After working on it for a year and change, I've finished my translation of Leonor Figueiredo's Sita Valles biography. If all goes well, Goa 1556 should be putting it out later this year, and I'll be launching it in Goa. I'll keep y'all posted.
In other news, I learned that a bilingual edition of Camilo Pessanha's poetry has recently been released. On one hand, the news was not only surprising, but frustrating, as I've been slowly working on my own Pessanha translations, and now I've been beaten to the punch. On the other hand, though, it's a relief. I was working on something from Clepsydra a while ago and thought to myself "this sounds terrible in English." Part of that is my own fault, no doubt, and it was just the first draft, but still- Pessanha's work is hard to render into English, and I'm thankful someone else has taken it upon themselves. I'm eager to check it out, even as I find myself still wondering what the hell I'm gonna do with all the Pessanha material I've amassed over the years. Write a biography, maybe?
Speaking of Pessanha, when I was in Lisbon I unearthed the names of the poets who wrote the poems Pessanha translated as "oito elegias chinesas." Once I do some reading, I'll write a little something about them, translate the poems into English, and make some comments on the quality of Pessanha's translation. His knowledge of Chinese was (and maybe still is) a point of contention, so I'm curious to see how well he read classical Chinese. (Not that I'm an expert myself, but I feel confident enough to pass basic judgement.)
Later, folks!
