Goenawan Mohamad

A wide-ranging and beautiful collection of essays from one of world literature’s most important writers. Goenawan Mohamad is one of Indonesia’s foremost public intellectuals, and this translated volume of essays?spanning from 1968 to the present day?demonstrates the breadth of his perceptive and elegant commentary on literature, faith, mythology, politics, and history. Through the worst days of Indonesia's authoritarianism, in the face of the trauma of great violence and the chaos of democratic transition, Goenawan has never lost faith in the act of writing. Many of his essays from In Other Words were first published for Tempo, the Indonesian weekly magazine that he founded in 1971. His writings bring nuance and sympathy to difficult histories, introduce doubt to damaging certainties, and apply clarity of thought and action to times of great upheaval. Activist, journalist, editor, essayist, poet, commentator, theater director, and playwright, Goenawan Mohamad brings an unparalleled and wide-ranging perspective to the world. These essays, translated by his long-time collaborator Jennifer Lindsay, reveal a vision both uniquely Indonesian and completely universal, and indisputably establish him as one of the leading political thinkers and cultural observers in the world today.

Goenawan Mohamad is one of Indonesia's foremost literacy figures and public intellectuals, and this translated volume of essays, from 1968 to 2014, demonstrates the breadth of his perceptive and elegant commentary on literature, faith, mythology, politics, history and Indonesian life. With almost 100 short essays, most taken from his popular columns in Tempo, the Indonesian-language news weekly, In Other Words shows a writer commited to Indonesia but grappling with universal themes and struggles, offering a fascinating insight into questions that concern us all.

Between Tongues takes the subject of performance translation in a completely new direction. While the topic is often discussed in relation to the translation of dramatic texts, such as ""Shakespeare in Malay"", the authors in this collection examine presentations of traditional and contemporary works in Asia in their original languages before audiences who do not share that language. They also discuss translation as a phenomenon inherent to much performance in Asia, particularly in multilingual settings. Combining academic essays and the voices of practitioners in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, the book provides new insights into the translation process of interest to scholars of translation studies and performance studies. It also offers valuable information to people involved in organising events, directors and producers working in multinational and multicultural environments.