Hey this blog promises to be nothing if not irregular. However, I have a couple of things planned for you:

My own translation of the classic short story Axolotl by Julio Cortazar. This is my Spanish homework at the moment, but it’s also a way into a story of my own I’m working on. Axolotl is about a man who becomes obsessed with staring at an axolotl in an aquarium, so it’s kind of appropriate that I’ve now become obsessed with staring at a story about a man who becomes obsessed … you get the rest.

Translation is a fascinating thing. There are so many ways of rendering someone else’s work, and so many factors you have to take into account when trying to get at the reason for a choice of word or phrase – and stumbling along with a dictionary, like I have to, makes it all the more laborious, and yet satisfying. Does that make sense?

Also coming soon, me and Leonard Cohen – an unlikely story.