The Translingual ImaginationIt is difficult to write well even in one language. Yet a rich body of translingual literatureby authors who write in more than one language or in a language other than their primary oneexists. The Translingual Imagination is a pioneering study of the phenomenon, which is as ancient as the use of Arabic, Latin, Mandarin, Persian, and Sanskrit as linguae francae. Colonialism, war, mobility, and the aesthetics of alienation have combined to create a