The phrase “Politics of Translation” is quite a trope – it is sometimes used pretty badly as an excuse for doing the hard work of learning languages. Of course, there’s not enough time or energy in the day to study every language that one might want to read in. However, this trope should be recovered and moved toward the idea that when one is reading a translation one is reading an interpretation at the same time.

Backing up this idea is a brilliant book review of a recent edition of Chinese poetry that has been published.

I love this book review. It’s just so wonderful how the reviewer takes us through the impossibility of knowing the meaning of these poems-in-translation, yet at the same time how they have an essential meaning that we must strive to understand.

And with that out of the way, my wife is telling me it’s time to go to the mall so she can get her mobile phone repaired.