On Tuesday 7^th October, SELTA held a workshop at the Embassy of Sweden in Marylebone, London, in collaboration with Modern Culture’s Stories from Sweden project. In attendance were Swedish authors Hanna Johansson and Agnes Lidbeck, Martin Colthorpe of Modern Culture, and over twenty translators from Swedish, most, but not all of them, SELTA members. The group was split into two, with each sub-group working with one of the authors, going through participants’ pre-prepared translations of a short excerpt from the relevant author’s texts. We asked two of the participating translators to write a short report from the event for us. Read on to find out more about the proceedings, and, more importantly, the snacks…

———————————

The SELTA literary translation workshop at the Embassy of Sweden in London on Tuesday 7 October was a real treat. The room was nicely set up and there was good coffee and even some Swedish fikabröd on offer (one of my main reasons for showing up…).

People had translated short texts from upcoming novels by Agnes Lidbeck and Hanna Johansson, and we sat with the authors to chat and share ideas and insights about their Swedish texts and the various English translations.

There were two tables, one for each of the authors, and there was a pretty even split between the tables. I was at Agnes’s table and the discussion was well mediated by fellow SELTA member Alex Fleming.

One thing that soon became clear was how helpful it would have been to have read the whole book before embarking on the translation of the excerpt. Agnes provided a lot of background to the various characters, social classes, moods and timelines involved, which shed a whole new light and quickly revealed how our translations could be improved. It was also useful to get an insight into the sheer depth of meaning in certain Swedish words (such as ‘…va?’), and to realise that no translator can reasonably be expected to delve into all the various echelons of meaning and implication in each and every word, and then try to convey exactly the same nuances in a single English word, every time. So all we can do is our best, of course!

After the workshop, a few of us went round the corner to buy a few bits at the Totally Swedish shop, and many of also had lunch together at a nearby Franco Manca. As a relatively new SELTA member myself, it was great to meet and chat to fellow translators – mainly new ones, but some more experienced ones too.

Thanks to SELTA for organising this and to everyone involved, and I look forward to joining other SELTA events in the future.

Matt Bibby

 

 

As a new member of SELTA, I came along to the translation workshop excited to get involved but a little anxious about my own contributions since I hadn’t had the chance to submit my own translation in advance. I needn’t have worried! The setting and company were relaxed and welcoming and I felt at ease from the start. After a coffee, chat and round of introductions, we chose whether a group to join – one working on Agnes Lidbeck’s forthcoming novel and the other working with Hanna Johansson.

Those of us working with Hanna quickly became embroiled in the challenge of how to translate gymnasiet – everything from secondary school to 6th form was considered though I’m not actually sure we settled on a choice in the end! Other challenges included names of plants – rubber plant or ficus – and the classic Swedish Har man… construction. The discussion flowed freely with ideas coming from all round the table. As a newcomer, I really enjoyed the opportunity to work collaboratively with other translators and hear their thoughts highlighting just how our backgrounds, interests and preferences influence our translation. Especially interesting were Hanna’s own thoughts and contributions to the discussion. This was the first time I’d been in a translation workshop with an author and it was fascinating to see how our discussion and questions were shaping her own thoughts around where her manuscript would go from here.

All in all, an enjoyable and thought-provoking morning with like-minded colleagues and excellent fika. I am looking forward to the next one already!

Joanne Haslett