The Man Between
Description
When Michael Henry Heim-one of the most respected translators of his generation-passed away in the fall of 2012, he left behind an astounding legacy. Over his career, he translated over sixty works from more than eight different languages, including books by Milan Kundera, Dubravka Ugresic, Hugo Claus, and Anton Chekov.
But Mike, as he was known to his legion of friends, was much more than that. His classes at UCLA on translation inspired a new generation of translators, and his work altering the way translation is viewed in the university will impact the livelihood of translators for decades to come.
If that weren't enough, upon his death it was revealed that Heim was the anonymous donor responsible for the PEN Translation Fund-the largest fund in America supporting up-and-coming translators.
Hundreds of people in the literary community were impacted by Heim's life and actions, and this book is a small way of honoring this quiet, humble man who, among many other things, is responsible for the title The Unbearable Lightness of Being (and all its variants) entering the English idiom.
Comprising a number of different sections-a short autobiography, pieces from authors he worked with, essays detailing his impact on literary culture-The Man Between opens a window onto the life and teachings of Michael Henry Heim, and, similar to David Bellos's Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, will be of great interest to anyone interested in language, international culture, and the art of translation.
Esther Allen translates from Spanish and French and has worked to promote a culture of translation in the English-speaking world, most notably by directing the PEN Translation Fund from 2003 to 2010 and helping launch the PEN World Voices Festival.
Sean Cotter teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and translates Romanian poetry and fiction, including Nichita Stanescu's Wheel with a Single Spoke for which he received the 2013 Best Translated Book Award.
Russell Scott Valentino is the current president of the American Literary Translators Association. He is also a professor at Indiana University, a translator, and the founder of Autumn Hill Books. He previously ran the Iowa Review.
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Persons
Esther Allen translates from Spanish and French and has worked to promote a culture of translation in the English-speaking world, most notably by directing the PEN Translation Fund from 2003 to 2010 and helping launch the PEN World Voices Festival.
Sean Cotter teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and translates Romanian poetry and fiction, including Nichita Stanescu's Wheel with a Single Spoke for which he received the 2013 Best Translated Book Award.
Russell Scott Valentino is the current president of the American Literary Translators Association. He is also a professor at Indiana University, a translator, and the founder of Autumn Hill Books. He previously ran the Iowa Review.
Content
Part I: The Life:
Excerpt (about 21,000 words) from Michael Henry Heim's interview/autobiography, Un Babel fericit (Iasi, Romania: Editura Polirom, 1999). Translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter.
The autobiographical pages cover many topics, including his family history, early interests in photography and piano, his first trips to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, his language study, and his meetings with famous authors. He was in Prague for the 1968 Soviet invasion, interpreting between Czechs and the Soviet soldiers -this section is the most dramatic. In addition to describing some of his work on particular authors, he also comments on his approach to literary translation, teaching translation, publishing translations in the United States, the lack of professional status for American translators, and translating women writers.
Part II: Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Excerpts from the correspondence between Heim and Milan Kundera regarding the English translation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (Correspondence held in the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana. To be translated from the Czech.)
Andrei Codrescu: two essays and a poem
Dubravka Ugresic on Heim, translated from the Serbo-Croatian.
Breon Mitchell's memorial lecture at UCLA
A close reading of Heim's translations of Hrabal and Kundera
Part III: In the University
Rosanna Warren's reminiscence
Alex Zucker
Maureen Freely on Heim's translation teaching techniques
Part IV: The Activist
Andrzej W. Tymowski on the Social Science Translation Project
Esther Allen on the PEN Translation Fund
Catherine Porter on Heim and the Modern Language Association
Part V: The Teacher
Russell Valentino on Heim in the classroom.
A brief anthology of techniques Heim uses to teach translation. Heim is renowned for innovative techniques such as giving his students a paragraph of a French translation of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, without telling them what it is. He then asks them to imagine the characters and scene depicted in it, and translate the paragraph into English. Once each student has produced their own English version, Heim produces the original English paragraph from Babbitt.
