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the complete review - translation

If This Be Magic

by
Daniel Hahn

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

A- : great idea, well-executed, and good fun

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "(S)uperbly diverting (.....) What really illuminates the book are Hahn's conversations with his fellow translators, who can explain their choices directly. (...) Hahn also offers many asides about the annoyances and pleasures of translation in general. (...) All may be forgiven, though, for the delight and endless curiosity displayed in these pages. (...) By the end of the book, Hahn has amply demonstrated not only the treasures of other languages, but also the rich and strange inexhaustibility of Shakespeare himself." - Steven Poole, The Guardian
  
  
• "Hahn leaves no stone unturned (.....) I admire Hahn’s intent. But there can be no one-size-fits-all guide to translating Shakespeare, as each language presents its own challenges to the endeavor. This means that the book is essentially a tourist's guide to the array of choices translators happen to have made here, there and everywhere. (...) The book is a kind of master class in translation, a chronicle of the author's healthy obsession, and a great way to catch up with Shakespeare's work. " - John McWhorter, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Hahn’s delight in linguistic possibility is evident throughout, particularly when he challenges the notion of “untranslatable words,” and he keeps the tone delightfully droll. (...) This is a pleasure for scholars and hobbyist wordsmiths alike. " - Publishers Weekly
  
  
• "Mr. Hahn is a wry guide, but heartily appreciative of his fellow practitioners. If This Be Magic is both a subtle, probing study of their handiwork and a deliciously fresh reading of Shakespeare, a writer adept at “making English do things that English doesn’t do.” It is a stirring celebration of the plurality of languages, replete with snippets of Hungarian, Russian, Yiddish and even Klingon. " - Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       The idea behind If This Be Magic is inspired, as translator Daniel Hahn takes the example of William Shakespeare's work to consider a wide variety of issues regarding translation (each of the book's thirty-nine chapters focuses on a different one). (As Hahn acknowledges, his: "title echoes Gregory Rabassa's excellent translation book, If This Be Treason".)
       Few authors are as widely translated as Shakespeare -- and, written at a considerable remove (and in a style no one now writes in), his work poses particular challenges, providing examples galore for Hahn to riff off and explore in ways that he couldn't as readily if he based his book on a modern writer of prose. (Hahn also notes in his Prologue that: "Nobody reads more closely than a translator" and so the close consideration of many examples of Shakespeare in translation is illuminating not only regarding issues of translation but in providing insights and different perspectives on Shakespeare's work itself; indeed, If This Be Magic is as useful and significant a work on Shakespeare's work as it is on translation.)
       Each chapter takes its heading from a snippet of Shakespeare -- presented in a different language (which often also means a different script). One original quote and one in(to) 'contemporary English' are also included, the rest range from Amharic to Macedonian to Chinese to one quote: "restored to the original Klingon" (There is also one musical quote -- a few bars from a Benjamin Britten/Peter Pears opera.) Each chapter then focuses on a particular translation-related issue, from how to handle 'rhyming' to 'archaism' to 'ambiguity and wordplay' to 'names' to a final chapter 'on the translators'. Divided up like this, into bite-size chunks, the book moves quickly from one issue to the next -- lending itself also to enjoyable piecemeal/dip-into reading.
       As the chapter-headings already suggest, Hahn does not shy away from examples in other languages -- indeed, the book is full of quotes from translations of Shakespeare's work in other languages: it's basically built around these examples he uses. As he freely admits, he doesn't actually speak many of these languages and can't even really 'read' many (given the different scripts they use) and practically all (well, surely all) readers will of course face the same problem. (Hahn generously offers to refund the purchase price of the book to any reader who knows all the languages he uses in his examples.) But it isn't really a problem, as Hahn can make many points without full knowledge of each language, his examples nevertheless serving as truly illustrative examples. One key is the importance of the sound of the text -- obvious, given how much of Shakespeare is poetry/in verse and that most of it was mean to be performed, i.e. spoken aloud -- and Hahn repeatedly encourages the reader to read his foreign examples aloud to get an idea of the sound (e.g.: "You should test out how that sounds. Read it aloud. It's very satisfying").
       Different languages also *work* differently, which both imposes some constraints in translation, but also makes for opportunities, and Hahn is very good at finding a wide variety of examples, with translators of Shakespeare often coming up with ingenious alternatives to what we would consider a simply literal translation and solutions to things that at first sight would appear to defy translation.
       The range of topics addressed is quite amazing: how does a translator re-present dialogue that is spoken with an accent or in a dialect ? What should the translator do when English-writing Shakespeare scatters in something in a foreign language ? (and what if that bit is in the language the translator is translating into ... ?) Does one stick to or try to imitate Shakespeare's iambic pentameter or switch to a meter that is more familiar to audiences in the target language (say, French alexandrines) ? How does one do wordplay (in the case of Shakespeare, as Hahn puts it: 'extreme wordplay') ? (He also addresses the fascinating case of 'bridge' translations -- those done via a different language --, which, perhaps surprisingly, was actually not that uncommon for works by Shakespeare not that long ago.)
       Among the interesting titbits: many common and useful words in English are monosyllabic, but that is not the case for all languages. Hahn compared a number of 'My First Hundred Words'-type basic language books and found that in English: "Seventy-five of those hundred foundational words are monosyllabic" -- while Greek has ... one. (He adds: "I have not yet seen Hamlet in Greek but the idea worries me".)
       A discussion on archaisms and how to deal with them -- obviously, there are a lot in Shakespeare -- includes Hahn leaning strongly towards trying to avoid them (noting elsewhere also that: "translations tend to date even as originals don't, curiously") but finding also a perhaps surprising example of them being put to good use, as:

     The Māori translator Te Haumihiata Mason [...] did deliberately employ occasional older words and usages in her Romeo and Juliet -- not because the play required it, but as a way of reviving some of the richness of her language among a population whose vocabulary has been gradually narrowing.

     The question, then, isn't whether a machine can perhaps do a great job. Sure it can, sometimes. But only if we humans know the exact qualities of the product we're after.

When translated work gets reviewed, it is customary -- if frustrating -- for the translation to be entirely unconsidered, except for one vague, passing adverb or adjective. 'Book Title, fluently translated by Daniel Hahn, is ...' Or 'in a seamless translation by Daniel Hahn, ...' (Why do you assume seamless is what I'm after ?) Limpid is another favourite. I'm not even sure what 'limpid' means, but I once had two of them in the same week.

So having in Chapter 4 mentioned that couplet from a Beatles song that only rhymes in a Liverpool accent, so 'Pyramus and Thisbe' as performed by The Beatles would comfortably rhyme blood and good without forcing it into comedy. I'm thinking Paul as Pyramus, John as Thisbe, George as Moonshine and Ringo as the Lion ?
     If you're having trouble imagining that for yourself, hie thee at once to Google -- such a performance does in fact exist. Yes, really.

Translation is always interpretation, which is why translators frequently compare their work to that of an actor, or a director. No production of Hamlet can bring out every possibility in the text, so we need it done again and again, exploring new choices. And so it is with translations and retranslations.

[E]very translator I know would consider themselves fundamentally and aspirationally 'faithful', but we will not always be faithful to the same thing.

- M.A.Orthofer, 11 April 2026

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Links:

• Alfred A. Knopf publicity page
• Canongate Books publicity page

• Dear Author
• The Guardian
• Kirkus Reviews
• Publishers Weekly
• What to Read Now

• Official site

• See Index of books dealing with Translation

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About the Author:

       Translator Daniel Hahn was born in 1973.

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© 2026 the complete review

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