Norman Thomas di Giovanni - a wonderful new web-site

Norman Thomas di Giovanni, the great translator of Borges into English, was the subject of an earlier post of mine in April this year. He has recently set up a marvellous new web-site called - as one might expect - Norman Thomas di Giovanni which I suspect will soon become one of the leading literary destinations on the internet. It is a miscellany of translations, essays, travel journals, some of which deals with di Giovanni's classic work on Borges and much of which explores his own personal interests and obsessions.

Di Giovanni is a powerful and pungent essayist in his own right. What is fascinating for me personally is that in the course of reading these essays, memoirs and reminiscences one gains a direct, almost visceral insight into di Giovanni's own contribution to the Borges/di Giovanni translations. The striking economy and force of di Giovanni's own work help one to appreciate that those twentieth century masterpieces of translation were truly, as Borges himself said, the work of two minds operating as one - not so much translations as recreations of Borges' Spanish originals in the English language.

There is a further section in which di Giovanni publishes new or unknown work from friends and fellow writers. Among the various pieces on offer is one of the great unpublished poems of our time called Dosser, by Francis Spencer. I cannot recommend the web-site too highly for those of a literary disposition. It is nothing less than a literary treasure trove.