If This Be Magic Daniel Hahn in conversation with Sináad Mac Aodha

In Partnership with Literature Ireland

If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation (Canongate), the latest book from acclaimed translator and writer Daniel Hahn, is a fascinating deep dive into the world of Shakespeare-in-translation. With humour and clarity, Hahn examines how the great playwright’s works are translated into languages ranging from Chinese to Italian, Turkish to Dutch, all the while asking: if the language is changed, is it still Shakespeare? Daniel will appear in conversation with Director of Literature Ireland, Sinéad Mac Aodha.

This event is part of First Fridays at MoLI – Museum of Literature Ireland. Entry is free but events throughout the evening operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Please visit the MoLI website for full details.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator. He is the author most recently of Catching Fire: A Translation Diary, and If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. He is currently translating an Angolan novel and re-translating a French children’s classic, and co-editing (with Padma Viswanathan) The Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories.

Sinéad Mac Aodha is the Director of Literature Ireland, the national agency for the promotion of Irish literature abroad. She recently co-edited an anthology of Irish short stories in Spanish, Cuentos irlandeses contemporáneos. Current projects include curating an exhibition of Irish authors’ photographs at the European Parliament in Brussels and organising a conference celebrating Ireland’s many European literary translators. She was Managing Director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris from 2016–2017. Sinéad currently sits on a number of literature and translation prize juries. 

With thanks to our venue partner MoLI – Museum of Literature Ireland.