Margaret Rigaud (France & U.K.)

On Richard Berengarten at 80

I first met Richard about ten years ago through Peter Collier, a friend and colleague in the Cambridge French Department. Richard was looking for translators to work on the special issue that the French Revue Nu(e) was devoting to his work. Our friendship started over lunch at Corpus Christi College, followed by a few afternoon visits to discuss my translation of The Manager at his house, in a quiet street off the Mill Road. Translation is usually a solitary task, but this time I had a sounding board: the author of the text, himself an accomplished translator of the works of others. The pleasure I had in translating Richard’s finely crafted text was multiplied by these exchanges. I remember these conversations like a gift from an insightful close-reader at the height of his craft to a younger, less experienced translator. There is no better gift one reader and writer can make to another. And so it is Richard the teacher and the prodding, gently critical friend, as much as Richard the poet we know so well, that I wish to celebrate today. May the conversation continue.

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