Magic, Wonders, and Phantasmagoria • November 6, 7, and 8, 2026, in Arles
Since translation requires understanding, it stands to reason that the translator strives for clarity. When a text aims to describe “reality,” the act of translation becomes naturalistic; it clarifies and pursues the ambiguity that lurks in the gap between words and the fabric of the world.
But if “we are such stuff as dreams are made on,” as Prospero, the magician in Shakespeare’s *The Tempest*, asserts, what is the translator’s task? From the most ethereal imagination to the performative languages of shamans, translating effects rather than words then becomes a delicate undertaking of transporting clouds…
From one sky to another, this 43rd conference will welcome magic, wonders, and phantasmagoria.
