The Task of the Translator

Lynne Sachs pays homage to Walter Benjamin’s essay The Task of the Translator through three studies of the human body. First, she listens to the musings of a wartime doctor grappling with the task of a kind-of cosmetic surgery for corpses. Second, she witnesses a group of Classics scholars confronted with the haunting yet whimsical task of translating a newspaper article on Iraqi burial rituals into Latin. Finally, she turns to a radio news report on human remains.