What a gift that Yiddish came into my life! Margolin reminds me how fragile the opportunities are and how much it is worth fighting to keep learning, writing, and sharing. It seems only fitting that we would make her the focus of our first public effort.

This project seeks to test two theses about translation: that it is a creative act, and that it is better in community. To these ends, I asked each translator to send me something that demonstrate their work-in-progress, and I placed it in a two-page spread alongside their final version. This is not an attempt to defend any specific translation choices or to comprehensively document the process. Instead, I find myself inspired by Jill Levine, the incomparable translator, who writes, “creativity is not a matter of inspiration but of choices, of decision-making. The original is one of many possible versions” (Subversive Scribe, p. xiii). By putting a reminder of process next to product, I hope we are opening the path to more and future versions.

We pushed the notion of translation-as-creative-impetus further by asking the translators to respond to each other’s work. With a wide-open invitation, they responded in the form of a critical essay, collage, fractal art, and original poetry.

I hope this zine leaves you excited about both Anna Margolin’s work and the possibilities of engagement through translation. This is only the beginning.

-Rachel Martin