall. Writers were who they looked to, I think, for inspiration and inspiration. Nnot just entertainment. 
Harshaneeyam: So what made you get into translation? And, interestingly, your first customer was Microsoft.
Jessica Cohen: That's true. That's true. Which is very, it seems very incongruous with what I do now. Yeah. I think that a lot of people who hasof my generation and above who are literary translators, we all fell into it by chance or through various other previous lives that we had, that's changing quite a bit now because there are so many...

మూలం : మికేలి మరి ‘ఇటాలియన్’ లో రాసి, బ్రైన్ రాబర్ట్ మూర్ ఇంగ్లీష్ లోకి అనువదించిన ‘The Black Arrow’
‘ఆ మధ్యాహ్నం, వసంత కాలపు ఆఖరిరోజుల్లో, ఒక అరుదైన సమయాన దుర్గపు బురుజు నుంచి ఘంటారావం మొదలైంది.’  
‘ఒక మధ్యాహ్నం, వసంతకాలం ఇంక ముగిసిపోతోందనగా, ఆ అసాధారణ సమయాన కోట బురుజు నుంచి ఘంటానాదం విన్పించింది.’

మా అమ్మమ్మ వాళ్ళింట్లోని లైబ్రరీలో, ఏ పుస్తకం చేతిలోకి తీసుకోవాలా అని ఆలోచిస్తూ ఒక రోజంతా అలా అలమరల ఎదురుగా నిలుచుండిపోయాను. ప్రతి వేసవి సెలవుల్లో నేను చదివే బుట్టెడు పాత బొమ్మల పుస్తకాలు గత నెలరోజుల్లో చదివేసాను. నేను ఏదో ఒక పుస్తకం చదవడం మొదలుపెట్టాలనే పట్టుదలతో ఆ రోజు నిద్ర లేచాను. నాకు ఊహ తెల్సినప్పటినించీ వెంటాడుతున్న పుస్తకాల పేర్లన్నీ వరుసగా చదువుకుంటూ వెడుతున్నాను – Littleman, what Now? , What Do you think of America?, And How Green was My valley, విచిత్రమైన పేర్లు… కొన్ని జడిపించి అయోమయానికి గురిచేసినవైతే… కొన్ని విపరీతంగా ఆకర్షించినవి. పేర్ల తర్వాత పేర్లు ; ఏది చేతిలోకి తీసుకోవాలో తెలీక బుర్ర గిర్రున తిరిగేస్తోంది. నా జీవితమంతా చదవబోయే పుస్తకం మీద ఆధారపడినట్టు అక్కడే ఊగిసలాడాను. చివరికి నేనాగిపోయింది అలసట వల్లే తప్ప ఒక స్థిరమైన నిర్ణయానికొచ్చికాదు. ఆఖరికి నా సమస్య మూడు పుస్తకాలకే  పరిమితం కావడానికి వాటి పేర్లు కూడా కారణం అయ్యుండొచ్చు. ఎక్కడో మూలన ఉన్నాయి – కాన్రాడ్ రాసిన ‘Arrow of Gold’, రాబర్ట్ లూయీ స్టీవెన్ సన్ రాసిన ‘ The Black Arrow’ కూపర్ రాసిన ‘White Arrow and Other Stories’. వాటి రచయితల గురించి నాకేమీ తెలీదు కానీ నేనైతే పూర్తిగా ఆ రంగుల మాయాజాలంలో పడిపోయాను. – అప్పటికే చాలా సార్లు చదివిన ‘వైట్ ఫాంగ్’ , ‘బ్లాక్ కోర్సయిర్’ లతో అల్లుకుపోయిన నా తీపి జ్ఞాపకాలు ‘యారో అఫ్ గోల్డ్’ ను ముందుగా వెనక్కి తోసాయి. చివరికి ఏదో దుష్టశక్తి నన్నావహి

