On Translation

E. Novickas

Novelties

Coming across new vocabulary is one of the great pleasures of translating, and I can’t help but share my delight in coming across the...

E. Novickas

“Substantivum commune” – the uncommon common noun in Lithuanian

Let me explain. These are nouns that are common in the sense that they are both masculine and feminine. (Ahem—some may actually remember...

E. Novickas

Inspirations

I have often been tantalizingly informed that the characters in Ričardas Gavelis’s fiction are recognizably based on real people in...

E. Novickas

My, oh my

I’m afraid recent events are, as usual, intruding upon the subject of translation, or is it the other way around? But how could you...

Life and translating

My friend Giedrius Subačius asked me a question I ponder often: which books or writers I’ve translated were the most difficult? The glib...

Old Oak and its ilk

Well, a major read of Tūla is coming to a close, and I must admit, I feel rather sorry; it’s been so much fun. An aspect of Kunčinas’s...

E. Novickas

Ploughing the brain

Jurgis Kunčinas twice uses the appellation, in Lithuanian, gatvių artojai, "plowmen of the streets" in the novel Tūla. The plowing refers...

Ah, typos...

Once again, the twenty-tome Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language has come to my rescue, this time cheering me with one of its examples...

E. Novickas

Sidetracks

Sidetracks are a professional hazard for a translator; after all, you need to know every last bit of it, don't you? Translating Jurgis...