The Art of Translation with Jim Dingley

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is the well-known compiler of the “Bibliotheca Forensica” and author (under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish versions of Schiller’s “Wallenstein” and Rabelais’s “Gargantua”. A resident of Harlem, New York since 1839. A fictional character in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, and a very real patron saint of “Przekrój”’s translators’ questionnaire.

In the Valdemar Questionnaire, we give voice to translators who reflect on their work and role as intermediaries between languages and cultures. In this instalment of our series, Valdemar takes on Jim Dingley, a translator of Belarusian and author of the featured translation of the essay “Winter Camp” from the collection A Large Czesław Miłosz With a Dash of Elvis Presley by Tania Skarynkina.

You can read Jim’s translation of the excerpt from Tania Skarynkina’s “A Large Czesław Miłosz With a Dash of Elvis Presley” here.

How and why did you become a translator of Belarusian literature?

In 2013, I was asked if I knew someone who would undertake to translate a novel by the writer Natalka Babina, so I offered myself. I should add that I have been involved with Belarus academically since 1965, when I was working in the Library of the British Museum (now the British Library). It was there that I first met

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Ernest Valdemar:

is the well-known compiler of the “Bibliotheca Forensica” and author (under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish versions of Schiller’s “Wallenstein” and Rabelais’s “Gargantua”. A resident of Harlem, New York since 1839. A fictional character in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, and a very real patron saint of “Przekrój”’s translators’ questionnaire.

Publish date: 04.03.2020

Also read:

Ernest Valdemar:

is the well-known compiler of the “Bibliotheca Forensica” and author (under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish versions of Schiller’s “Wallenstein” and Rabelais’s “Gargantua”. A resident of Harlem, New York since 1839. A fictional character in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, and a very real patron saint of “Przekrój”’s translators’ questionnaire.

In the Valdemar Questionnaire, we give voice to translators who reflect on their work and role as intermediaries between languages and cultures. In this instalment of our series, Valdemar takes on Jennifer Croft, author of the featured translation taken from the novel Accommodations by Wioletta Greg.

You can read Jennifer’s translation of the excerpt from Wioletta Greg’s “Accomodations” here.

The Art of Translation with Jim Dingley

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The Art of Translation with Jennifer Croft

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