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Writings on Psychiatry

August 2008

Broken

Ma Jian, the dissident Chinese author living in London, recently attended a talk by another Chinese author who raised his ire. Writing in the Times on the nineteenth anniversary of Tiananmen, Ma Jian…

A Weeknight Before the Turn of the Century

By Klas Östergren

It was a rainy autumn night in Stockholm, a night in the middle of the week. Feeling a need to further specify the moment in time, I probably would have added: “a weeknight just before the turn…

Translated from Swedish by Tiina Nunnally

The Black Marne

By Jocelyn Dupré

When she hugged me from behind and put her cold hands on my chest, my own hand holding the razor twitched. I'd thought she was at her parents', but in her haste to see me she had bolted out to…

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

A Dog’s Life

By Ana María Shua

Translator’s Note: When I asked Ani Shua to tell me what motivated her to write this odd little story, she immediately provided the following background information about the legend of the werewolf—or…

Translated from Spanish by Andrea G. Labinger

My Tongue Falls out of My Mouth

By Miroslav Kirin

Croatian poet Miroslav Kirin considers body parts and guilt.

Translated from Croatian by the author

Beings with Cruel Faces

By Francisco Proaño Arandi

“I can’t stop thinking about them, Doctor,” I said. I was prey to a strange tension, tossing and turning on the very lightweight couch, sensing the presence of my counterpart, my listener,…

Translated from Spanish by Harry Morales

Compos Mentis

By Kanji Hanawa

The seat was wet because something had made it wet.

Translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

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Esterházy Per Se: A Translator’s Ball Game with a Postmodern Author

Just as there are user-friendly computers (they don't delete your latest text when you didn't mean to press the delete button, a dream!), user-friendly ovens (they ring when the roast is ready),…

The First Day

By Goli Taraghi

“Each element establishes a layer that gives the story added weight and heft.”—Francine Prose

Translated from Farsi by the author

An Interview with Péter Esterházy

Péter Esterházy is one of Hungary's foremost contemporary novelists, having won literary distinctions both at home and abroad. A number of his works, including Helping Verbs of the Heart,…

Translated from Hungarian

The Psychiatrist

My new position gave me contact with refugees from various communities in Copenhagen. Three municipalities had engaged me to study the cases of ordinary patients or ones whose health conditions were hard…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Dancer and Her Body

By Alfred Döblin

At eleven, it was decided that she would become a dancer. With her peculiar disposition and a flair for grimacing and contorting her limbs, she seemed well suited to this profession. Previously careless…

Translated from German by Rosamund Looney

A Translator’s Ball Game with a Postmodern Author

In Judith Sollosy, the "untranslatable" Esterházy meets his match He willy-nilly created a brand of intertextual irony.