Lauren Ray

This is a bi-weekly summary of translation and language justice news and events. What are you reading this week? Feel free to comment & share!

• This may be the best thing I have read all week. Pierre Joris answers the question, why do I translate?, for ArabLit. I love the nooks and crannies of this; it makes me reach inside to consider why I translate. Sometimes my need for world-building, exploration, and my rolling-stone ways (as my significant other likes to put it) get lost (smothered?) in the daily grind of translation-as-capitalist-work. Joris’ thoughts were a reminder that the grind isn’t, shouldn’t be, can’t be the end all, be all.
• The Linguistic Map is not the Linguistic Territory (an episode of the Lingthusiasm podcast) is a deep dive into the complexities of mapping languages and the many gradients that exist (or sometimes don’t) among neighboring languages. I especially love the analogy between mapping languages and mapping the universe.
• Check out episode 90 of the Translation Confidential podcast if you’re interested in a nuanced conversation about how machine translation can be useful, or not, depending on your needs, tools, language pairs, and context.
• I’m a fan of a good to-do list (or two lists, or three…), so I’m always on the lookout for concrete tips and tricks for organizing lists so that they are specific, realistic, and actionable. How to stop ‘flipping’ (and write a good to-do list) provides exactly that, so give it a read and tame that mountain of to-do lists on your desk or device!