“My process of translating is ridiculously slow…”

Una conversazione con Elizabeth Harris, traduttrice di Questo è il giardino (This is the Garden).

[…] Aaron Westerman: How did you first hear about This is the Garden and what ultimately made you want to become involved with translating it?
Eliabeth Harris: I heard of this collection from Mozzi himself. I was asked to translate a Mozzi story from a different collection, Una vita felice (A Happy Life), from La Felicità Terrena (Earthly Happiness); this translation was for Minna Proctor who was guest-editing a contemporary Italian fiction issue of The Literary Review (Minna is now the editor-in-chief of TLR). I loved this story: I loved its spare style and I loved the complicated, troubled narrator. While I was translating it, I had a few questions, so I contacted Mozzi, who has a literary blog in Italy and so is very accessible. When I’d finished translating this piece for TLR, I asked Mozzi if I might translate the entire collection, La Felicità Terrena. Mozzi asked me to translate Questo è il giardino instead, which he felt was his best work. I was quite happy to translate this book, but I do hope I get the opportunity to translate other collections of his as well; I love his writing. […]

Leggi tutta la conversazione in Tipographical Era.

Tag: Elizabeth Harris, Minna Proctor