Sibila Petlevski: Is Translating Your Own Writing Really “Translation”?

In an essay published on Literary Hub in April 2025, the Croatian poet Sibila Petlevski (*1964 in Zagreb, Croatia) reflects on self-translating her poetry collection Soiled With Earth Drunk on Air (2025):

I wrote each poem simultaneously in Croatian and English—almost in the same breath—day after day until I finished the book. The poems were written in free verse (first in English, then in my native tongue, Croatian), but the meditative-shamanic rhythm of the couplets was carried through the entire manuscript, which required from me focused dedication and consistency in the chosen procedure. 

Continue reading about her self-translating experience at Literary Hub:
https://lithub.com/is-translating-your-own-writing-really-translation/ 

Andrey Gritsman. On Bilingual Poetry and Self-Translation

Check out the essay by Russian-American poet Andrey Gritsman on bilingual poetry and self-translation published on EastWest Literary Forum. Reflecting on its experience of creating "parallel poems", he concludes:

"In summary, writing poetry in two poetic languages shows that a successful poem appears when it is written in two languages on the same emotional wave, yet created as two original poems in different languages."

Read the full essay here:  https://eastwestliteraryforum.com/essays/andrey-gritsman-on-bilingual-poetry-and-self-translation 

New Voices in Self-Translation: Emmi Itäranta (Finnish-English)

Acclaimed science fiction author Emmi Itäranta (*1976) writes her novels in both Finnish and English, with manuscripts always created side by side. She was born in Tampere, Finland, but moved to Canterbury, UK, in 2007 where she lived for 14 years. Recently, she moved back to Finland. Since she kept travelling back to Finland while living abroad, she can be classified as a transmigrant self-translator (Gentes 2019).

Thus far, Itäranta has published three self-translated novels, which won several awards both in Finland and in the UK:

• Teemestarin kirja (Teos, 2012) / Memory of Waters (Harper Collins 2014);
• Kudottujen kujien kaupunki (Teos 2015) / The City of Woven Streets (Harper Voyager, UK 2016) / The Weaver (Harper Voyager USA 2016);
• Kuunpäivän kirjeet (Teos, 2020) / Moonday Letters (Titan Books, UK 2022)

Itäranta wrote the manuscript of her first novel while pursuing a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Kent. Because the Finnish manuscript of her first novel Teemestarin kirja (Teos, 2012) / Memory of Waters (Harper Collins 2014) won Teos Publishing's science fiction and fantasy novel contest in 2011, the Finnish version of the novel was published much earlier than the English one. As is often the case, however, the gap between the two publications does not indicate a consecutive self-translation process. Itäranta is indeed a systematic simultaneous self-translator (for the distinction between simultaneous and consecutive self-translations see Grutman 2009), writing both versions of her novels at the same time. So how did Itärante become a bilingual writer?

Her first novel grew out of an attempt to write a short  story during a creative writing course at the University of Kent. So English was an obvious choice. So why did she decide to include Finnish in the process?

"Once I had written one or two chapters, I realised that it would be really useful to get some feedback from my Finnish writing group. We meet once a month online. So I wrote those early chapters in Finnish, too. As I was doing that, I began to realise that working in both languages actually helped me polish the writing, because I had to look at it so closely." (Marten 2015)

Itäranta takes a very strategic approach to writing (on her writing process, see Riikonen 2014 in detail), and so it is not surprising that she also immediately developed a strategy for her bilingual writing process, which she improved upon for her next two novels:

“Most of the time I ended up writing the first draft of each chapter in Finnish, then I would translate it into English and edit it, making some changes as I translated, then update the Finnish version of the chapter” (Marten 2015). 

Each chapter goes through several versions in both languages before Itäranta moves on to the next chapter. The editing process is never unidirectional and both versions influence each other throughout the self-translation process: “Each chapter actually took shape through those two languages” (Marten 2015). Being constantly aware about the translation task ahead, may affect a self-translator's choice of style, as Itäranta confirms:

"I thought about how sentences and words would translate from one language to the other already while writing, and sometimes this may have simplified the language unnecessarily. [...] In order to find balance between the languages, I had to make some compromises. [...] I would have probably used Finnish more daring had I not been thinking about the English equivalents when writing. On the other hand, using two languages stripped away superfluous words and unnecessary decorations, because I had to think about the way each sentence worked several times" (Riikonen 2014, p. 18).

