Dancing on Ropes (Hardback)
Translators and the Balance of History
Buy from
Horizon-expanding tales of how translators altered the course of world events
Would Hiroshima have been bombed if Japanese contained a phrase meaning 'no comment'? Is it alright for missionaries to replace the Bible's 'white as snow' with 'white as fungus' in places where snow never falls? Who, or what, is Kuzma's mother, and why was Nikita Khrushchev so threateningly obsessed with her (or it)?
The course of diplomacy rarely runs smooth; without an invisible army of translators and interpreters, it's hard to see how it could run at all. But though such go-betweens tend to be overlooked, even despised, the subtlest of them have achieved a remarkable degree of influence.
Join veteran translator Anna Aslanyan to explore hidden histories of cunning and ambition, heroism and incompetence. Meet the figures behind the notable events of history, from the Great Game to Brexit, and discover just how far a simple misunderstanding can go.
Dancing on Ropes (Ebook)
Translators and the Balance of History
Buy from
Horizon-expanding tales of how translators altered the course of world events
'Full of lively stories ... leaves the reader with an awed respect for the translator's task' Economist
Would Hiroshima have been bombed if Japanese contained a phrase meaning 'no comment'? Is it alright for missionaries to replace the Bible's 'white as snow' with 'white as fungus' in places where snow never falls? Who, or what, is Kuzma's mother, and why was Nikita Khrushchev so threateningly obsessed with her (or it)?
The course of diplomacy rarely runs smooth; without an invisible army of translators and interpreters, it could hardly run at all. Join veteran translator Anna Aslanyan to explore hidden histories of cunning and ambition, heroism and incompetence. Meet the figures behind the notable events of history, from the Great Game to Brexit, and discover just how far a simple misunderstanding can go.
Dancing on Ropes (Paperback)
Translators and the Balance of History
Buy from
Horizon-expanding tales of how translators altered the course of world events
'Full of lively stories ... leaves the reader with an awed respect for the translator's task' Economist
Would Hiroshima have been bombed if Japanese contained a phrase meaning 'no comment'? Is it alright for missionaries to replace the Bible's 'white as snow' with 'white as fungus' in places where snow never falls? Who, or what, is Kuzma's mother, and why was Nikita Khrushchev so threateningly obsessed with her (or it)?
The course of diplomacy rarely runs smooth; without an invisible army of translators and interpreters, it could hardly run at all. Join veteran translator Anna Aslanyan to explore hidden histories of cunning and ambition, heroism and incompetence. Meet the figures behind the notable events of history, from the Great Game to Brexit, and discover just how far a simple misunderstanding can go.
Reviews for Dancing on Ropes
Rosie Goldsmith FT
Economist
Boyd Tonkin Spectator
Bridget Kendall Literary Review
Sarah Watling Times Literary Supplement
Robert Fox Reaction
Emily Lawford Prospect
Natalie Haynes, author Pandora's Jar
David Bellos, author Is That A Fish In Your Ear?
Gaston Dorren, author Lingo
Anna Aslanyan
Anna Aslanyan is a journalist, translator and public service interpreter. She contributes to
the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and other UK-based publications, writing
about books and arts. Her translations from Russian include Post-Post Soviet? Art,
Politics and Society in Russia at the Turn of the Decade, a collection of essays edited by
Ekaterina Degot et al. (University of Chicago Press, 2013); contemporary short stories for
Best European Fiction (Dalkey Archive, 2013, 2018); and A Journey to Inner Africa, a
19th-century travelogue by Egor Kovalevsky (Amherst College Press, 2020). Her popular
history of translation, Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History, was
published by Profile in May 2021.