Top all-time · #25147
Emily Wilson
Personal blog · emily613.substack.comwritingculture
Emily Wilson writes EMILY’s Substack, a personal blog at emily613.substack.com about writing and culture. Since 2025, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 3 times, most often “On Complicated: The translation choice I have been asked about a gazillion times”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Posts by translator Emily Wilson explaining her reasoning for a specific word choice, "complicated", in her translation of a poem. Commenters link them to answer a critic of that choice.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
My personal Substack.
Most-linked posts?
- On Complicated: The translation choice I have been asked about a gazillion times3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-12-16
What Hacker News says?
They wrote at length on this particular translation choice: https://emily613.substack.com/p/on-complicated
Comment linking /p/on-complicated
on “An Uncomplicated Man”Submitted On Complicated: The translation choice I have been asked about a gazillion times as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWilson wrote in great and excruciating detail about why she chose “complicated” as the translation, yet you dismiss it as if if was some sort of casual, thoughtless decision: https://emily613.substack.com/p/on-complicated Rest assured that she’s given more thought to every single word in that poem than almost anyone else alive. I see nothing tangible in your comment other than “I think it’s artless and dumb.” Seems…
Comment linking /p/on-complicated
on “An Uncomplicated Man”