For Mary Ann Cawsnoted translator of surrealist poetrythe most appealing translations are also the oddest the unexpected unpredictable and unmimetic turns that translations take are an endless source of fascination and instruction Surprised in Translation is a celebration of the occasional and fruitful peculiarity that results from some of the most flavorful translations of wellknown authors These translations Caws avers can energize and enliven the voice of the original In eight elegant chapters Caws reflects on translations that took her by surprise Caws shows that the elimination of certain passages from the originalin the case of Stphane Mallarm translating Tennyson Ezra Pound interpreting the troubadours or Virginia Woolf rendered into French by Clara Malraux Charles Mauron and Marguerite Yourcenaroften produces a greater and more coherent art Alternatively some translationssuch as Yves Bonnefoys translations of Shakespeare Keats and Yeats into Frenchrequire more lines in order