Marlene Van Niekerk on self-translation

In a recent interview with The White Review Afrikaans writer Marlene Van Niekerk (*1954) reflects upon her experience of translating her own poems vs. translating poems by Seamus Heaney into Afrikaans:

In translating my own poems, I sometimes take liberties and change things depending on what works out better. I just try to get the spirit and the texture of the thing. With Heaney there is always also the architecture to try and fathom – and then to scale.

To read the complete interview, please click here.