The News
In this post, I have one story to tell and two reasons to tell it. This intro lists the reasons. The story-curious are invited to read the next part, too.
First, I want to share a link to Body and Earth: Seven Web-Based Somatic Excursions, an inspiring online free resource for movement education, to which I have recently contributed a Polish translation. Available along with numerous other translations on the project’s website, it is a transcript to accompany the films. My writing has been proofread and edited by Anna Kaszyc, which is why it has wound up exceptionally good.
Second, I’m pleased to announce that—at this same Anna’s behest—I am currently translating the book How Life Moves: Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness for the Polish audience. My translation is scheduled for early 2024 and will be published by Ścieżki Mocy, a business Anna has founded together with her partner, Karol Kaszyc.
The Backstory
When the question arrived over Messenger—might I be interested in translating a book on body awareness into Polish—I surprised myself by not saying no right away. For seventeen years I had been avoiding long-form translation, the tedium eclipsing the creativity and independence of this kind of work. But a lot had changed in nearly two decades, so I found myself wondering whether I was up to the task. Motherhood, after all, had made me less reluctant to commitment—and living and working in Warsaw had polished my Polish considerably over the years, even with English writing my main focus at work.
The book in question was How Life Moves: Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness by Caryn McHose and Kevin Frank, movement teachers and Rolfing practitioners. To say that I wanted to read it right away is an understatement—I wanted to internalize its philosophy and lessons on a deep, lasting, transformative level. Translating this thoughtful and timeless work from my one language and culture into the other struck me as the perfect way to do just that.
My willingness to plunge into this work surprised me, but felt good. What surprised me more (and did not, at first, “feel good”) was my struggle to produce a satisfactory sample of my work. I had trouble calibrating how literal the phrasing ought to be. The language was awkward. My inexperience showed. I braced myself for frustration, but wound up appreciating all that I stood to learn from this challenge—and from the people eager to give me a hand. Anna Kaszyc, my eventual publisher, sent my work to two different editors, then made sure I was on board with a lot of what they had to say (which really was a lot) before offering me the job. When she did—my yes was unconditional. But first another thing happened.
Soon after first “looking inside” How Life Moves on Amazon, before I even sent Anna my sample, I found Body and Earth, a somatics-based film-and-text project created in 2017 by one of the book’s authors, Caryn McHose, along with Andrea Olsen, Scotty Hardwig, and others. Impressed by the sensitivity and quality of this work, I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer Polish translations for the site, particularly since these were short-form translations. (Alas, eight short forms do not a very short form make.) Soon, I had Andrea’s blessing, and within days I also had Anna’s commitment to proofread and edit my work. Less than a month later, our final drafts were up on http://www.body-earth.org—and our expectations regarding the work ahead on How Life Moves were grounded in reality thanks to the collaboration we had just completed.
It felt satisfying to contribute to such a flawless, insightful project and to meet a goal I had set for myself. And it was heartening to work on this together with Anna. As for the amount of new information I gained—on translation in general, on certain peculiarities of Polish grammar, on adapting the language of the body for the Polish audience—it has been priceless. I am grateful for the way my work continually teaches me to take my learning to new heights.
The first two photos show my browser open to the Body and Earth intro page and the site section with the downloadable translations. The second two photos show the cover of How Life Moves and the photo on page 11, which I happen to love.