The negotiation between the two languages sometimes results in neologisms which prove challenging for her translators: "Sometimes I hear back from translators who don’t know what to make of my neologisms or other choices" (Karppanen 2017:7). The bilingual writing process also presents an additional challenge for her Finnish editors: 

“Finnish editors also need to be able to spot any Anglicisms in my writing. I try to be careful not to use them, but sometimes I slip up. Readers are also very particular about good language, so it’s important that any foreign structures are edited out” (Kortela 2021).

The textual relationship between the two versions is a subject of much controversy in research on self-translation (see, e.g. Fitch 1988, Oustinoff 2001). Itäranta takes a clear stand on this issue: 

"The English version is not a translation. The Finnish version is not a translation. They are both the original, and each was shaped by the constant presence of the other. They are twins, inseparable, and would not be the same without each other." (Itäranta 2014) 

In her analysis of the debut novel Memory of Waters, Katarina Leppänen underscores that the bilingual approach to writing creates a novel that "transgresses culture" in a unique way: 

"What Itäranta does is to build her work on two sets of languages and cultures simultaneously. In contrast to the effect of multilingual or bilingual texts, where distance and familiarity is created by words present in the text, such as slang, foreign words or sentences, or dialect, Itäranta’s text produces a world beyond the assumed British and Finnish literary and cultural contexts. What is achieved is not a hybrid, but rather an abstraction. It is thus already in the moment of creation a piece of world literature that transgresses culture not only by placing the events in another (fictive) world, but also by the cross-fertilization in making sense of different cultural contexts, the very process of intellectual back-and-forth movement, which cannot be grounded anywhere in between." (Leppänen 2020: 428)

Self-translation is often portrayed as a painful experience, a tedious re-enactment of a once creative act: "a real torture" (Miletic 2008: 44), "Boring, frustrating, painful" (Cordingley 2013: 5), "exquisitely painful" (Beaujour 1995: 719).  Itäranta, however, asserts: "It's not a burden.[...] I enjoy the interaction between the two languages" (Islam 2022: 3:59-4:27). In fact many statements by authors are followed by a "but" (see Gentes 2017: 109-112), and writers like Itäranta highlight the rewarding nature of self-translation:

 "You get very, very close to the text when you work in two languages; translators often spot details that the author and editor may have missed. It is a slow process, and hard work, but ultimately I find it rewarding." (Moore 2014)

Itäranti's novels are internationally successful: According to the website of her literary agency Elina Ahlback, the debut novel was translated into 21 languages, translation rights for her second novel have already been sold to Brazil, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy and for her third novel to Czech Republic and Hungary. Katarina Leppänen suggests that the English self-translation may have played a decisive role in this success: "When it comes to the question of quick global publication, an existing English version is of course a great benefit for a debuting author as it gives access to the transnational world literary networks" (Leppänen 2020: 428).

References on Itäranta:

Homepage: https://www.emmiitaranta.com/
Literary agency: https://www.ahlbackagency.com/author/emmi-itaranta/?authorId=15

Islam, Mahmudul.2020. "Dystopian thinking, bilingual writing, and Finnish culture". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXntTW-F7jM&ab_channel=MahmudulIslam-Finnophile

Itäranta, Emmi. 2014. "Guest Post: Emmi Itäranta, author of MEMORY OF WATER". Published on 16.06.2014 on Harper Voyager: https://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/guest-post-emmi-itaranta-author-of-memory-of-water/

Karppanen, Pasi Karppanen. 2017. "Conquering the World as a Finnish Author". In: Spin, issue 2/2017. http://pasikarppanen.net/texts/2017-02a_Conquering-the-World-as-a-Finnish-Author.pdf 

Kortela, Anne. 2021. "Turku Book Fair. Digging into the Core". https://anjasnellmanbooks.com/book-fair.html

Leppänen, Katarina. 2020. "Memory of Water: Boundaries of Political Geography and World Literature." European Review, 28(3), 425-434. doi:10.1017/S1062798719000541

Marten, Peter. 2015. "Finnish author writes memories of the future". May 2015. https://finland.fi/arts-culture/finnish-author-writes-memories-of-the-future/

Moore, Lucy. 2014. "Exclusive interview with Emmi Itäranta". Published on 15.05.2015 on Female First, https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/emmi-itaranta-memory-of-water-470063.html

Riikonen, Marika. 2014. "The words will flow as long as she can move her hands". Finnish Weird. Translated by Marianna Leikomaa. First published in Tähtivaeltaja 2/2011. English translation available on: https://www.finnishweird.net/files/finnish_weird_2014.pdf

References on self-translation research:

Beaujour, Elizabeth Klosty. 1995. "Translation and self-translation". In: Vladimir E. Alexandrov (ed.): The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov. New York / London: Garland, 714–724.

