Thursday, 30 September 2010
Happy International Translation Day!
Today is not only the fiftieth birthday of the Flintstone Family - it's also International Translation Day! Look out for events near you - London, Germany/Switzerland - and don't forget to give all the translators in your life a big hug/kiss/bunch of flowers/e-card/lucrative contract/bearded saint.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
International Literature Prize to Marie NDiaye and Claudia Kalscheuer
For the second time, Berlin's House of World Cultures has awarded its International Literature Prize, this time to Marie NDiaye and her translator Claudia Kalscheuer for Drei starke Frauen (Trois femmes puissantes).
The jury wrote of the translation:
Claudia Kalscheuer has succeeded in depicting this finely tared, half nightmarish, half surreal rhythm in German. She follows the movements of the original French sentences very precisely, yet at the decisive points chooses möbius loops, sets inversions, reduces the number of alliterations without abandoning their poetic moment even remotely, thus inscribing the German linguistic melody in her translation, charging it with exactly the same dense, disturbing rhythm that marks out the original. And that is a masterly achievement.
I have two things to say, by which I certainly don't mean to detract from the nominated books in any way.
As Michael Orthofer pointed out at the Literary Saloon, the award isn't really terribly international in terms of language: all the books were translated from either English or French. As so often (and it suprises me that the House of World Cultures is playing this game), "international" in Germany means where you or indeed your parents or grandparents were born, not where you are now and what language you work in.
Or is the narrow field a symptom of the fact that books originally written in other languages aren't making it into German? Because as the shortlist stands, this is an award for ethnic minority writers based in France or the United States (or in NDiaye's case, Berlin). I have nothing against that, but it's hardly the same as international.
The jury wrote of the translation:
Claudia Kalscheuer has succeeded in depicting this finely tared, half nightmarish, half surreal rhythm in German. She follows the movements of the original French sentences very precisely, yet at the decisive points chooses möbius loops, sets inversions, reduces the number of alliterations without abandoning their poetic moment even remotely, thus inscribing the German linguistic melody in her translation, charging it with exactly the same dense, disturbing rhythm that marks out the original. And that is a masterly achievement.
I have two things to say, by which I certainly don't mean to detract from the nominated books in any way.
As Michael Orthofer pointed out at the Literary Saloon, the award isn't really terribly international in terms of language: all the books were translated from either English or French. As so often (and it suprises me that the House of World Cultures is playing this game), "international" in Germany means where you or indeed your parents or grandparents were born, not where you are now and what language you work in.
Or is the narrow field a symptom of the fact that books originally written in other languages aren't making it into German? Because as the shortlist stands, this is an award for ethnic minority writers based in France or the United States (or in NDiaye's case, Berlin). I have nothing against that, but it's hardly the same as international.
Aspekte Debut Prize to Dorothee Elmiger
As trade mag Börsenblatt reports but not up on the actual website as yet, this year's Aspekte Literature Prize for debut novels has been awarded to Dorothee Elmiger for her exciting Einladung an die Waghalsigen.
You can read a sample in German behind the link, or read my sample translation for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, which was great fun to do. The book's also nominated for the Swiss Book Prize and Elmiger (who also happens to be very nice) came in a solid second for the Bachmann Prize. She gets a tasty €10,000.
I'll review the book soonish.
You can read a sample in German behind the link, or read my sample translation for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, which was great fun to do. The book's also nominated for the Swiss Book Prize and Elmiger (who also happens to be very nice) came in a solid second for the Bachmann Prize. She gets a tasty €10,000.
I'll review the book soonish.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
And Other Stories Wins Funding
And more good news - not quite up on their website, but there's a press release out there somewhere.
The fantastic and fantastically different publishing/reading/general wonderfulness project And Other Stories has received the OK for Arts Council funding. That means they can publish four translated books in 2011! As Maureen Freely puts it:
Most reading groups tackle only the most middle of the middlebrow fiction out there – and publishers tend to follow - whereas this kind of network can and will tackle challenging and unusual literature from all kinds of writers.
I'm so, so pleased for them - I've been following And Other Stories very closely but at a distance imposed by geography, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the project develops now that it's finally "real".
Congratulations, Stefan!
The fantastic and fantastically different publishing/reading/general wonderfulness project And Other Stories has received the OK for Arts Council funding. That means they can publish four translated books in 2011! As Maureen Freely puts it:
Most reading groups tackle only the most middle of the middlebrow fiction out there – and publishers tend to follow - whereas this kind of network can and will tackle challenging and unusual literature from all kinds of writers.
