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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
Learn
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
By Duna Ghali
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.