Translator

Digitising Urdu’s cascading calligraphy

An interview with Abeera Kamran and Zeerak Ahmed, by Sophia Smith Galer...

The gardens of Babur: Kabul’s lament

From winter in Afghanistan, Abdul Bacet’s photo essay reflects on the history of the Gardens of Babur in Kabul....

Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood

Translator reviews an established Japanese translator’s debut novel and Boris Dralyuks’s translation of Alexander Voloshin’s mock epic poem....

Jakarta: The price of belonging in Indonesia’s restless city

When a mother and daughter discover their local cemetery expanding for profit, their grief unearths a grim truth: in restless Jakarta, every breath—and every burial—exacts a heavy toll....

Hanoi: The scent of memory in Vietnam’s river-nested capital

Here, memory isn't seen; it is inhaled. As concrete swallows ancient rivers, one writer maps her vanishing motherland through the thick, fleeting fragrances of a city in constant flux....

Guadalajara: The shifting hearbeat of Mexico’s neighborhoods

The scent of barbacoa mingles with the glow of nomad laptops. As foreign dollars flood the streets, a vibrant kaleidoscope of Mexican tradition faces its quiet demolition....

Yakutsk: Soft communal resistance between talks, ghosts and fake Labubus

The frost arrived early, foreshadowing the quiet end to public education. Resistance here isn't shouted; it's whispered through counterfeit Labubu toys and the wry irony of survivalist memes....

Six days in September

In Translator’s photo essay, Indian photojournalist Ishan Tankha reports from Kathmandu in the wake of the Gen Z protests...

Annah, infinite

Translator reviews the translation of a famous painting – into a book Reviewed by Fairuza Hanun I first heard about the portrait Annah La Janvanaise. Aita tamari vahine Judith te parari by Paul...

Read Between the Lines: The Mask Park incident

A new format in Translator where we commission a journalist or commentator from beyond the Anglosphere to interpret a recent article they have found interesting or important from their local...

Belfast: The politics of bilingual signs in Northern Ireland’s capital

Amid the sleek glass of Belfast’s new transit terminal, a small sign offering an Irish welcome has sparked outrage. In a fiercely divided city, bilingualism remains a bitter sectarian battleground....

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