Cordingley, Anthony. 2013. “The Passion of Self-Translation: A Masocritical Perspective.” In: Anthony Cordingley (ed.), Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. London: Continuum, 81–94.

Fitch, Brian T. 1988. Beckett and Babel. An Investigation into the State of the Bilingual Work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Gentes, Eva. 2017. (Un-)Sichtbarkeit der literarischen Selbstübersetzung in der romanischsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Eine literatur- und übersetzungssoziologische Annäherung. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.  https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-45333/Gentes_Dissertation.lit_Selbstübersetzung.pdf

Gentes, Eva. 2019. “Transmigration und Selbstübersetzung – Linda Olsson und Miroslav Penkov.” In: Bruno Berni & Alessandra D’Atena (eds.), Autotraduzione. Obiettivi, strategie, testi. Roma: Istituto italiano di studi germanici, 122–144.

Grutman, Rainier. 2009. "Self-translation". In: Mona Baker (ed.): Routlegde Encyclopaedia of Translation. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 257–260.

Miletic, Tijana. 2008. European Literary Immigration into the French Language. Readings of Gary, Kristof, Kundera and Semprún. Amsterdam / New York: Rodop.

Oustinoff, Michaël. 2001. Bilinguisme d’écriture et auto–traduction: Julien Green, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov. Paris: L’Harmattan.

New Voices in Self-Translation: Heddi Goodrich (Italian-English)

Heddi Goodrich (*1971, Washington) translated her debut novel Perduti nei Quartieri Spagnoli (Giunti, 2019) into English. Lost in the Spanish Quarter was published by HarperCollins in 2019. 
Born in the United States, Heddi Godrich spent her high school and university years in Naples and moved to New Zealand in the 1990s. The autofictional novel is inspired by her own experiences in Italy. The creation process was in fact more complex than one might assume. Goodrich explained that she initially started writing the novel in English: 

"My first few drafts were actually in English. I'm an English teacher after all, and a copyeditor too: that is, I'm a very competent writer in my native language. But, as it turns out, I'm not a very inspired writer." (Goodrich, 2019)

Not being able to find a publisher for her novel, she first tried to get the novel translated into Italian, but soon realized that she has to give the novel a fresh start by writing it directly in Italian:

"Everything started to flow. And I thought this was the language that I needed to be writing it in all along, my whole life. This is actually my voice." (Herkt 2019)

Since she is not only a teacher and editor, but also a translator, there was no question in her mind that she would translate the novel herself. She describes translating her novel into English as a "fun intellectual challenge" (Goodrich, 2019). Encouraged by her editor she started self-translating within a week after the editing of the Italian version was completed (cf. Carlacchiani 2021). In an interview with Debora Carlacchiani (2021) she describes the difficulties of finding her voice in the English translation, feeling clumsy and awkward at times, not finding the right metaphors or melody of a senctence: "La traduzione mi riusciva bene ma non fluiva spontaneamente. [I could translate well but it did not flow spontaneously.]" Goodrich explains that in her constant search of her authentic voice she kept editing her translation, questioning every word: "l’italiano era la lingua del cuore, l’inglese quella della testa – e la testa poteva ingannare" [Italian was the language of the heart, English the language of the head - and the head could be deceiving].: 

"Nemmeno una volta durante l’auto-traduzione mi è arrivata una frase bella e fatta: niente parole sussurrate, illuminazioni o intuizioni di alcun tipo." (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[Not once during the self-translation did a beautiful sentence come to me: no whispered words, illuminations or insights of any kind.]

Nevertheless, she enjoyed the intellectual challenge of the translation process and the privilege of being both author and translator:

"Sono stati tre mesi divertenti; ogni mattina mi svegliavo felice di vedere quali nuovi ostacoli linguistici avrei affrontato quel giorno e quali soluzioni creative avrei escogitato per superarli. Inoltre, avevo l’enorme vantaggio di conoscere ogni intenzione dell’autrice e quindi di non dover mai chiedere spiegazioni." (Carlacchiani 2021)

[It was a fun three months; every morning I woke up happy to see what new linguistic obstacles I would face that day and what creative solutions I would come up with to overcome them. Moreover, I had the enormous advantage of knowing the author's every intention and thus never having to ask for explanations]

She wanted to stay as close as possible to the original version but introduced "some small additions, relating to the dialect or other cultural or historical factors" (Goodrich, 2019). 

