Translating the World Undone: An Interview with Translator Nicholas Glastonbury
Anton Hur, left, and Nicholas Glastonbury
Last month, literary translator Nicholas Glastonbury, who translates from Turkish and Kurdish, posted a Twitter thread about the failings of the publishing industry when it comes to translated literature. I recently interviewed Nicholas to discuss these failings, especially when it comes to non-Western languages, and how we can better navigate this flawed system.
Anton Hur (AH): Your recent thread on the frustrations of the submission process for literature in translation obviously struck a chord with many translators, and the fact that you re an award-winning translator who already has an important and successful book published made us feel, I don t know how to put this, a little extra despairing, judging from the reactions of my colleagues.
From Walkout to Wipe Out
Turkey s prime minister Erdogan walked out of the World Economic Forum in Davos in an argument over the Israeli military operation in Gaza – and received a hero s welcome back home. A cheap triumph that could cost him and his country dearly, writes Kai Strittmatter
Gesture of defiance: an angry Erdogan broke off a podium discussion with Peres in Davos on the recent Israeli military campaign in Gaza
Two men summoned up a respectful tone for each other, although they don t usually get on. A bridge was built across the rifts of a longstanding hostility. With sobriety and pragmatism, they worked towards solving a decades-old and highly emotional conflict.
Documenting Diversity
A recent conference brought together music experts from all five continents in the Moroccan town of Assilah. The event defined itself as an initiative to take stock of the diverse musical forms in all the countries of Islamic culture. Manfred Ewel reports
The responsibility of cultural policy for music education is of essential importance for musical development, but this issue was not discussed at the conference
The first conference on Arab music was held in Cairo in 1932, attended by music experts and musicians from Europe and the most important Arab countries.
Due to the fundamental changes that the world and the Islamic-influenced countries have been through since then, the subject area was broadened this time around to cover the entire Islamic world and phenomena such as music and the mass media, global trends in music consumption and the influence of state cultural policy.
Cruel Logic of Exploitation
The documentary Iron Eaters presents the tough reality of the ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh. Sonja Ernst had a look at Shaheen Dill-Riaz s award-winning film
When work is an ordeal, stoicism is the only answer: a ship-breaking industry peon in a scene from Shaheen Dill-Riaz s Iron Eaters
The leviathans of the seas rise majestically from the sand of a beach in the south of Bangladesh. Old oil tankers and container ships await their slaughter – the unwanted waste of the First World . In the cutaway wrecks echo the deafening sound of hammers and the calls of the welders far across the sand. Bit by bit, the old ships are broken up.