I'm so, so pleased for them - I've been following And Other Stories very closely but at a distance imposed by geography, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the project develops now that it's finally "real".
Congratulations, Stefan!
New New Books in German
There's a brand spanking new edition of New Books in German online. Now, the magazine has always been a joy to read for nerdy German book lovers. But they just keep on making it better and better! This issue brings us the usual crop of recommendations for translation - children's books, new fiction and non-fiction and a "forgotten gem" by Remarque. And wait - there's more! Features upon features, from an interview with one of my translatorly heroes Sir John E. Woods to Donal McLaughlin on Swiss writing to a piece by one of my publishing heroes, Naveen Kishore of Seagull Books. A brief quote to give you an idea:
I do not have a pre-plan, I simply make myself available ... like the blotting paper of old, I soak in conversations, listen to authors already on my list, converse with translators, listen some more to academic friends around the world, travel, talk to publishers and sometimes blindly agree to be led into a world of literature that they are familiar with.
And for those who don't read German, there's an interesting list of new and forthcoming translations. Is it just me, or are things looking up? All these exciting writers, projects and publishers, all these great books coming out of the German-speaking world. It's enough to make a German book lover's heart race.
I do not have a pre-plan, I simply make myself available ... like the blotting paper of old, I soak in conversations, listen to authors already on my list, converse with translators, listen some more to academic friends around the world, travel, talk to publishers and sometimes blindly agree to be led into a world of literature that they are familiar with.
And for those who don't read German, there's an interesting list of new and forthcoming translations. Is it just me, or are things looking up? All these exciting writers, projects and publishers, all these great books coming out of the German-speaking world. It's enough to make a German book lover's heart race.
Friday, 24 September 2010
Oddest German Book Title Shortlist Translation Fun (?)
I'm sure I'm not the only one suffering from shortlist fatigue this week. So to spice up the zillionth shortlist announcement (on top translator Shelley Frisch's suggestion), this is your chance to try your hand at translating the six oddest German book titles officially voted for by the public.
All you have to do is post your English version of one or more of the titles in the comments section. If more than one person bothers to play along, I will select the winner and shower them with honour and praise, and possibly send them a random odd object I find lying around my flat (Kim Possible alarm clock, anyone?).
So here are the titles. Do your worst!
All you have to do is post your English version of one or more of the titles in the comments section. If more than one person bothers to play along, I will select the winner and shower them with honour and praise, and possibly send them a random odd object I find lying around my flat (Kim Possible alarm clock, anyone?).
So here are the titles. Do your worst!
Nichtamtlicher Leitfaden zur Bewältigung von Projekten und zur Abweisung diesbezüglicher Irrtümer. Oder: Regeln für Hans-Peter
Frank Buddrus, Wiley
An dem Tag, als ich meine Friseuse küsste, sind viele Vögel gestorben
Josef Kleindienst, Sonderzahl
Der Tod auf der Schippe
Oder was Archäologen sonst so finden
Angelika Franz, Theiss
Zehn Tipps, das Morden zu beenden und den Abwasch zu beginnen
Hallgrímur Helgason, Tropen
Texas als Texttitel. Ein Rabiatkomödienroman
Max Höfler, Ritter
Die Frau, die allein ein ganzer Tisch war
Tor Åge Bringsværd, Onkel & Onkel
Thursday, 23 September 2010
AmazonCrossing Announces Spring 2011 List
I wrote with some excitement about the launch of AmazonCrossing, the retail giant's new venture into translation. And now they've announced which books they'll be publishing in the spring of next year.
They're a fairly eclectic selection, from groundbreaking Ukrainian women's writing to a Chinese family story. And there are two titles on the list translated from German: Oliver Pötzsch's historical novel The Hangman's Daughter (trans. Lee Chedayne) and Rusalka Reh's children's book Pizzicato: The Abduction of the Magic Violin (trans. David Henry Wilson).
Follow the links for interesting interviews with the writers and translators.
They're a fairly eclectic selection, from groundbreaking Ukrainian women's writing to a Chinese family story. And there are two titles on the list translated from German: Oliver Pötzsch's historical novel The Hangman's Daughter (trans. Lee Chedayne) and Rusalka Reh's children's book Pizzicato: The Abduction of the Magic Violin (trans. David Henry Wilson).
Follow the links for interesting interviews with the writers and translators.
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