The guest for this Episode is Peter Bush. Born in Lincolnshire, UK, He has translated works from Catalan, French, Spanish and Portuguese to English. He spoke about his Translations in Catalan, Prominent authors in Catalan, Translation as an academic Discipline, and his Experience at the British Center for Literary Translation (BCLT).
Bush has been active not only as a translator but also in developing literary translation as an academic discipline by working in the academic world, serving in key literary translation organisations, serving on the editorial boards of literary translation publications, and organising international events and projects.
He was Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) at the University of East Anglia and Professor of Literary Translation at the School of English and American Studies. Bush has held key positions in important literary translation organisations: Literary Translation Committee, International Translators Federation  American Literary Translators Association and Committee for Literary Translation in Higher Education.
To Know more about Peter Bush - https://www.peterbushliterarytranslator.com/biography
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***Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Interviewees in interviews conducted by Harshaneeyam Podcast are those of the Interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Harshaneeyam Podcast. Any content provided by Interviewees is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.


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In this episode, Senior translator Alex Zucker spoke about his work, Translation contracts and the Czech Author Jachym Topol.
Alex Zucker has translated novels by the Czech authors Magdaléna Platzová, Jáchym Topol, Bianca Bellová, Petra Hůlová, J. R. Pick, Tomáš Zmeškal, Josef Jedlička, Heda Margolius Kovály, Patrik Ouředník, and Miloslava Holubová. He has also Englished stories, plays, subtitles, young adult and children’s books, song lyrics, reportages, essays, poems, philosophy, art history, and an opera.
Apart from translating, he organises, on a volunteer basis, with the National Writers Union and the New York City chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice).
Conversation: 
Harshaneeyam: Welcome, Alex, to Harshaneeyam.
Alex Zucker: Hi, Anil. I am so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. 
Harshaneeyam: Before we move on to your literary journey, translations and all, I follow you on Twitter, and I see that you are very vocal about the current situation in Gaza. I also read that you worked for a human rights organisation earlier.
Alex Zucker: Yes, of course. For about five years, I was the communications officer for a genocide prevention organisation called the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, AIPR. Now, as a communications officer, I was always a little bit disturbed at our name, because actually we had nothing to do with peace and reconciliation. We were working in genocide prevention. But they’ve since changed their name, by the way. But [that was] after I left. This was a small organisation, about five staff people based in New York City, doing education and training for mid-level government officers in genocide prevention. The idea of the organisation was that, all too often in history, there are government leaders whose countries are engaging in atrocities that are not quite maybe yet at genocide, or [actually] genocide, and of course there can be resistance from outside the government, [but] unless the government decides to stop it, it’s not going to stop. So the idea of [AIPR] was if they could get to these mid-level government officials, those people would rise up [through the ranks] and become the leaders of their country, and they would be people committed to preventing genocide. I want to say also that by prevention, what we meant was not military intervention. That’s stopping, maybe, a genocide in progress, but preventing meaning that it never happens in the first place. Also, keeping in mind that genocide, as people have been pointing out in relation to the situation in Gaza, but as in any genocide, it doesn’t necessarily involve killing, right? It can be preventing births within a group, any kind of creation of conditions that make it impossible for a group to survive. The key is that the intention is to destroy the group as such. So it has to be focused on a group of people, not just individuals. Having worked in that organisation for five years, I read a lot about genocide historically. I also was following very closely many genocides that were happening in the world at that time. For instance, in Myanmar, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is happening again now, in Sudan, that was happening the first time back then. I think the reason that I feel compelled to speak up about Gaza is because the genocide is being perpetrated by a state, Israel, that gets a huge amount of support from the government that I pay taxes to. To me, that’s a very straightforward moral and ethical equation. 95 per cent of the aid that the U.S. sends to Israel is military, right? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now the second time, two years ago, and probably committing genocide there as well, but none of my money goes to Russia, so I don’t feel responsible [for that]. I mean, it’s not that I don’t care about what’s happening to Ukrainians, but as a human...

