A Conversation with Ottilie Mulzet, Los Angeles Review of Books
First published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2020
TRANSLATORS PLAY A crucial role as gatekeepers of world literature. We are currently witnessing an important era in literary translation where many platforms and institutions dedicated to the art and craft of literary translation recognize and celebrate this essential role played by translators.
Read the full interview on The Los Angeles Review of Books
Ottilie Mulzet’s recent recognition on the global stage is a case in point. She has made a name for herself as translator of both contemporary Hungarian and Mongolian literatures. Most recently, her rendition of László Krasznahorkai’s Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming received the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Her text clearly displays not only the brilliance of the author but also Mulzet’s own genius in recreating his characteristically unwieldy, bleak yet surprising, somber yet agile prose. Despite the long — and, at first glance, unnecessarily detailed — lines that run, more often than not, across half a dozen pages, the text is remarkably accessible. A palpable foreignness is in harmony with native fluency. The combination is nothing short of a translational feat.
I spoke with Mulzet via email about her early attempts at translation, her approach to choosing and translating different texts, and how she’s spending her time in self-isolation. Mulzet also shared some of her current projects, including Seagull Books’s Hungarian list, which aims to raise the profile of important Hungarian authors through the commission of new translations, and her ongoing translation of an anthology of Mongolian Buddhist legends.
