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Lucian Dan Teodorovici
Florin Bican
Though, technically, a product of the 80’s generation and at the time unreservedly sharing their outlook, Florin Bican chose to pursue his literary interests in the field of translation. Having graduated in English from Bucharest University, he started applying his acquired language to random samples of Romanian literature, starting from the premise that translating is the highest form of reading. He sees translation as an act of kindness towards readers who are not fortunate enough to have a working knowledge of Romanian. The resulting translations, published in Britain, The United States and Romania, cover a wide range of authors. Among his Romanian translations from English, Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark and T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats are worth mentioning. Occasionally he is also translating German poetry into English and Romanian. When not translating, Florin Bican turns out the odd article for Romanian, British, American and German publications, and works on subversive children literature. His first volume of poetry, Cântice mârlăneşti (A Slob’s Treasury of Verse), Humanitas Educaţional 2007, is a collection of politically incorrect cautionary rhymes addressed to children and grownups alike. Its sequel in prose, Tropice tâmpe (Torpid Tropics) is well under way. Florin Bican is currently running the Romanian Cultural Institute programmes for training translators of Romanian literature from different parts of the world.