Translating from the Portuguese: A Life Translated

Elizabeth Lowe charts her journey to becoming a translator through a series of vignettes relating her life as a ＂third-culture kid＂ and living and working abroad in a kaleidoscope of cultures and languages. She lived in Germany as a young child immediately after the Second World War while her father worked in the Nuremburg trials and as a newly married military spouse during the Vietnam War; she lived in Haiti just prior to Papa Doc’s consolidation of power, in Brazil when the military dictatorship seized the country in its two-decade vise, at the University of Coimbra, Portugal during Salazar, and Colombia at the height of the guerrilla conflicts, and in Miami during the heyday of the cartels. The book is a reflection on translation as an art, on five decades teaching languages, literatures, and translation, and on her close relationship with writers from the Lusophone world. It explores theoretical aspects of translation as well as practical challenges faced by translators, especially those working in Portuguese literature. Lowe offers intimate insights into the creative process of the writers she translates and her own philosophy of literary translation.

Through her work as both a translator and an educator, ELIZABETH LOWE has significantly impacted translation studies, particularly in the field of Portuguese-English translation. Her translations are praised for their accuracy and sensitivity to the cultural contexts they depict, and her efforts have helped elevate the academic status of translation studies, recognizing it as both an art and a rigorous discipline.