Introduce yourself

[Stewart]

A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu

Now this is one I've been looking at recently. Although I've placed a temporary embargo on myself, the temptation to grab this one is overhwhelming. But I know that were I to give in, it would just join all the others on the shelves.

[abecedarian]

Now this is one I've been looking at recently. Although I've placed a temporary embargo on myself, the temptation to grab this one is overhwhelming. But I know that were I to give in, it would just join all the others on the shelves.

But it's so Good! No fooling. Parts of it will make you cringe, but you'll want to keep reading to see how this guy manages to go on...I know, I'm not helping, am I?

[Colette Jones]

If you consider the harsh dialect of something awful - say Irvine Welsh - then perhaps it counts as something without translation but probably in dire need of it. But since the country goes to the Olympics as part of Great Britain, it's still British writing.

Yea, I know, I was kind of being facetious but I'm married to a Scot so I know how Scotland can be made to count just because!

So that was the context of "Surely Scotland counts!"

[Colette Jones]

And on that subject:



This is the US edition. The subtitle was changed for the UK edition. I wonder why?

I bought this one purely because of the subtitle.

[abecedarian]

And on that subject:



This is the US edition. The subtitle was changed for the UK edition. I wonder why?

I bought this one purely because of the subtitle.

Hmmm..Did this come out after Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization? Equal time, and all? (Scurries off to the library site to see about this one!)

[Stewart]

I am equally glad that the focus is on world literature and that English-language works are not off the table (that restriction would be too hard for me to cope with).

I've been wondering whether it may be better to change the terms about translated literature just to world literature (since it's the name of the site), and then merge the threads from the English Literature section into the appropriate sections: South Africa/Nigeria into African literature, New Zealand/Australian into Asian and Oceanic Literature, American into, well, American Literature, along with Canada, and then the British books into the European Literature section. If anything, the African section may pick up.

With ongoing threads appearing, I can see the European Literature section, since it's the busiest, being the first to break down into separate areas (i.e. Russian Literature, French Literature) as the board develops further.

[Patrick Murtha]

^ Stewart, I think that is a great idea. The board is continuing to evolve nicely.

[Stewart]

^ Stewart, I think that is a great idea. The board is continuing to evolve nicely.

I've just went ahead and done it. It makes sense in the grander scale.

[ions]

Hi. I'm ions.

[Stewart]

Hi. I'm ions.

Ha! If your introduction was going to be that short the least you could have done was made it a palindrome. Welcome on in, ions.

[abecedarian]

Hiya Ions! What do you like to read?

[ions]

Ha! If your introduction was going to be that short the least you could have done was made it a palindrome. Welcome on in, ions.

I had to be verbose because of a 10 character minimum.

[Eric]

Unless I've missed or forgotten something, it looks as if I have never introduced myself here. As I post quite a lot, I think I ought to amend that.

I am an expat Englishman, born in Yorkshire. I read Swedish at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s. I have taught English as a Foreign Language. Nowadays, I translate literature, mainly from Estonian, a language resembling Finnish and spoken by only about one million people (i.e. about three times as many as speak Icelandic). I can read a few others, at various levels from advanced to beginners'.

I like to explore different literatures and genres, and don't necessarily want to rush out and buy the latest translation from any given language, because translation is what I do for a living. So reading translations can become a bit of a busman's holiday. But obviously, there are very many languages where I have to rely on finding the book in translation. For me, this doesn't only mean translations into English. As I can read Dutch and Swedish well, books translated into those two languages are also accessible to me.

What concerns me about Britain is the fact that there are so few books in translation compared with most countries surrounding Britain, if you glance at a map of Europe. I have lived in a few different countries, and the bookshops are always well-stocked with translations - except in Britain where contemporary literature from Europe is hardly represented at all. I hope information websites and chatsites like this one can help change British attitudes to books originating in other languages, especially European ones.

