Sébastien Doubinsky on self-translating

Sébastien Doubinsky, born in France but living in Denmark, speaks about his experience of self-translating his novels in an interview with the arts and literary journal The Missing Slate:

I have translated myself—and others—many times and know well that perfect translation doesn’t exist. It can be seen as a tragedy, a communication failure, but actually I consider this a chance—a chance of freedom, of the irreconcilable space between cultures—and the mutual respect it implies. So if you read closely and compare the two versions of the same novel I’ve written, I think you might be shocked by the liberties I am taking with the original text! But that is because the second one becomes a new original, if you want, another text altogether. (The Missing Slate 2015)

To read the complete interview please click here.