From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation by Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Renowned Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne brings his distinctive multicultural perspective—shaped by African, French, and American influences—to his latest work, From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation. (Other Press, 2025)
In this humanist exploration, Diagne examines the practice of translation as a form of bridge-building across cultures. Echoing the intellectual spirit of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Translating Myself and Others and Elena Ferrante’s In the Margins, the book reflects on the ways translation can connect people across divides of language, history, and power.
📅 Release Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
📦 Now Available for Pre-Order
The Power—and Paradox—of Translation
Translation, Diagne notes, often arises in contexts marked by inequality between dominant and marginalized languages. Yet even within these asymmetries—particularly in postcolonial contexts—the act of translation can become a space of dialogue, reciprocity, and cultural mediation.
To praise translation as “the language of languages” is, in Diagne’s words, to celebrate plurality and equality. Translating is not merely a technical act; it is an act of hospitality, of welcoming what has been thought in one language into the home of another. In doing so, translation fosters shared humanity and imagines a hopeful version of the Tower of Babel—one built on understanding rather than division.
About the Author
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor of Philosophy and Francophone Studies and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. His books include:
- The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa
- Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with the Western Tradition
- Postcolonial Bergson
- African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude
About the Translator
Dylan Temel is a translator and English instructor at the University of Nanterre. He currently resides in Paris.
Advance Praise for Souleymane Bachir Diagne (From Language to Language):
“In his new book, From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation, philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne digs deeper into the process of translation to give us a multifaceted perspective on the relationship between translation and colonialism, first of all, but also what happens after decolonization…From Language to Language is a fascinating overview of Diagne’s philosophy of translation and a great instigator for further thought on this subject.”
—PROVINCETOWN MAGAZINE
days
hours minutes seconds
until
‘From Language to Language’ release date
SA Examiner 