Anne Carson, 2021 PEN American Literary Awards Ceremony www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfxhjhFD6o
And what is the difference between the moment before having an idea and the moment after? Truly not a moment, just a crack, just a shaving but it can change the moment, change the day, change your whole life.
Anne Carson, 2021 PEN American Literary Awards Ceremony www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfxhjhFD6o The question isn't really, where do your ideas come from? It's how do you know there's a where there? How do you know that here has an edge? That here isn't all there is. That here sort of arches away from you to a different place where your head spins off.
Anne Carson, 2021 PEN American Literary Awards Ceremony www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfxhjhFD6o It is urgent during these times to recognize how much American culture is enriched by those who write from beyond our linguistic and geographical borders. When we translate, it is not our own written choice that confronts us, but the choice of another writer. And we as translators must search consciously for the right words with which to convey another's truth.
Lydia Davis, 2021 PEN American Literary Awards Ceremony www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfxhjhFD6o Finally, fifty years of translating and writing have taught me that there is no absolutely "original" text. That all is translation, because language itself is always a translation.
Pierre Joris, 2021 PEN American Literary Awards Ceremony www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfxhjhFD6o Pursue the authentic—decide first
what is authentic, then go after it with all your heart. Your heart, that place you don't even think of cleaning out. That closet stuffed with savage mementos. Excerpt from "Advice to Myself," Louise Erdrich, in When The Light Of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, ed. Joy Harjo with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Contibuting Editors |
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