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Episode details

Radio 4,03 Apr 2013,15 mins

Series Series 4

Ranjini Obeyesekere: Lost in Translation?

Four Thought

Available for over a year

William Dalrymple introduces Ranjini Obeyesekere in Four Thought at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Obeyesekere - the Sri Lankan writer, translator and academic - argues that "translations are often considered a second-class activity, done by hacks" but that, however imperfect the result, making a work written in one language available in another, is a profoundly important art. But there are difficult questions. Is a bad translation better than no translation? Is true translation, in fact, the art of the impossible?

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