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Quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely

“I can't quite see the point of poems like "Wittgenstein Goes for a Walk with A Hawk in Sherwood Forest." I know they're trying to be clever, but they're not.”

Quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely

Author

Andre Naffis-Sahely

Andre Naffis-Sahely is a British poet born in 1985. His works blend various cultural elements and explore themes such as identity, memory, and travel. more

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“Poetry either pulses with real life or it's just an aborted simulacra. There's no middle ground.”

Real Middle Real Life Pulse Middle Ground

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“Translators who choose to work on canonized writers can usually lean on an extensive critical apparatus around either the author or the book in question, especially in the case of writers like [Honore] Balzac and [Emil] Zola.”

Book Cases Critical Translators Balzac Zola

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“Dealing with politically-engaged writers of color like Abdellatif Laâbi and Rashid Boudjedra - who ran away from school aged sixteen to fight against the French in the Algerian war - first requires convincing an editor to take a chance on them, which very few like to do these days.”

Firsts War School Fighting Chance Color These Days Ran Engaged Editors Convincing Take A Chance Sixteen

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“I can still boss people around. I can still write. I can still read. I can still eat, and I can still have very strong views.”

People Writing Stills I Can Strong Views Boss Very Strong

Author:Tony Judt

“Generally risk-averse, specialist translation imprints have also hollowed out a fairly comfortable niche for themselves: they get ninety percent of the profits for ten percent of the work, often largely funding their operations - and their salaries - through grants that they don't even apply for. If it wasn't for publicly-funded arts bodies and organizations such as PEN, I wouldn't have been able to work on either [Abdellatif] Laâbi or [ Rashid ] Boudjedra.”

Ifs Has Beens Art Body Able Risk Ten Comfortable Percent Organization Profit Operations Grants Pens Ninety Translations Salary Funding Niche Specialists

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“Everyone wants to be open and inclusive, but nobody wants to pay for it. It's the biggest roadblock to translating living writers, especially poets.”

Want Pay Poet Translate Roadblock

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“I'm of the opinion that poetry is always political, and cannot help but be so, regardless of the poet's intent, given that refusing to deal in politics is in itself a political act.”

Helping Political Given Deals Opinion Poet Poetry Is

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“When it comes to the challenges of the actual process, I soldier on as best I can, on my own.”

I Can Process Challenges My Own Soldier

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“I've heard of translators collaborating closely with their authors, sometimes even living with them for a while, but that's not me.”

Sometimes Heard Translators Collaborating

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely

“Some of my colleagues are surprised by how little personal interaction I've had with "my" authors, but I don't translate to go fishing for friends. Part of me suspects that they wouldn't like me, or that I wouldn't like them, which would inevitably get in the way of the mission. None of the theory built around translation matters to me anyway: much of the process, I find, is intuitive.”

Way Littles Matter Process Theory Built Missions Like Me Fishing Suspects Interaction Translate Colleagues Intuitive Translations

Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely