from the New Yorker
November 28, 2011
This Week in Fiction: Chris Andrews on César Aira
Posted by Willing Davidson
The story that appears in the magazine this week, César Aira’s “The Musical Brain,” was translated into English by Chris Andrews. Here, Andrews discusses the story and the work of translating literature with fiction editor Willing Davidson.
You’re well-known for your translations of Roberto Bolaño’s work, some of which we’ve published in The New Yorker. In those translations, you don’t have the luxury of consulting with the author, since Bolaño died in 2003. You translated this week’s story, by César Aira, and have translated quite a bit of his work. Does it make it easier that the author is alive, or is there a certain trepidation, since he’ll be able to inspect your efforts?
It’s very helpful and interesting to be able to ask the author questions, although it’s sometimes hard to know just how many to ask. There was some trepidation initially, because as well as being an omnivorous reader of literature in English, César Aira worked for many years as a professional literary translator (from English among other languages). He has translated a lot of commercial fiction, but also Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” and “Love’s Labours Lost,” Potocki’s “Manuscript Found at Saragossa” and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” J. R. Ackerley’s “Hindoo Holiday” and Daisy Ashford’s “The Young Visiters” … As it turns out, however, he is both generous in answering questions and not a control frea
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