I read more prose than poetry, but have of late got more interested in poetry too. I like short-stories. Non-fiction is also an area that people seem to talk relatively little about, when the term "reading books" is used. History books and books about countries help put national literatures in context. I regard national literatures as a kind of package; the more you get to know about the country itself, the period, and the people writing at the time, plus the other art forms, the more you see national literatures as entities, rather than a ragbag of discrete authors.

Sometimes, I go on forays into English literature, but don't have the time to delve. I once had an Anthony Powell binge, and read all twelve of his "Dance" suite of novels. But my attempts at reading more George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Charles Morgan have not yet got off the ground. Although it is essential for a translator to read plenty of English literature from various periods, in order to maintain a wide vocabulary and facility of expression.

[liberta' va cercando]

Well, I'm new here. I study comparative literature at a certain Canadian university. Main interests are Joyce, Italian post/modernism, critical theory and contemporary fiction. I also read French and (some) Russian. I look forward to some good discussions here.

[Stewart]

Main interests are Joyce, Italian post/modernism, critical theory and contemporary fiction. I also read French and (some) Russian. I look forward to some good discussions here.

Hello, liberta' va cercando. I hope you get some good discussions.

Out of interest, what is it that draws you to Italian postmodernism over that of any other nation?

[liberta' va cercando]

Out of interest, what is it that draws you to Italian postmodernism over that of any other nation?

Well, I suppose it isn't strictly preferential; my engagement with other modern/postmodern authors is dictated somewhat by the languages I have studied. For others I admire -- Borges, Saramago, G. Grass, Murakami, to name a few -- I have to work primarily through translation (which isn't, in itself, a certain loss; but this is an issue for another thread).

The fin-de-siecle and modernist movements in Italy have always been a big motivator in getting me to dedicate myself to studying the language. Svevo in his relationship to Joyce, D'annunzio in his exquisite lyrics and fiction, Moravia, Calvino, the lyric tradition prima- and dopo-Montale.... What can I say? There's not a whole lot not to like and plenty of critical work to be done (most French and German authors, for better or for worse, are far more heavily-analyzed).

I certainly don't like to pigeonhole myself, though, if that's what my intro inadvertently appeared to imply.

[Katy]

Hi, I'm Katy. I'm a translator from German, and enjoy arguing with Eric by email. Most of the books I read are German, I have to admit, but I do stray further afield occasionally. I prefer contemporary prose to the classics. In fact, I once thought I'd get some literary brownie points on the sly by watching films of classic international literature - only it was too strenuous to keep going down to the video shop, so I didn't get much further than Crime and Punishment. I liked it though.

I've been blogging at lovegermanbooks.blogspot.com for a couple of months now, and couldn't resist Stewart's encouragement to join in the fun over here.

[Stewart]

and enjoy arguing with Eric by email.

Does this mean we are going to get public spats?

Welcome in. And I've edited your site so that it's a proper link back to your blog.

[Katy]

Ta muchly. Will try and keep the spats to a minimum.

[Eric]

Nothing wrong with a bit of argument, as long as it is done elegantly. I tend to agree with Katy more than I disagree with her, because we both indulge in that mug's profession, literary translation, where you get little praise for the three-hundred pages you churn out, and much blame for that terrible, unforgivable, typo on page 45.

I still remember proudly showing my English translation of Mati Unt's "Things in the Night" to a Dutchman once. He flicked through the book, and didn't have much to say, as most Dutch people obviously know very little about Estonian literature. But his gaze alighted upon the title of a French film from 1953: La salaire de la peur. Now, I had managed to avoid the Scylla of "peur", a feminine noun in French ending in a consonant. But Charybdis caught me: I had written "la salaire" instead of "le salaire".

Oh deary me. I had managed to write a ten-page introduction, do my own endnotes, supply the odd transliteration of a quote from Cyrillic, check up all the general knowledge on the internet, etc., etc., and translate 290-odd pages from a language that hardly anyone (only one million people) in Europe speaks, but this c--t managed to find the wrong gender for a French word in a film title...!

That sums up the way translators are treated. And the huge irony was that this Dutchman is himself an accomplished translator; which is no doubt why he spotted my French gaffe so soon.