Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Sinan Antoon: "When I translate my own material I give myself some more freedom."

Sinan Antoon (*1967) is an Iraqui poet and novelist, who lives in the United States. He writes in Arabic and English and has translated his own poems and novels:
"I write in both languages, so I have poems written in English, in addition to the ones I translate from Arabic myself. My novel is available in English as well and has been translated to five languages."
"When I translate my own material I give myself some more freedom. Meaning since I am the author, I can change a few things if need be."
To read the full interview with Aslı Iğsız, please click here.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Evan Fallenberg: "I cannot and will not ever be able to translate my own work."

Author and translator Evan Fallenberg decided against self-translating his novels into Hebrew, because he doesn't think his linguistic skills would be good enough:
"As good as my Hebrew is, I came to the language too late for it to feel natural when I write in it. And if I can't write in Hebrew, I can't translate."
However he is looking forward to see his novels being translated into Hebrew and to collaborate in the process:
"One day I hope to see my own works translated into Hebrew and other languages. I look forward to being involved in that process, much as I have sat and pondered words and sentences with the authors I've translated."
To read the full interview conducted by Ann Hagman Cardinal in 2008, please click here

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Cfp Translation in Russian Contexts: Transcultural, Translingual and Transdisciplinary Points of Departure

An International Conference at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Uppsala University, Sweden, 2-7 June 2014

[...] The conference will also explore the phenomena of translingualism and transculturality in relation to various practices and theoretical conceptions of translation. [...] We invite proposals for 20-minute papers dealing with the following topics related to Russian contexts:
  • ...
  • Diaspora Contexts: Self-Translation and Translingual Russian Literature


Proposal submission
Abstracts of 200 words and a short bio should be sent to: julie.hansen@ucrs.uu.se & susanna.witt@ucrs.uu.se.
Include your title, affiliation and email address. The deadline for submissions is 1 November 2013. After the conference, a peer reviewed volume of articles based on selected papers will be published.
Conference Co-chairs
Dr. Julie Hansen, Uppsala University (julie.hansen@ucrs.uu.se)
Dr. Susanna Witt, Uppsala University (susanna.witt@ucrs.uu.se)
www.ucrs.uu.se

To read the full call for papers, please click here

Friday, August 23, 2013

7th EST Congress 2013

Self-translation will be a topic at the 7th EST Congress, taking place from August 29-September 1, 2013 in Germersheim, Germany.
To read the booklet of abstracts, please click here.

Friday, August 30
Maud Gonne: A Peripheral Practice or/and a Prominent Transfer Activity? Self-Translations within Asymmetrical Cultural Spaces

Excerpt of the abstract:
The analysis of ST practices within the heterogeneous capital of Belgium by Georges Eekhoud (1854-1927), officially a Flemish writer using French as literary language and, less officially, a multilingual polygraph and anonymous self-translator of serialized novels in the popular press, will provide a survey of
1) the range of social factors involved in the process of ST (cultural, relational, institutional, economic, political, etc.);
2) the particularity of ST with regards to ‘normal translation’ in asymmetrical contexts and its methodological and theoretical consequences for Translation Studies. Simultaneously, the paper will consider the marginalization of ST by critics and by the writers themselves, resulting in the reinforcement of “western models in which monolingualism, rather than multilingualism, is the norm” (Shread 2009:54);
3) the complex and specific hybridity of bilingual actors and the cultural configurations that produced them;
4) the possible implications of ST as transfer activity in the process of national culture building (affirmation, problematization, rejection).

Tessa Lobbes, Reine Meylaerts: Translation and Its Others: Intercultural Transfer in Multilingual Cultures

Excerpt of the abstract:
In accordance with the purpose of this panel, the present paper wants to increase the understanding of the relationship between translation and other transfer techniques and “to reconstruct the interrelations between different techniques and between transfer techniques, their carriers and their agents” (D’hulst 2012: 150).
In this paper the complex forms of intercultural transfer activities will be examined by scrutinizing the mediating activities of an intercultural mediator living in the multilingual culture of Belgium during the interwar period, namely Gaston Pulings (1885-1941). Pulings was a poet, translator, self-translator, multilingual writer, publisher, art critic, literary critic, theatre critic and art animator who lived in the multilingual cosmopolitan city of Brussels.

To read the complete abstracts, please click here.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Marine Petrossian: "I decided to translate my poems into English myself"

Interesting interview conducted by Jill McCoy with the Armenian poet Mariane Petrossian, who learned French in order to appreciate the French translations of her poems and was shocked by the result:
And then, fluent enough in the language, I started reading my poems translated into French and was shocked! The texts were quite different from the ones I had written. The translator had changed the tone of my poems, making them more “poetic”. This is how it happened that I decided to translate my poems into English myself.
To read the full interview, please click here.

Panel discussion: Translating a self-translation: Epic Annette 8th February

Epic Annette: Podium Discussion with Anne Weber (German-French self-translator) and Tess Lewis (translator of the novel into English),  orga...