The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

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iguanamon
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The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

Postby iguanamon » Sat Jul 10, 2021 4:14 pm

While perusing youtube for something in Spanish to put in my log about the book I am reading now, serendipity (the algorithm) led to me this wonderful video of an interview in Italian with Jhumpa Lahiri. Already an accomplished author in English having won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her short stories collected in Interpreter of Maladies (her first language was Bengali), she fell in love with Italian and talks about it in an interview in Italian with Stefano Albertini, the Director of "Casa Italiana" at NYU.

The process of creative writing has always been fascinating to me. Anyone who has ever faced a blank page or screen has an inkling of what it's like to try to come up with something compelling enough that others may enjoy reading their creation. So, I like to hear how professional authors describe their works.

Some non-native speakers of English and other languages have achieved much success in their second languages, Nabokov and Conrad come to mind. Jhumpa Lahiri should be very inspiring to us as adult learners of languages for what she has accomplished. First of all, it is an accomplishment just to have a book published, let alone win a prestigious award for writing. Secondly, to parlay one's skills into another language, learned as an adult, is, well, amazing.

She says in the interview that she makes mistakes in vocabulary and grammar, that she has to consult the dictionary. That's something we can all relate to here. Once again, this shows we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good as we continue to improve our languages. Ms. Lahiri also says that she feels as if she gained another life by learning Italian. That's how I and a lot of us here feel too when we finally manage to reach a high level in another language. In a sense we do gain a new life where we can explore another culture, another world, anew.

As a speaker of some related languages, I love her Italian. Without the subs, I can understand a lot of both speakers. It makes me want to read her book In altre paroli. Maybe I might even try to learn some Italian, I've already got a headstart..

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Re: The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

Postby Elsa Maria » Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:30 pm

She is also working on a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. She teamed up with a classics professor for this one.
https://lithub.com/jhumpa-lahiri-is-wor ... n-library/

I'm really looking forward to reading her book In Other Words at some point - her nonfiction account of falling in love with and then learning Italian.
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Re: The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:36 pm

I really enjoyed In Other Words and reread it sometimes when I need motivation for my language studies. The copy I have has English on one page and Italian on the opposite, so it would be a good resource for anyone learning Italian!
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Re: The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

Postby Sumisu » Sun Jul 11, 2021 7:10 pm

This is really great. There were many things she said that resonated with me, but especially when she said "the effort is constant, and it's growing in my case." And this from someone who has written a book in the target language! I feel this way all the time, that in order to reach an advanced level requires increasing amounts of effort. But that's not a bad thing, it's just the process of learning the language, of acquiring this second life through the new language.

I feel motivated by this video!
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Re: The inspiration of Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author in English, now writing in Italian

Postby ilmari » Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:54 am

I always loved her and her books, but I didn't follow her much in recent years and didn't know about this new language endeavour of hers. This is just wonderful. And I loved when she said “Language is everything. The language is the culture. The language is the literature, the people, the country, the trees — everything. The language represents everything because language is the deepest thing that there is. Every language is an entire ocean, an entire world, an entire universe without bounds.”

Thanks for drawing our attention to this beautiful video.
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