I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to suddenly be seeing Eduardo Galeano’s name all over the place, after so many years of a stray mention here and there. He is a genius, a wonder, and his work alive with that. Now comes the best yet — Birnbaum v. Galeano:
RB: That’s very tricky. You want the person that you are working with who is translating to be your mirror, but the text is not of their creation.
EG: No, it’s a perfect synthesis of life, life is this, we are always looking at others as possible mirrors and we feel betrayed when it doesn’t work.
They’re speaking of Galeano’s first translator, Cedric Belfrage, who died while translating The Book of Embraces (on many days, my favorite book in existence). I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship implied by the dedications and notes on that book, and this interview deals with how they worked together more directly than any other I’ve seen. Joy.
Now I’ll stop making playlists for the car and go to sleep.