Born in the Blood ─ On Native American Translation

Since Europeans first encountered Native Americans, problems relating to language and text translation have been an issue. Translators needed to create the tools for translation, such as dictionaries, still a difficult undertaking today. Although the fact that many Native languages do not share even the same structures or classes of words as European languages has always made translation difficult, translating cultural values and perceptions into the idiom of another culture renders the process even more difficult.

In Born in the Blood, noted translator and writer Brian Swann gathers some of the foremost scholars in the field of Native American translation to address the many and varied problems and concerns surrounding the process of translating Native American languages and texts. The essays in this collection address such important questions as, what should be translated? how should it be translated? who should do translation? and even, should the translation of Native literature be done at all? This volume also includes translations of songs and stories.

Brian Swann is a professor of English at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. His many publications include Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America and Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems, both available in Bison Books editions.

Contributors: John Bierhorst, Julie Brittain, Lynn Burley, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, William M. Clements, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Richard L. Dauenhauer, Carrie Dyck, Marcia Haag, Kate Hennessy, Bill Jancewitz, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, David Kozak, Robert M. Leavitt, David I. Lopez, Marguerite MacKenzie, Patrick Moore, Richard J. Preston, Amber Ridington, Jillian Ridington, Robin Ridington, Blair A. Rudes, Brian Swann, Laurence C. Thompson, M. Terry Thompson, Frederick White, and Peter M. Whiteley.