i mean i dislike that fate
i mean i dislike that fate that i was made to where
by Uljana Wolf, trans. Sophie Seita (Wonder, 2015)
Purchase here.
when it is time for oranges, ist keine zeit, no time at all, für nichts
Winner of the second Wonder Prize, i mean i dislike that fate that i was made to where brings us Sophie Seita’s playful translations of one of Germany’s most innovative contemporary poets, Uljana Wolf. Being truly between languages, the texts in this collection place themselves squarely against monolingual identity politics, whether invoking Anna O, child language, aphasia, or the isolation of asylum seekers in Bavarian forests. Where the poet discovers multilingual lengevitch, the translator-writer turns the switch, and off we go following the „blur-print“ of their interlaced language: „a spark, a faltering unresting sway; en-wringed.“
“Here poetry is b/read for w@nder, with Wolf’s imagination and wry wit hard at work in each of Sophie Seita’s delightful combinatory gleams. My head makes treasure-noises reading both these women and in reading them I too — you too! — join their palimpsest, their/our ingenuity of presence and annalanguage, and we’re glad.”
– Erin Mouré
“Uljana Wolf has already brilliantly explored the border between languages in the false cognates of Falsche Freunde. Her new book examines a different border: of language loss (pathological, political) or acquisition. Heavy matters presented with a light, elegant touch and luminous inventiveness. Sophie Seita’s translation skillfully navigates this complex “interlace-space” where you “can’t see the would for the trees.”
– Rosmarie Waldrop
PRESS
2016
01/14 PEN America
01/11 Music & Literature
01/07 Publishers Weekly
2015
11/24 Flavorwire
1/14 Harriet Blog
1/8 Flavorwire