J.M. Coetzee and Translator Mariana Dimópulos Discuss Translation in 'Parlare in lingue'

J.M. Coetzee, the South African-born writer often described as postnational, appears in dialogue with his Spanish translator, the Argentine Mariana Dimópulos, in the book 'Parlare in lingue', published by Einaudi in an Italian version translated by Maria Baiocchi. The two interlocutors state that the volume was not written by or for specialists. The discussion, presented by Franco Nasi and Anita Romanello in a piece dated 12 September 2026, examines the idea that translation always makes present something belonging to the past: it reformulates in another language and another culture a text that already exists, whether the distance between the two texts is 3000 years or only a few hours. The text notes limit cases, eccentric in their own way, in which translation enters into a dialogic relationship with the source text, transforms it and even ends up replacing it. Coetzee and Dimópulos are cited as telling exactly this story. The book is described as agile and rich, and its Italian edition is attributed to Maria Baiocchi.