Translating the Breath of Literature
Marie Darrieussecq is the author of fifteen novels, a number of short stories, a biography, two essays and several plays. She has translated nine books, in this conversation, she reflects on the craft of translation, the balance between fidelity and freedom, and why the human ear remains irreplaceable.
What kind of creativity does a translator need?
A translator needs to recreate the original text in her or his language. It’s a lot of fidelity and a little bit of creativity. Like a marriage with a touch of spices.
How many books have you translated?
Nine books, I am translating the 10th. I’m very privileged because I’m always offered to re-translate masterpieces such as Baldwin’s Notes of a native son, Woolf’s A Room of one’s own or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – one of the first novels I had a crush for. My favourite book to translate was Alice in Wonderland. The play on words was a great playground and offered much necessary freedom in French.
What is your view on the AI translation tools?
AIs can save time compared with searching through online dictionaries, but their translations remain clumsy and inevitably lacking in personality. AIs are objects, after all, even if they try to imitate subjects. AIs don’t “hear” the sound of language. The music of the words. The breathing of writing. For the moment.
What do you feel about the recognition a translator gets?
I’m very lucky, because publishers offer me translation work precisely because I’m a well-known writer in France. My signature is a kind of added value to the translated book.
Translators are generally not given enough recognition, and they are very poorly paid. As a member of the Prix Médicis jury, I also worked to obtain, from our patron, the Grow Foundation, a grant for the translators of the winning novel each year. The first grant was awarded to John Lambert, translator of Emmanuel Carrère’s Kolkhoze, Prix Médicis 2025.
What do you enjoy more: being an author or a translator?
For me, writing is breathing. Translating is like knitting: it’s not a matter of life or death, and it relaxes me enormously. The text is already there — I don’t have to wrench it painfully out of myself; I simply have to knit this ball of yarn, peacefully, into the wool of the French language.
Marie Darrieussecq (born 1969, Basque Country, France) is a writer, translator, and psychoanalyst, and a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure. The author of fifteen novels, along with short stories, essays, plays, and a biography, her work has been translated worldwide. Her debut novel ‘Pig Tales’ (1996) was published in 45 countries. A recipient of the Prix Médicis and the Prix des Prix (2013), she is also a regular contributor to art magazines in London and Paris. Her memoir ‘Sleepless’ appeared in 2024 with Fitzcarraldo (UK), Semiotext(e) (USA), and New Press (Australia). Her new novel Fabriquerune femme will be translated in English this coming year.
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