ABSTRACT

This chapter explores translation as it is carried out and conceptualised by some of the men and women who are considered to be literary giants. It draws attention to the variety of reasons why writers have elected to translate, how they have chosen the texts they have translated, and how they have regarded their work as translators. Baudelaire was immediately attracted to the American poet, with whom he soon became obsessed, viewing Poe as an alter ego, "spiritual brother". Valery's earliest efforts included translations of sonnets by Gabriel Dante Rossetti and Petrarch. Bernard Shaw, author of immense body of work extending over almost forty volumes, spent little time translating. Translation paradoxically flourished amid the upheavals of 20th-century Europe. Stefan Zweig, whose books were banned and burned by the Nazis, is said to have been the most translated author of his day, ensuring his 'afterlife', as it were, in translation.