The success of a translator may seem to lie in going unnoticed: the translator ducks out of the spotlight so that the original author may shine.
Mark Polizzotti challenges that idea in a provocative treatise on his craft,
Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (MIT Press, 2018).
“A good translation, created by a thoughtful and talented translator," Polizzotti writes, "aims not to betray the original but to honor it by offering something of equal--possibly even greater--beauty in its name.
Polizzotti has translated over 50 books and authored or co-authored four of his own. He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.