Marco Sonzogni interviews Peter Constantine

Abstract

"In my view, a translation is the closest possible reading of a text: I think that regardless of how often you read a literary work, or how deeply you study it, you will never be able to experience it as intimately as you will if you set out to translate it. The translator has to weigh every word and every punctuation mark, has to look between the lines for the author’s overt and not so overt intentions. This is a particularly fascinating process when you translate writers who are great literary stylists, such as Chekhov, Machiavelli, or Augustine. Reading between their lines is what interests me the most; that, and trying to recreate their timing and cadences in my English version."