Members of the Translate Iowa Project read from the play Cutting, which discusses female genital mutilation, on Saturday, April 27. The student-run literary magazine, which launched its third issue over the weekend, transcribes written works into a plethora of languages.
Charles Peckman, The Daily Iowan
Nestled in the sitting room of the Shambaugh House with three large windows separating the warm light from the gloomy, overcast sky, a cacophony of languages and written works filled the historic house with short stories, poems, and even a play.
The reason for the gathering on the evening of April 27 was simple: a showcase of the third volume of the Translate Iowa Project, a student-run publication that takes literary works and transcribes them into a host of languages.
For the third installation, Boundless, works were translated into Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish. Throughout the reading, some audience members chose to follow along in their print copies, attempting to decipher tongues other than theirs. Others, such as the older man with dark, horn-rimmed glasses in the front row, chose to close their eyes as the translators read.