Between the lines—my life in translation

Professor Marco Sonzogni from the School of Languages and Cultures presents his inaugural lecture.

From home in Cergnago, a small farming village in Northern Italy, landlocked between the sea and the alps, to Hangzhou, one of the fastest-growing metropolises in China (and Marco Polo’s favourite place in the world), and four capital cities in between—Moscow, Dublin, Wellington and Beijing—my life has been on a waka in translation.

In this lecture I will share some stepping stones in my personal and professional journey. I will reflect on the past, present, and future of translation, and on why I agree with the Argentine intellectual and writer Jorge Luis Borges, who regarded translation as a “more advanced stage of civilization”.

Three people in academic garb
L-R - Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nic Smith, Professor Marco Sonzogni, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Sarah Leggott

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