# What it really takes to translate Shakespeare, with Daniel Hahn Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/what-it-really-takes-to-translate-shakespeare-with-daniel-hahn Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/what-it-really-takes-to-translate-shakespeare-with-daniel-hahn.md Podcast: [Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.](https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700) Published: 2026-06-11T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/grammar-girl/episodes/1193 Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69c1476c007cdcf83fc0964b/e/6a2718b1427484b4a4dc0d7b/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/episodes/what-it-really-takes-to-translate-shakespeare-with-daniel-hahn Duration seconds: 2084 ## Resource 1193. Today, we talk to award-winning translator Daniel Hahn, author of "If This Be Magic," about what it really takes to translate Shakespeare, starting with the philosophical paradox at the heart of all translation: changing every single word while changing nothing at all. We look at the special challenges Shakespeare poses, including preserving rhyme and meter in languages that work completely differently. Find Daniel's book "If This Be Magic" 🔗  Join the Grammar Girl Patreon. 🔗  Share your familect recording in  Speakpipe  or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) 🔗  Watch my  LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗  Subscribe to the  newsletter . 🔗  Take  our advertising survey . 🔗  Get the edited  transcript here . 🔗  Get  Grammar Girl books . | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | Grammar Girl is part of  the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network . Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb | Theme music by  Catherine Rannus . | Grammar Girl Social Media:  YouTube .  TikTok .  Facebook .  Threads .  Instagram .  LinkedIn .  Mastodon .  Bluesky . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/episodes/what-it-really-takes-to-translate-shakespeare-with-daniel-hahn/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/what-it-really-takes-to-translate-shakespeare-with-daniel-hahn.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.