Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers: An Anthology

The six-page introduction to this collection of "28 works of literature never before published in English" reads like a diatribe against unworldly Americans. According to Mr. Dubus, we should feel guilty because: George W. Bush, along with many other Americans, is geographically challenged; "50 percent of all the books in translation now published worldwide are translated from English, but only 6 percent are translated into English;" and we are "ignorant of other cultures around the world." Guilt shouldn't be used as a motivating factor for geographically and culturally challenged Americans to read Words without Borders. Instead, the incentive for its reading should be the quality of the stories themselves: some are great, many are very good, and even the odd and/or incomprehensible ones are worth a look. The fact that authors cover topics that they are better suited to understand, articulate, and share with us about the realities of their worlds should make them even more enticing to prospective readers. Each story is introduced by a recommending writer and followed by personal information on the author. Among the great: Children of the Sky by Indonesian Seno Gumira Ajidarma, a chilling story about children born in severe poverty, destined to become streetwise beggars and A Drowsy Haze by Egyptian Gamal Al-Ghitani, a suicide bomber's last day. On the other hand, The Scripture Read Backwards was beyond my ability to comprehend, as were several of the poems. Of the remaining selections, I enjoyed most without always having a good grasp of their meanings. Also good: New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and Beyond by Robert Shapard.

For each man or for each culture,the distance between consciousness and words and things is different.We,Japanese have been translating, for instance,Buddhist scriptures,through Chinese from Indian languedges into Japaneses for a long long time.But even now translating is difficult tusk for us.In Modern Times,with a lot of outside-words informations,and a lot of translation from Europe and America, we feel depths between cultures,also.Oh,even married cupples sometimes feel like this. I love the elephant story by a Korean young woman.I love the English tanslation Of Lao Tzu by Ursula K Le Guin.