Most people will make the assumption that, because I am a translator, this blog will be about language. It will be, but with a few qualifications. In a certain sense, language will be only one thing this blog will be about. Frankly, I’m not interested in writing about when and how we should use commas or

One of Robin Hood’s merry men—that’s who I was for a period in my life after my sister Nelly gave me a children’s version of Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood as a birthday present one year. It was a very romanticized version of the Robin Hood material and a children’s version to

Many years ago, when we had just moved to the Netherlands, I said something—can’t remember what it was anymore—to my cousin, and he replied, “Zo zeggen wij het niet in het Nederlands” (that’s not how we say it in Dutch). I do remember that what I said was, of course, a very literal translation of

The attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris that left twelve people dead led almost immediately to a discussion on what was touted as fundamental Western rights and values – the freedom of the press and the freedom to express one’s opinion. The magazine’s offices were allegedly attacked because of its publication of cartoons