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Greening
It is the most beautiful of spring days, Friday the 13th, a good fortune day–why not? The view from my study window is green. Maple green, rhododendron green, cedar green. Most of them two-tone this time of year, old growth against new. I’ve been reading about neuroscience and gratitude and Greece; I’ve been writing stories…
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Navigational Accents (Last day in Buenos Aires)
I saw exactly one woman cab driver in Buenos Aires, the morning of our last day (a day reserved for an art museum and a nice lunch, before an overnight flight). I had planned to walk a bit further before flagging a cab–save a few pesos, get some exercise in anticipation of hours and hours…
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Summer Reading (I)
Not stacked in order. But summer’s just started, so I’ve just started reading. First Tumba de jaguares. This is my next translation, so this is a re-read. Here are the first two sentences: “Soñé que estaba en el cielo. No en El Cielo paraíso de almas bienaventuradas sino en el cielo, ese ¿élitro? azul celeste que oficialmente nos cubre, tanto para religiones…
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¿Cortadito o capuchino? I chose the wine
San Juan dispatch #1 In Puerto Rico for LASA 2015, talking and thinking about rewriting, adaptation, translation, performance, the borders (where are they?) between fiction and the real, on or off stage. Conversations enhanced (or reality stressed, or undermined) by the palm trees in the background, the ocean breeze, the ruined fort incongruously attched to…
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Translation Notes with Necessary Fiction
Regular readers of this (irregular) blog know I spend a good deal of my time thinking and writing and reading about translation. Today the web journal Necessary Fiction featured my contribution to their “Translation Notes” series, “Empurpled and Bedamasked: Reading through Trafalgar.” I’ve been enjoying the series since it began– very pleased to be in…
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Fictional Falls
Stories happen, or they’re found, or they’re built. Harvested, gathered, collected, constructed. Sometimes there’s an alchemy of memory and conversation. I wrote about waterfall words–in English and Spanish–in one of my earlier blog post, Iguazú Words. I was preparing for a trip to Argentina, thinking like a tourist (what are my must-sees?) and a…
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Reading Trafalgar (Small Beer Press Podcast 17)
Readers of this blog know I love reading aloud. So I jumped at the chance to read for Small Beer Press‘s podcast series. More than jumped–I asked for the chance. One of those self-invitations. Then I hesitated at the suggested story. Yes, the story’s in English now, but some of the words are still hard.…
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Wine and Word Celebration at Winter’s Hill Feb. 16
Counting down. . . Tomorrow is the the third annual Wine and Word Celebration at Winter’s Hill Vineyard. The tasting room is open 11-5; we’ll have readings and word tastings on the hour, starting at noon. Pinot noir and Pinot gris from Winter’s Hill, paired with poetry, science fiction, baseball, watershed restoration, dramatic monologue, translation, more wine.…
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Dances with Corn
Language learners, asked point blank what a word means–or worse, challenged, even gently, on a definition–will exhibit a reflexive twitch of doubt. Maybe it doesn’t mean what I think it does. Plenty of words have regionally specific connotations. Plenty of definitions become mangled beyond recognition. My daughter and her friend share a recorder lesson. One…