The Mongolian-based Luce Scholar Ming Holden attended the first-ever “Writers and Literary Translators International Congress” in Stockholnm and took notes in the form of quotations from the speakers. She transcribed them with the intent of using them in an essay, but the more she looked at the quotations the more she felt that the lines speak for themselves. Here’s a baker’s dozen. Among the speakers were Jamaica Kincaid, Mats Sodurland, Nawal El Saadawi, Ana Menendez, Sasa Stanislic, and Philip Pullman.
<< It's not right to die before you've told the end of a story. >>
<< The salvation of human beings is found in dialogue. >>
<< That early morning hour -- known as [the] hour of the moon – [is] when most people die. >>
<< We cannot read translations of music, which is why I'm so frustrated when I read translations of my book. It's not MY book. >>
<< The problem with identity [is that] any group of people that wants to exploit us has to define us. >>
<< Pure identity means racism. We are all mixed. >>
<< They call me a postcolonial African writer -- as if colonialism is finished! >>
<< If you don’t love yourself you cannot write. Creativity is related to loving yourself. Getting rid of taboos. Getting rid of shame. >>
<< Condoleezza Rice comes to our region every day. And she is a woman, biologically. >>
<< There is censorship from the government. But also there is censorship inside you. Your fear. >>
<< Every day I get up and think about (my family in Antigua), and at the end of the day I say to myself, 'And I never want to see them again.' >>
<< I want to understand more than I want to explain. >>
<< In cinema, for the first time you could see time passing without the intervention of language. >>
<< You don’t become an artist of any profession if you don’t know how to work when not inspired. People ask me, where do your ideas come from? And I say I don’t know but I know where they come to: my desk. And if I'm not there they go away again. >>
-- Ming Holden We're going to hear from Ming again in a couple of weeks, when she and other ex-pats will blog about their experiences in Mongolia, the land of Chingiss, steppes, gers, and much poetry.
