This is a vital addition to the libraries of all those interested in Elizabeth Bishop, or in the translation of poetry more broadly. It also makes an exciting contribution to the theory of the lyric, which has yet to consider the central role of translation. The book is deeply researched and foregrounds Bishop's work as a translator in several languages, ... Read morebringing unfamiliar texts to light and raising important editorial questions about the contexts and versions of her translations. But this study goes well beyond practical matters of texts; it shows us how central the idea of translation was to Bishop's sense of poetry, and even of ethics and cognition. Machova models a new kind of reading, revealing the fundamental affinities between acts of translation, and the poet's efforts to know the other, and bring the world into words.
Bonnie Costello, Boston University Mariana Machova shows how translation, rather than being a marginal activity, is central to Elizabeth Bishop's poetic imagination, informing her poems in ways we previously didn't suspect. This is an illuminating and original study of one of the essential poets of the twentieth century.
Justin Quinn, University of West Bohemia Show Less