In translation you have to get it right, you have to be precise in what you're doing. You … - Elliott Colla

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I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.

Elliott Colla

In translation you have to get it right, you have to be precise in what you're doing. You have to attempt what they did in that language - say, in Arabic - and try to accomplish a version of that in English, and you're constantly serving two masters.

Arabic, Doing You, Language, Trying, Two, Version

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English is a forgiving language. It's not like Classical Arabic and it's not like French. You can speak broken English and be expressive and no one will hold it against you.

Against, Broken, Expressive, Forgiving, Language, Speak

Academic writing you have to get right. Fiction you have to get plausible. And there's a world of difference.

Difference, Differences, Fiction, Right, World, Writing

In translation studies we talk about domestication - translation styles that make something familiar - or estrangement - translation styles that make something radically different. I use a lot of both in my translation, and modernism does both. For instance, if you look at the way James Joyce presents Ulysses, is that domesticating a classic? Think of it as an experiment in relation to a well-known text in another language.

Classic, Different, Style, Think, Thinking, Way

There were illegal poets like Muzaffar al-Nawab, this is the thing - Muzaffar was widely known and he didn't really have books. He would deliver these readings on cassette tape. Go on YouTube and listen to him. He's like a preacher. He's a really interesting figure in modern Iraqi life.

Book, Interesting, Known, Preacher, Reading, Youtube

The truly astounding thing is the Baathist regime supports poetry like nobody else, probably in the world.

Astounding, Probably, Support, Supports, Thing, World