The Guest for Today's Episode is Tiffany Tsao.
Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator. She is the author of the novel The Majesties  and the Oddfits fantasy trilogy (so far, The Oddfits and The More Known World.)
She has translated five books from Indonesian into English. For her translation of Budi Darma’s People from Bloomington, she was awarded the 2023 PEN Translation Prize and the 2023 NSW Premier’s Translation Prize. Her translation of Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s 'Happy Stories, Mostly' was awarded the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses and longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
Born in the United States and of Chinese-Indonesian descent, her family returned to Southeast Asia when she was 3. She spent her formative years in Singapore and Indonesia before moving to the US to study at a university. She has a B.A. in English literature from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in English literature from UC Berkeley. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
You can buy her work using the links in the Show Notes.
You can follow Harshaneeyam Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcast apps.
To buy 'Happy Stories Mostly' -
https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/happy
To buy 'People from Bloomington' -
https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/blooming
To Buy 'The Majesties' -
https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/majesties
* For your Valuable feedback on this Episode - Please click the link given below.
https://tinyurl.com/4zbdhrwr
Harshaneeyam on Spotify App –https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/onspot
Harshaneeyam on Apple App – https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/onapple
*Contact us - harshaneeyam@gmail.com
***Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Interviewees in interviews conducted by Harshaneeyam Podcast are those of the Interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Harshaneeyam Podcast. Any content provided by Interviewees is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.


This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

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Today’s guest is Aananth Daksnamurthy. He is speaking about his passion for reading and publishing and his upcoming trip to India and Srilaka to look for literature for publication as a part of the SALT initiative.  Aananth Daksnamurthy is a Fulbright scholar graduating with a master's in publishing from New York University. His first book, Acquisition, a Swedish novel titled The Details, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024. Ananth is also part of the SALT contingent, visiting India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh this year and scouting literature for publication in the USA and UK.
SALT—‘South Asian Languages in Translation’ is an initiative by the University of Chicago to bring South Asian literature in English Translation to the Anglophone world. Translators Daniel Hahn, Jason Grunebaum, Arunava Sinha, Daisy Rockwell, and Author VV Ganeshanandan are part of the team leading SALT.
SALT Travel Grant
About the SALT Project
Harshaneeyam: Welcome to Harshaneeyam Aananth.
Aananth Daksnamurthy: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. 
H: How did you develop an interest in literature? 
A: I was born and raised in a small town, Trichy, in Tamil Nadu. From childhood, I started reading pretty early. With all the supplements, usually, the newspaper supplements that come, these are Siruvar Malar, Siruvar Mani, the kid supplementary books I started reading, and mostly newspapers. That's how my literary journey started. I was not a very avid reader initially. I only engaged with news and media in general, but I followed the traditional route of higher education and went on to do engineering. I'm a mechanical engineer with a bachelor's degree and went on to do a postgrad diploma in liberal arts at Ashoka University as a young India fellow. This was partly due to some elective courses I took during my final semester, and I needed to explore more humanities. It gave me a lot of exposure, and two courses stood out.
I took one critical writing course, and I began to write. I became a very effective communicator both in writing and in oral communication. Then, I took another course, Culture and Communication, which was a sociology course. This course gave me a lens on caste, religion, sexuality, and gender. These two courses moulded me into a very different person from who I was initially. Then, I went on to work with ‘The Print’. YIF also gave me a thirst for reading, and I've just started reading a lot of nonfiction. That was a phase when I was reading a lot of nonfiction coming out of Ashoka, more public policy, economics, or history-related nonfiction. I used to go to Delhi Tamil Sangam's library and pick some of these Tamil books there. I initially started with Prabhanjan's short stories, a collection of short stories by the Tamil writer Prabhanjan. I've explored many authors, many genres within Tamil, and contemporary Tamil writing.
And yeah, I've read Jeyamohan. He's a great writer. I love his work. Nooru Naarkaaligal is one of my favourite works from Aram. I've heard so much of S Ra. S Ramakrishnan is another Tamil writer and Sahitya Akademi Award winner. In those days, his videos were podcasts. So, the YouTube videos were an hour or two long. He introduced, at least to this generation, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Pushkin. So, a huge introduction to Russian literature came through S. Ramakrishnan. And that's when I remember I started reading much more fiction. Again, short stories were my favourite format. It's also easy to finish short stories and move on to another story, But translated fiction was very recent. I've...