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My plan for this short interview���Ĵ�ý�along with the ones I have scheduled for the rest of the month���Ĵ�ý�was to write about����by Scholastique Mukasonga and����by Marie NDiaye earlier in the week (along with a few other French books) as a way of providing a context for this interview.

I did end up writing something about the books, although it started with a lot of vitriol toward the Rochester Police Department, and included some things about myself that I don’t necessarily feel comfortable sharing in this space. I’m thinking that I’ll fix all the typos and post it on , which I rarely, ever use (but probably should?).

Anyway, if you’re a fan of these two books���Ĵ�ý�or of Jordan Stump’s work as a whole���Ĵ�ý�I think you’ll like this interview. And hopefully this week things will settle down enough to get back to posting more regularly again.

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How did you come to Igifu��and/or��That Time of Year?

I���Ĵ�ý�ve been delightedly reading and teaching NDiaye���Ĵ�ý�s books since the early nineties; it took me a while to begin translating her (in part because my early attempts were so unworthy of her beautiful writing that I simply gave up). I ended up translating several of her later books, but my mind kept going back to her earlier work, which is undertranslated and vastly underrated in this country; I thought particularly of That Time of Year, which I read when it first came out, way back in 1994 or thereabouts. I was utterly thrilled when Two Lines agreed to let me bring it, at last, to the American reader.

Why should people read these books?

Because they���Ĵ�ý�re beautiful, in two very different ways (���Ĵ�ý�beauty���Ĵ�ý� being defined rather broadly here). There are of course many other reasons, but for me that���Ĵ�ý�s always the only one that really matters.

What did you learn in the process of translating these books? (Or, how did you grow as a translator by working on them?)

Not so much a matter of learning as of confirmation, I guess: the glorious power of endless revision. Both Igifu and That Time of Year eluded me a bit in my first drafts; in both cases, once again, I saw that the way through obstacles in translation is long, drawn-out, constant rethinking and reconsideration. The more I translate, the more I���Ĵ�ý�m amazed at what a translation can do as long as it���Ĵ�ý�s given enough time and enough thought to develop.

What specific elements of style/structure/voice were the most challenging/rewarding about these projects?

In both cases, I think the challenge is not running roughshod over the delicate balance of the text. Both NDiaye and Mukasonga have understated voices, though they���Ĵ�ý�re not understated in the same way���Ĵ�ý�the kind of voices that can be disfigured by an overly ���Ĵ�ý�poetic���Ĵ�ý� translation, but that can easily turn flat if they���Ĵ�ý�re rendered too plainly. Letting the voice come through as itself, not as something I can turn it into: that���Ĵ�ý�s always the challenge of translation, and with writers whose voices I particularly love it���Ĵ�ý�s particularly urgent to get it right.

If someone loved Igifu/That Time of Year, what would you��recommend they read next?

I don���Ĵ�ý�t mean this to be a facile answer: these are both writers whose work grows richer the more you read of it���Ĵ�ý�so read more NDiaye and more Mukasonga!