Recommended: eXchanges is the University of Iowa’s literary e-journal

Letter from the Editors

Does translating a text provide a mirror image of the original – even if that image is reversed or otherwise distorted – or does it mask the original behind the unfamiliar lexical and syntactical trappings of an alien language? Like any metaphor for translation, the mirror and the mask are both inadequate to capture the nuances of the process, yet both also point toward provocative discussions of the role of translation and its effects on a text. Do different layers of language and culture inform a translation and become reflected in it, or are they obscured? While as translators we aspire to overcoming mutual incomprehension, the study of translation is also inevitably a study of what is missing, of what has not been communicated, or of what has been communicated instead... read more.