At first she considered the original Italian version superior to her English self-translation and was not really satisfied with the result, but over time she began to recognize the value of the English version:

"Questa sensazione di “perdita” ha caratterizzato il mio atteggiamento verso il testo inglese. Fino a poco tempo fa l’ho considerato un’ombra dell’originale, e soltanto negli ultimi mesi ho cominciato a vederlo come un romanzo a sé e, un poco alla volta, ad affezionarmici." (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[This feeling of "loss" has characterized my attitude toward the English text. Until recently I regarded it as a shadow of the original, and only in recent months have I begun to see it as a novel in its own right and, little by little, become attached to it.]

Her debut novel was translated into several languages, among them:

• Dutch: Verloren in Napels (Wereldbibliotheek). Translator: Manon Smits. 2019.
• French: Perdus dans les quartiers espagnols (Marabooks). Translator: Françoise Bouillot. 2021.
• German: Eine Liebe in Nepal (btb). Translator: Judith Schwaab. 2020.
  
• Norwegian: Forelsket i Napoli (Cappelen Damm). Translator: Siv Erle Wold. 2021
  
• Polish: Zagubieni w Neapolu (Zysk i S-ka). Translator: Iwona Banach. 2020.
• Portuguese: Perdidos no Quarteirão Espanhol (Planeta). Translator: Ana Maria Pinto da Silva. 2019.
• Romanian: Pierduți în cartierul spaniol (RAO). Translator: Elena Banica. 2019
• Spanish: El futuro es simplemente un nuevo día (Planeta). Translator: Maribel Campmany Tarrés. 2019

The novel was also translated into Arabic and Greek. Interestingly, the Dutch translator Manon Smits started working on the translation while Goodrich was still wrapping up the Italian original:

"Ho avuto il privilegio di collaborare un poco con la traduttrice olandese di Perduti nei Quartieri Spagnoli, che aveva cominciato a tradurre il testo quando non era ancora definitivo. Spesso, nelle sue mail in cui cercava chiarimenti, mi faceva notare alcuni piccoli problemi nel testo che credo soltanto uno che ci lavora da molto molto vicino possa vedere. Le sue osservazioni sono state preziosissime per il testo italiano finale. Allora lei non è soltanto traduttrice e scrittrice ma anche correttrice di bozze e editor!" (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[I had the privilege of collaborating a little with the Dutch translator of Lost in the Spanish Quarter, who had begun translating the text when it was not yet final. Often, in her emails seeking clarification, she would point out to me some small problems in the text that I think only someone working on it from very very close up could see. Her observations were invaluable to the final Italian text. So she is not only a translator and writer but also a proofreader and editor!]

Goodrich recently published her second novel in Italian: L'Americana (2021). The novel has not been published in English yet, so we have to wait to see if she opts for self-translation once again.

Interviews:
Carlacchiani, Debora (2021): "Intervista a Heddi Goodrich", published on La bottega dei traduttori on March 28, 2021: https://labottegadeitraduttori.wordpress.com/2021/03/28/intervista-a-heddi-goodrich-a-cura-di-debora-carlacchiani/

Goodrich, Heddi (2019): "Heddi Goodrich on Lost in the Spanish Quarter", published on Shelf-Awareness on August 8, 2019: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/dedicatedshelf/2019-08-08/heddi_goodrich_on_lost_in_the_spanish_quarter.html

Herkt, David (2019): "The New Zealand author who wrote her first novel in Italian", published on Stuff on November 03. 2019: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/116850415/the-new-zealand-author-who-wrote-her-first-novel-in-italian

Podcast:
"Heddi Goodrich and Lost in the Spanish Quarter". 
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/2018716447/heddi-goodrich-and-lost-in-the-spanish-quarter 

Essay by Jhumpa Lahiri: Where I Find Myself: On Self-translation

In their April 2021 issue, Words Without Borders published a very interesting essay by Jhumpa Lahiri who recently published her first self-translated novel Dove mi trovo / Whereabouts.  In her essay, she reflects on the process of deciding whether or not to translate the novel herself, the translation process, and how this self-translation will affect future editions of the original.  
Here are three quotes of her very interesting reflections on self-translation:

"... self-translation is like one of those radioactive dyes that enable doctors to look through our skin to locate damage in the cartilage, unfortunate blockages, and other states of imperfection."

"Self-translation is a bewildering, paradoxical going backward and moving forward at once. There is ongoing tension between the impulse to plow ahead undermined by a strange gravitational force that holds you back."

"That original book, which now feels incomplete to me, stands in line behind its English-language counterpart. Like an image viewed in the mirror, it has turned into the simulacrum, and both is and is not the starting point for what rationally and irrationally followed."

To read the complete essay, please go visit the Words Without Border journal:
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/april-2021-where-i-find-myself-on-self-translation-jhumpa-lahiri