{"id":90368,"date":"2015-09-30T12:25:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T16:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=90368"},"modified":"2015-09-30T16:06:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T20:06:39","slug":"that-old-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/","title":{"rendered":"That Old Goat!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Walser\u2019s scrupulous art of translation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Robert Walser<\/p><\/div>\n

Today is International Translation Day<\/a>, an occasion of particular piety among the few who observe it. Translation, that glorious service to culture and human understanding!<\/p>\n

There are failures, too, though. Some are of the sort that plague most any endeavor in this vale of tears: inadequacy, incompetence, ineptitude. A New Yorker <\/em>cartoon, beloved in translator circles, shows someone approaching a horror-stricken writer and saying, \u201cDo you not be happy with me as the translator of the book of you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some are cases of the capable but incompatible: not every good translator can translate every good book. They say poetry is what gets lost in et cetera, but humor might be even more often misplaced. Not getting the joke is a common form of not catching the music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And sometimes, when a translator totally hijacks the original, the failure is so dramatic, its lapses from the source text so catastrophic, that it\u2019s hard to tell if it might not be a success after all. Is what we have here a terrible translation, or fake-terrible, or fake-fake-terrible?<\/p>\n

In the mid-1920s, Robert Walser, approaching fifty and particularly prickly, struck up a \u201cfriendship\u201d in Bern with a younger Swiss writer, Alfred Fankhauser, by swearing that he had never read a line Fankhauser had written and never would\u2014a promise that he, and posterity, seem to have kept. Their time together, consisting mostly of drunken ribbing, didn\u2019t last long, but while it did Fankhauser ventured to suggest that Walser was the only man alive capable of bringing the lush and flexible musicality of the great fin de si\u00e8cle poet Paul Verlaine into German. Walser did not take it as a compliment: \u201cWhat!\u201d he bellowed. \u201cTranslate that old goat? I\u2019m supposed to carry that guy\u2019s bags for him?\u201d While playing the proper, upstanding citizen appalled by Verlaine\u2019s tormented life and libertine sexuality, Walser was also venting his spleen at a more famous writer. This is, after all, from the man who called Thomas Mann an \u201cimperialist\u201d and once asked Hugo von Hofmannsthal in a caf\u00e9: \u201cCan\u2019t you forget for five minutes that you\u2019re famous?\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Fankhauser was thinking of the Walserian leaps of imagery in Verlaine\u2019s \u201cParisian Sketch,\u201d in which the sky is gray, the breeze weeps (pleurait<\/em>) like a bassoon, and a stealthy tomcat meows strange and harsh. Or of this lovely poem*, Verlaine\u2019s most famous:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

IL PLEURE DANS MON COEUR<\/small><\/p>\n

\n

Il pleut doucement sur la ville. \u00a0
\u2014Arthur Rimbaud<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville;
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui p\u00e9n\u00e8tre mon coeur?<\/p>\n

\u00d4 bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits!
Pour un coeur qui s\u2019ennuie,
\u00d4 le chant de la pluie!<\/p>\n

Il pleure sans raison
Dans ce coeur qui s\u2019\u00e9coeure.
Quoi! nulle trahison?…
Ce deuil est sans raison.<\/p>\n

C\u2019est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi
Sans amour et sans haine
Mon coeur a tant de peine!<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

THE TEARS ARE FALLING IN MY HEART<\/small><\/p>\n

\n

The rain falls softly on the city.
\u2014Arthur Rimbaud<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The tears are falling in my heart
The way the rain falls on the city;
What is this languorous dart
That pierces through my heart?<\/p>\n

Oh, gentle sound of the rain,
On the ground and on the roofs!
For a heart feeling boredom\u2019s strain,
Oh, the song of the rain!<\/p>\n

Tears are falling for no reason
In this, my heartsick heart.
What! there was no treason?
This grief is for no reason.<\/p>\n

Truly, the hardest sorrow
Is not even to know why,
No love, no hate\u2014today, tomorrow\u2014
My heart is filled with so much sorrow!<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Walser, in any case, must have had those poems in mind when he had what we might call a change of heart. In 1925, he tackled the task of the translator thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Hier wird sorgsam \u00fcbersetzt
das Gedicht von Paul Verlaine,
wo der Regen hat genetzt
jene D\u00e4cher an der Seine.<\/p>\n

Ganz Paris steht grau in grau,
nach der Sehnsucht ich mich sehne. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
Sieh\u2019 mal an, ich mach\u2019 miau,
\u00e4hnlich wie einst Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

O du mehr als schon genug
\u00fcbertragenes Gew\u00e4hne,
einst vor zwanzig Jahren frug
ich auch sehr nach Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

Stimmungsvoll ist zweifellos,
was ich dehne da und dehne,
punkto Neuigkeit war gro\u00df
unser Papa Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

Gebet eine Zwiebel mir,
da\u00df die Tr\u00e4ne mir auch tr\u00e4ne,
die einst unsrem Paul Verlaine
rinnelt\u2019 auf das Schreibpapier.<\/p>\n

H\u00f6chste Zeit ist\u2019s, wie ich meine,
da\u00df man endlich Robert Wals
sich uns auch mal vorstellt als
ein Verdeutscher von Verlaine.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Here is a scrupulous translation
of a poem by Paul Verlaine,
the one about the inundation
of the roofs along the Seine.<\/p>\n

All of Paris gray on gray now,
I long for longing in the rain.
Looky here, hear me meow,
much as once did Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

