Lowell Cook
Photo by Tamdrin Tso
Bio
Lowell Cook is a researcher and translator of the entire breadth of Tibetan literature, from the ancient Dunhuang manuscripts to contemporary fiction and poetry. His aspiration is to be able to share some of the richness of Tibetan literature with the world. He completed his MA in translation, philology, and textual interpretation at Kathmandu University’s Rangjung Yeshe Institute. His book-length translations include A White Conch Spiraling Toward Happiness: Poems of a Tibetan Master by Sangngak Tenzin Rinpoche. He translates for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha and Lhasey Lotsawa and his translations have appeared in publications such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, High Peaks Pure Earth, and Lotsawa House.
Project Description
To support the translation from the Tibetan of The Collected Fiction of Dondrup Gyal. Dondrup Gyal (1952-85) is considered the father of contemporary Tibetan literature and the founder of Tibetan free-verse poetry. Coming of age during Tibet's cultural revolution, his early life was characterized by familial hardship and scarcity of resources that made their way into his writing. His fiction features an abundance of central female characters during a time when Tibetan literature focused almost exclusively on men. His work tackles difficult and often taboo themes, including arranged marriages, rape, and Buddhism, which led to criticism of his work and a few death threats. He tragically took his own life at the age of 32. Hardly any of his work appears in English, and this collection will offer American audiences the full range of his fiction.
It is both humbling and uplifting to be awarded the NEA’s Translation Fellowship. As a translator who spends a large amount of time translating Buddhist canonical works, translating contemporary fiction is always a welcomed breath of fresh air. Buddhist canonical works call for a very linear and, at times, rigid translation—you don’t want to be caught putting words in the Buddha’s mouth! Translating contemporary fiction on the other hand allows for, or rather demands, a creative straying from and an imaginative recreation of the text. Indeed, to stray from text only to arrive its heart is, for me, the very paradox of translation.
Moreover, this award represents a modest step forward onto the global stage for Tibetan literature, an extraordinary body of literature that is too often underrepresented amongst world literature. While the literature of Tibet is frequently thought to be limited to Buddhist philosophy, there is a vibrant scene of contemporary Tibetan writers composing diverse and dynamic works. At the headwaters to these currents of modern Tibetan literature stands Dondrup Gyal. Gyal’s life and works ushered in a new era of writing, by both breaking with tradition and, at the same time, utilizing it. Given Gyal’s seminal position in the history of Tibetan literature and the shortage of English translation, the time for translating his writings could not be any more ripe. It is thus my hope in translating the Collected Fiction of Dondrup Gyal that I will help make the distinct voice of contemporary Tibetan fiction accessible to English-reading audiences.