Phil's Reviews > If This Be Treason: Translation and its Dyscontents

Seek out Mark's comments.mi could not say things any better.

Rabassa was without s doubt the finest translator from Spanish and Portuguese in the last century. And I imagine his lectures at Queens College might have been the kind where you kind of forget to take notes, but just listen.

Sad to say, I was sorely disappointed by this "memoir." While there were sparking moments of insight, I was the work of a man already in his eighties, and, I felt, winding down.

His brief essays on individual authors are probably the best part of the book, but all too often I felt it was an exercise in, "Now, I need to write 500 words on X. What can I say?"

I am sure when the idea of this great translator's impressions was pitched, it seemed a good idea at the time.

My advice? Read the translations. If you want information about individual writers, look them up on Wikipedia.