She Woke Me Up So I Killed Her

Book excerpt: A major figure in 20th-century arts and letters, Paul Bowles was also an accomplished literary translator who cultivated a special interest in European and Latin American surrealist authors. She Woke Me Up So I Killed Her gathers Bowles' short translations into a single volume, reflecting his love for language as well as his painstaking efforts to craft superior translations. Bowles's taste is as always impeccable, but also prescient. For example, in 1945, Jorge Luis Borges was unknown in the United States, having published only a few stories in South American journals. Given the editorship of an issue of View, Bowles selected Las Ruinas Circulares for inclusion, introducing this seminal author to Western readers and arguably initiating the Borges craze that began in the 1960s. Other important writings in this collection include Hebdomeros by Giorgio de Chirico and White Man's Son by Denise Moran.