India, April 4 -- What were the aesthetic, political and emotional reasons that made you translate Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Kairos from German to English?

I was asked for by the author. That counts for a lot, at least with me. If someone knows enough to ask for me, then I will be disposed to try and give them my work. Trust is definitely part of it. Also, I see part of my work as a translator as informing on Germany.

Germany has changed a lot over the last 40 years. It will change again, of course, but what I mean is that it has become stabler and more comfortable in the world than it was 40 years ago. I never thought it would be. It is important to tell Germans this. For a long time, our world could be divided into East and West Germany...