British and American literary translator (born 1963)
Peter Constantine
Peter Constantine, 2009
Born
1963 London
Occupation
Translator, writer
Nationality
British, American
Genre
Translation
Peter Constantine (born 1963) is a British and American literary translator who has translated literary works from German, Russian, French, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Italian, Albanian, Dutch, and Slovene.
Biography
Constantine was born in London to an Austrian mother and a British father of Turkish and Greek descent. He grew up in
Athens, Greece before moving to the United States in 1983. In his first books, Japanese Street Slang and Japanese Slang: Uncensored he explored Japanese slang and criminal
jargons in their many varieties, focusing on aspects of the Japanese language that had been traditionally marginalised. "Previously unprintable things that will inform, amuse, shock and maybe even disgust" (Joseph LaPenta: Daily Yomiuri, 6 December 1992).
In the early 1990s, Constantine began translating short stories and poetry from various European languages, publishing in literary magazines in the United States, Britain, and Australia. Since the publication of his first book-length translation, Thomas Mann: Six Early Stories, he has worked almost exclusively as a literary translator.
Contemporary Authors quotes Constantine: "I have always been interested in language in all its aspects. Working with master linguists such as Thomas Mann, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Babel has been particularly rewarding for me, since these writers push language to an extreme, and the translator has to vigorously mold the translation in order to try to recreate their effects."[1]
Deichmann, Hans; Constantine, Peter (with Peter Glassgold) (1997). Objects: A Chronicle of Subversion in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. New York: Marsilio Publishing.
ISBN1-56886-048-X.
Svit, Brina; Constantine, Peter (2002). Con Brio. London: Harvill Press.
ISBN1-86046-857-8.
Babel, Isaac; Constantine, Peter (2002). The Collected Stories. edited by Nathalie Babel. Foreword by
Cynthia Ozick. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN0-393-32402-8.
Babel, Isaac; Constantine, Peter (2003). The Red Cavalry Stories. edited by Nathalie Babel. Foreword by
Michael Dirda. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN0-393-32423-0.
Morrisseau-Leroy, Felix; Constantine, Peter (2003). Three Haitian Creole Tales. Los Angeles: Green Integer Press.
ISBN1-931243-22-0.
Constantine, Peter (1993). Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures. Tokyo: Yen Books.
ISBN4-900737-00-3.
Constantine, Peter (1994). Japanese Slang: Uncensored. Tokyo: Yen Books.
ISBN4-900737-03-8.
Constantine, Peter (1994). Making Out in Indonesian. Tokyo: Yen Books.
ISBN4-900737-02-X.
Constantine, Peter (1995). Making Out in Korean. Tokyo: Yen Books.
ISBN4-900737-33-X.
Constantine, Peter (1998). Making Out in Vietnamese. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions.
ISBN4-900737-48-8.
Constantine, Peter (1998). A Sucht B. Bern: Scherz Verlag.
ISBN3-502-12130-3.
Constantine, Peter (2011). Japanese Street Slang (Completely Revised and Updated). foreword by
James D. McCawley. New York: Weatherhill.
ISBN978-1-59030-848-6.
Edited with Bien, Peter,
Edmund Keeley, Karen Van Dyck (2004). A Century of Greek Poetry: 1900–2000. New Jersey: Kosmos Publishing.
ISBN1-932455-00-0. {{
cite book}}: |last= has generic name (
help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
The Caribbean Writer, Volume 12, 1998. Special Section: Poems by Celie Diaquoi Deslandes, edited and translated by Peter Constantine from the French.
The Caribbean Writer, Volume 10, 1996. Special Section: Surinamese short fiction by Paul Bandel, Hélène Ramjiawan, Anne Zeggen en Monique Pool. Edited and translated by Peter Constantine from the Dutch.