Daniel Hahn
Author of The Ultimate Teen Book Guide
About the Author
Daniel Hahn is a writer, researcher, translator and editor who lives in London
Works by Daniel Hahn
The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the… (2003) 147 copies
Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories after Cervantes and Shakespeare (2016) — Editor — 35 copies
Staatszielbestimmungen im integrierten Bundesstaat: Normative Bedeutung und Divergenzen (2010) 2 copies
Wie mit hilfe von empowerment ein Mobilitätstraining in Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen möglich ist (2015) 2 copies
Resistance 1 copy
The Refuge 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hahn, Daniel
- Birthdate
- 1973-11-26
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Occupations
- Author
Editor
Translator - Organizations
- Translators Association of the Society of Authors
The British Centre for Literary Translation
The Society of Authors
English PEN (Pinter prize judge|2022) - Awards and honors
- The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2007)
- Short biography
- A British writer, editor and translator, Daniel Hahn is the author of a number of works of non-fiction, including biographies, history, and reading guides and for children and teenagers.
His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is also the translator of Pelé's autobiography, and of work by novelists José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he is currently chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of a number of organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including English PEN. He is one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
adapted from Wikipedia.
Members
Reviews
I was not sure what I had expected when I started reading this book. The first surprise was how the book was very readable. Secondly I did not have a clue what was involved in translating a book from one language to another. As I have had many years of Spanish and German I knew that it is really not possible to do a word for word translation; one ends up with a text that lacks life.
Daniel documents the problems and the joys of translating a text from Chilean Spanish into English (British English). To make problems more interesting the author is known for both her subtly and ambiguity in her writing. I leave it to the reader to follow this conversation.
What I got out of this book is a new appreciation of well written books and that one (namely) me should not just read for entertainment but also how the author plays with the language. Highly recommend the book.… (more)
Daniel documents the problems and the joys of translating a text from Chilean Spanish into English (British English). To make problems more interesting the author is known for both her subtly and ambiguity in her writing. I leave it to the reader to follow this conversation.
What I got out of this book is a new appreciation of well written books and that one (namely) me should not just read for entertainment but also how the author plays with the language. Highly recommend the book.… (more)
The Naked Translator
Review of the Charco Press paperback (April 2022) based on the original online diary (January - May 2021)
Catching Fire is translator Daniel Hahn's observations recorded during his translation process of Chilean writer Diamela Eltit's novel Jamás el fuego nunca (2013) (the original Spanish title literally translates as Never the Fire Never) published later as Never Did the Fire (April 2022). It reveals all the uncertainties and possible inaccuracies of the translation process with Hahn being open enough to even display his own initial efforts where not all issues can be solved immediately, but for which many require additional research.
See photograph at https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/583cb891be659429d113b712/161167034...
Title page of Daniel Hahn's rough draft translation of Diamela Eltit's "Never Did the Fire". Image sourced from Charco Press.
This research can entail everything from understanding the different possible usages and meanings of words in their original language (Spanish in this case) and then the nuances or possible idiomatic character of the locality (Chile in this case). It involves spotting areas where certain features of a writer's style become a recurring feature in a book and also where a particular word or phrase perhaps echoes throughout the book. It then requires turning all of that into a different language which perhaps does not share all of those usages and definitions, but for which you still have to make a decision on a best compromise.
I found this book to be completely intriguing. Partially this is because I dabble in translation myself, from my heritage language of Estonian into English. My experience is not extensive, it is mostly from poems or song lyrics and the occasional afterword, biography, or CD booklet note. There were still many recognizable aspects of the translation process which made me love Hahn's diary all the more. I think many readers of translations, and especially of Spanish to English translations, will be just as intrigued by it.
I read Catching Fire through my subscription to the Charco Press 2022 Bundle. Catching Fire is part of Charco Press' Untranslated series, a recent addition of original works in English alongside its base catalogue of translations of Latin American literature and its source language publications of Originales.… (more)
Review of the Charco Press paperback (April 2022) based on the original online diary (January - May 2021)
Doing that one chapter with much more care than my usual first drafts allowed me to learn things about the intensity of the writing, about the rhythms and repetitions and the precisions of the writing, which will help me to make my decisions as I go on. Well-written books teach you how to read them. How to translate them, too, I think.
[...]
One of the difficulties (as so often) is coming up with something that is helpfully familiar to the reader, so they understand the weight of what you're talking about, but also which isn't loaded with associations that are in fact un-helpful and potentially distracting.
Catching Fire is translator Daniel Hahn's observations recorded during his translation process of Chilean writer Diamela Eltit's novel Jamás el fuego nunca (2013) (the original Spanish title literally translates as Never the Fire Never) published later as Never Did the Fire (April 2022). It reveals all the uncertainties and possible inaccuracies of the translation process with Hahn being open enough to even display his own initial efforts where not all issues can be solved immediately, but for which many require additional research.
See photograph at https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/583cb891be659429d113b712/161167034...
Title page of Daniel Hahn's rough draft translation of Diamela Eltit's "Never Did the Fire". Image sourced from Charco Press.
This research can entail everything from understanding the different possible usages and meanings of words in their original language (Spanish in this case) and then the nuances or possible idiomatic character of the locality (Chile in this case). It involves spotting areas where certain features of a writer's style become a recurring feature in a book and also where a particular word or phrase perhaps echoes throughout the book. It then requires turning all of that into a different language which perhaps does not share all of those usages and definitions, but for which you still have to make a decision on a best compromise.
I found this book to be completely intriguing. Partially this is because I dabble in translation myself, from my heritage language of Estonian into English. My experience is not extensive, it is mostly from poems or song lyrics and the occasional afterword, biography, or CD booklet note. There were still many recognizable aspects of the translation process which made me love Hahn's diary all the more. I think many readers of translations, and especially of Spanish to English translations, will be just as intrigued by it.
I read Catching Fire through my subscription to the Charco Press 2022 Bundle. Catching Fire is part of Charco Press' Untranslated series, a recent addition of original works in English alongside its base catalogue of translations of Latin American literature and its source language publications of Originales.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 22
- Members
- 625
- Popularity
- #40,302
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 37
- ISBNs
- 34
- Languages
- 3
The author mocks anyone and anything he can't explain: the Bible, people who believe in (and probably saw) dragons/dinosaurs, etc. He makes sweeping blanket statements that assume everyone agrees with him, even though an ever-increasing amount of legit scientists see too many flaws with macro-evolution to make it seem plausible.
Many times throughout the book, he comes to completely wonky and opposite-of-common-sense conclusions. For instance, several times he talks about people seeing and drawing dragons---yet he insists they're not real. I don't know, but an eye witness is a pretty solid piece of evidence in a court trial---let alone many over several centuries. 3/4 or so in, I was ready to be done.
All that aside, I did learn a lot. I was especially intrigued by the bestiaries---I didn't know about those. I also thought it was really strange that more concern was given to animal welfare than to that of children during Victorian times.… (more)