Knausgaard, Cercas, Murukami, Ferrante. None of these authors write in English but we are all familiar with their books, and that’s largely due to the work carried out by their respective translators. The role that translation (and translators) play in the diffusion of literature can easily be overlooked but, with its series of Translation Slams, Festivaletteratura shines a light on what really goes on when a story is translated from one language into another.

(caricamento...)

Copies of an extract from Fabio Genovesi’s Chi manda le onde (winner of the 2015 Strega Giovani Prize) were placed on each chair in the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria, together with two English translations of the text. The first by Shaun Whiteside, winner of the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize in 1996 and nominee for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his translation from German of Judith Schalansky’s The Giraffe’s Neck. The second by Isobel Butters, who, as well as working with Textus and Progetto Grafico magazines, regularly collaborates with Festivaletteratura as a translator of the Scritture Giovani stories.

Translation Slams have been a regular feature on the Festival programme for a number of years, but this was the first time that we seen an Italian text translated into English. Repetitions, translating swear words, untranslatability and fidelity to the source language were among the numerous topics covered throughout the hour.

The two translators had not consulted each other prior to the event, nor had they had any contact with the author, so differences between the two translations were to be expected. Less predictable though were the almost identical interpretations of the opening and closing paragraphs offered by Butters and Whiteside.

Responding to questions from the audience, Genovesi spoke of a disconcerting experience when handed a copy of the Hebrew translation of one of his books, where the only thing he could understand was his name on the cover. His experience at the Translation Slam was thankfully less unnerving, thanking both of his translators and remarking how his writing “seems more beautiful in another language.”