Oh you flight of fanciful stuff
already translated more than enough,
twenty years back I too did deign
to be interested in Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

Moody and atmospheric, doubtless,
is what I here take up again;
great too with respect to newness
was our Papa Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n

Lord, send me an onion
to bring forth tears of also mine
like those that, for our Paul Verlaine,
on ink-covered paper once did run.<\/p>\n

Now it is high time, I\u2019m just sayin\u2019,
for at last our Robert Wals
to show his face when duty calls
and put into German Paul Verlaine.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This poem was one of Walser\u2019s now-famous microscripts, written in incredibly tiny handwriting for his own amusement and potential later use, and laboriously deciphered only decades after his death. He never published it or showed it to anybody; it never went anywhere, in public or private. Taking his hostility toward Verlaine, Fankhauser, and the rest and turning it into a chuckle\u2014into a virtuosic exercise in rhyme, too, quasi-signed with three-quarters of his name\u2014seems to have been enough for our man Wals.<\/p>\n

If a scrupulous translation falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still bring the original across? Maybe so. The word somewhat loosely translated here as \u201cscrupulous\u201d is sorgsam<\/em>, full of Sorge <\/em>(worry, concern, solicitude): painstaking and attentive, careful, gentle. Translations are always sorgsam<\/em>\u2014acts of loving care, even if not exactly gentle; taking pains of some sort, however unhinged. The private, unpublishing scribbler, too, is offering himself to us (sich uns vorstellt<\/em>) as a translator\u2014or at least it\u2019s high time he did.<\/p>\n

*(All translations into English in this column are mine.)<\/small><\/p>\n

Damion Searls<\/a>, the <\/em>Daily\u2019s language columnist<\/a>, is a translator from German, French, Norwegian, and Dutch.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Walser\u2019s scrupulous art of translation. Today is International Translation Day, an occasion of particular piety among the few who observe it. Translation, that glorious service to culture and human understanding! There are failures, too, though. Some are of the sort that plague most any endeavor in this vale of tears: inadequacy, incompetence, ineptitude. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[807],"tags":[19598,14748,529,1273,19599,19597,687,19600,2653,2283,7479,19601,1073,530],"class_list":["post-90368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-translation","tag-alfred-fankhauser","tag-failure","tag-french","tag-german","tag-hugo-von-hofmannsthal","tag-international-translation-day","tag-language","tag-microscripts","tag-paul-verlaine","tag-robert-walser","tag-satire","tag-scrupulousness","tag-thomas-mann","tag-translation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn Which Robert Walser Translates Paul Verlaine (Kind of...)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Damion Searls on the occasional glories of failed translations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That Old Goat! by Damion Searls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 30, 2015 \u2013 Robert Walser\u2019s scrupulous art of translation.Today is International Translation Day, an occasion of particular piety among the few who observe it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1833\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1378\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Damion Searls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Damion Searls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Damion Searls\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1f756f0bf1ff08b44f7e01400e6d2a\"},\"headline\":\"That Old Goat!\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\"},\"wordCount\":1130,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alfred Fankhauser\",\"failure\",\"French\",\"German\",\"Hugo von Hofmannsthal\",\"International Translation Day\",\"language\",\"microscripts\",\"Paul Verlaine\",\"Robert Walser\",\"satire\",\"scrupulousness\",\"Thomas Mann\",\"translation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Translation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\",\"name\":\"In Which Robert Walser Translates Paul Verlaine (Kind of...)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Damion Searls on the occasional glories of failed translations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"That Old Goat!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1f756f0bf1ff08b44f7e01400e6d2a\",\"name\":\"Damion Searls\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac0ceb0cc450d716dde5a2185dba109889bbbacaddbf742ff36ae476e2c0a51f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac0ceb0cc450d716dde5a2185dba109889bbbacaddbf742ff36ae476e2c0a51f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Damion Searls\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dsearls\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In Which Robert Walser Translates Paul Verlaine (Kind of...)","description":"Damion Searls on the occasional glories of failed translations.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"That Old Goat! by Damion Searls","og_description":"September 30, 2015 \u2013 Robert Walser\u2019s scrupulous art of translation.Today is International Translation Day, an occasion of particular piety among the few who observe it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1833,"height":1378,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Damion Searls","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Damion Searls","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/"},"author":{"name":"Damion Searls","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1f756f0bf1ff08b44f7e01400e6d2a"},"headline":"That Old Goat!","datePublished":"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/"},"wordCount":1130,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg","keywords":["Alfred Fankhauser","failure","French","German","Hugo von Hofmannsthal","International Translation Day","language","microscripts","Paul Verlaine","Robert Walser","satire","scrupulousness","Thomas Mann","translation"],"articleSection":["On Translation"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/","name":"In Which Robert Walser Translates Paul Verlaine (Kind of...)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg","datePublished":"2015-09-30T16:25:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-30T20:06:39+00:00","description":"Damion Searls on the occasional glories of failed translations.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/robertwalser.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/that-old-goat\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"That Old Goat!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1f756f0bf1ff08b44f7e01400e6d2a","name":"Damion Searls","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac0ceb0cc450d716dde5a2185dba109889bbbacaddbf742ff36ae476e2c0a51f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac0ceb0cc450d716dde5a2185dba109889bbbacaddbf742ff36ae476e2c0a51f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Damion Searls"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dsearls\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90368"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90410,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90368\/revisions\/90410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}