It’s the simplest things that are the hardest sometimes – in translation as in life. I’m currently finalising the translation of Maike Wetzel’s wonderful novel Elly, and as usual the words I spend most time over are not complex sentences with multiple subclauses and ambiguities or double meanings (these aren’t really Maike’s style anyway), but small … More The simplest things
Published last week, Maike Wetzel’s debut novel (after two collections of short stories) Elly is one of the most gripping books I’ve read in a very long time. What begins as a standard crime/thriller trope, and every parent’s nightmare, turns into a thoughtful study of grief and loss, uncertainty and dissimulation. The kernel of the plot … More Elly, by Maike Wetzel: a review
Next month I’ll be leading a translation workshop on the works of Herta Müller in London, as part of a series of events on the Nobel-prize winning author including an academic conference, Herta Müller and the Currents of European History, at the IMLR on 21-22 Sept, and kicked off by Müller herself in conversation with her translator … More Translation Workshop: Herta Müller’s short prose and collages
When Herta Müller won the Nobel Prize in Literature back in 2009 it’s fair to say that she was little known in the English-speaking world; only five of her books existed in English translation then, and The Times announced the award with the headline ‘Herta Müller – who she?’. Müller’s previous brush with English-language fame had … More New book on Herta Müller: introducing the Nobel prize winner
German grammar has a bad press, but its complexity actually lends itself to a lot of flexibility in expression – particularly when you want to indicate gender. Using the definite articles die/der, noun suffixes (like -in) or gendered adjective endings are all rather simple ways to add the information that the person or thing in question is male or female. … More German grammar: it’s good for something… Or: the difficulties of gender in translation
Originally posted on Recipes from elsewhere:
This is a savoury cake recipe from the Dutch-language magazine Foodies: Courgette and pecorino cake preparation time: 1 hour 45 mins per serving: 180kcal, 6g protein, 12g fat, 10g carbohydrate INGREDIENTS for c. 15 servings butter and flour to grease cake tin 1 clove garlic 2 courgettes (c. 300g)…
Today is National Short Story day in the UK, and it’s also #translationthurs on Twitter, so it seems the ideal day for my second giveaway, this exclusive extract of Silke Scheuermann’s ‘The Handover’ (translated by me), from her collection Reiche Mädchen (Rich Girls, 2005). It might seem like a tease only to post an extract, … More Advent giveaway 2: an exclusive short story extract
I realised with horror that I haven’t actually posted anything for a lot longer than I thought… so I’m going to make up for it with a series of give-aways over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. First up, my favourite home-made soup recipe (nothing to do with books, research or translation, except … More Advent giveaway: my mushroom soup recipe
Last week I went down to Bristol to take part in a translation workshop with Carmen-Francesca Banciu, a Romanian-born author who writes in German. The workshop was the opening event of a conference organised by my lovely colleagues Debbie Pinfold and Sara Jones on ‘Remembering Dictatorship‘. Together with a group of students and translators from Bristol … More Translation workshop with Carmen-Francesca Banciu
I’m delighted to be taking part in a new translation mentorship scheme run by the British Centre for Literary Translation and the Translators’ Association for the next six months. As part of the programme, I will be mentoring translator Jamie Lee Searle, a London-based translator of literary fiction and non-fiction from German into English, and part-time tutor at QMUL. … More BCLT / TA translation mentorship scheme
Lyn Marven 