Intan Paramaditha
On the Complicated Questions Around Writing About Travel
'Should we seize Prospero’s pen and write our own stories of travel and discovery? There is a problem there. What we will discover is determined by a map that already exists. We can read the map, but the map has read us first, locating us based on where we come from and the color of our skin.'
(This essay was included in The Best American Travel Writing 2021, which goes to show you that writing from Australia can be found everywhere!)
The Wandering: A Conversation between Stephen Epstein and Intan Paramaditha
If languages are tectonic plates, even with the aid of alchemy, the words do not seamlessly match up.
How does one translate 'Iblis'?
Is 'Iblis' a demon? A devil? A spirit? Or something else?
In translating The Wandering, author Intan Paramaditha and translator Stephen J. Epstein wrangled for a year over this single word.
The thought of such a discussion on the precise meaning of a word greatly appeals to my writerly sensibilities.