Tag Archives: Croatia

Residency of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association for literary translators and writers

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The residency of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association for literary translators and writers is the result of years of effort to create a space in Zagreb welcoming both translators and writers: translators, as voices of Croatian authors in the world, and writers who are still looking for their translators as well as those whose works are being translated.

During their stay in the residency the guests will be introduced to their fellow translators and writers, to Croatian publishers and cultural and literary milieu in general, but they will also be granted an opportunity to delve into the everyday life of the Croatian capital and the local traditions. In the long run, this project aims at making a series of new cultural links and putting Zagreb on the map of the European network of residencies for translators.

Residency of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association for literary translators and writers promotes and encourages cooperation with language institutes, language departments at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, publishers, festivals and international networks for residential exchange. Part of the stay of our residents is dedicated to their work on the text which brought them to Zagreb, while the other part includes activities such as panel discussions with fellow translators and writers, workshops and masterclasses at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as tandems with peers and guest appearances at literature festivals.

In 2022 nine translators and writers are to stay in the residency: Anita Vuco (Italy), Alida Bremer (Germany), Sara Latorre (Italy), Heidi Saevareid (Norway), Miłosz Waligórski (Poland), George Mario Angel Quintero (USA, Columbia), Olivier Lannuzel (France), Rusanka Liapova (Bulgaria) and Olja Alvir (Austria).

The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

The residency has its own blog where all the news regarding its activities are published, as well as residents’ poetic diaries about their time spent in Zagreb. Some of entries are in English and you can read them here.

Video: The Good, The Bad, The Translator

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The Good, The Bad, The Translator is a short video filmed on the occasion of a panel discussion on the role of translators in (world) literature. As we wanted to make something different from the usual “translators are praising themselves constantly repeating why their role is crucial in creating a corpus of world literature and why good translation is important”, we invited several eminent writers to say what they think about translators and translating their works, and what translated literature generally brings and means to them. The following Croatian writers translated in other languages participated in the project: Miro Gavran, Ivica Prtenjača, Kristijan Novak, Ivana Bodrožić, Monika Herceg, Asja Bakić, Drago Glamuzina and Zoran Ferić. The result is a short, 4-minute-long mosaic that you can see on our Youtube channel:

How-to:

  • select the people in charge of the coordination and production (1 person), cameraman (1 person) and editor (1 person – in our case, the cameraman did also the editing)
  • contact and invite the writers
  • organize the filming and setting
  • filming and editing

Budget: 1.955,00 euros (filming and translation/subtitles)

Translation Duel: In the Translation Ring

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The project “In the Translation Ring” (U prevodilačkom ringu) consists of a series of translation duels. No worries, no swords just words.

How does it work?

The moderator (or “arbiter”) decides on the text that will be translated and sends it to the two duellists a few weeks before the event. They send them back the translated text week before the event (or a message “just one more day, please”) so the moderator can decide on the talking points for the event. At the event, the original text and both translations are presented to the audience. Different solutions are discussed, as well as the translation process itself, peculiarities of certain genres, challenges of “translating” cultural differences and much more. Our first events were held live, but due to a pandemic, we, later on, moved to virtual space. However, this form works great in both ways, so virtuality has in no way damaged its dynamics.

What do we translate?

All forms of literary texts, short stories, extract of novels or poems. Until now, we had Duels dedicated to poetry, canonical texts, science fiction/fantasy, literature for children, contemporary novels etc. We held Duels for the translators from English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German, and the target language is always Croatian.

Why do we do that?

We believe, and experience has shown, that this is a great way to promote literary translators and to demonstrate why literary translation is a legitimate form of art. The audience gets to see two different translations that are both valid but can lead to a very different reading experience, and thus become aware of the role of translators and of the importance of having a good translation.

Second, it’s not often that a translator gets a chance to see “their” text translated differently. It’s very illuminating, and we have learned a lot in the process, be that as participants or as the audience.

And last but not least, it’s fun.

What is the cost of the project?

Around 500 € per event. We held 10 events to date.

P.S. No translator was harmed during this project.

You can check some of the events on the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcuisvryMzk&t=1s&ab_channel=DrustvoDHKP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoNDlRXjDUk&t=4s&ab_channel=DrustvoDHKP

Who are we: Translators’ Portraits

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The idea for the Translators’ Portraits (Prevoditeljski portreti) project was born amid the pandemic. As the Association we wanted to make sure that all our members are safe and sound. As our work is often lonely in the best of times, we thought that it would make sense to create small networks of support among our members. The core idea was to connect older or more experienced members with younger or less experienced so they could share experiences, worries, and hopes, as well as get a chance to communicate with colleagues. From that, the project developed into series of interviews. It proved to be a great encouragement for everybody involved: younger translators got a chance to get to know more experienced translators and to learn from them (some of them were lucky enough to meet their role models in translation); older translators could share their experiences, talk about their work and times past and were shown that they’re by no means forgotten, but remembered and appreciated; we (Croatian Literary Translators Association) helped develop better communication among our members and got a series of important testimonies which could serve as sort of monument of time, but also as a way to review changes in working and cultural conditions; and the wider community could enjoy in the final product which is series of interesting interviews that offers a glimpse in the past and present work of literary translators and get a better idea of the importance of our work. All interviews are written and have four universal questions that are repeated with slight modifications in all of them and one extra question which interviewers formed based on their interests.

Participants: in the first “season” in 10 interviews participated ten interviewees and eight interviewers + coordinator for the project; in the second season which is currently running there are 12 interviews and 12 interviewers.

Aprox. budget: 1250€

Link for the project: http://www.dhkp.hr/aktivnosti/portreti

Radio Show: Literary moment

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Književni trenutak (The Literary Moment) is a series of 16 short radio shows broadcast every two weeks for eight months. The main idea was to ask literary translators on the one hand, and literary critics, theorists and writers on the other to speak about translated literature (not the same one, everyone chooses a different book). The goal of the project is to bring listeners closer to reading and encourage them to reach for a quality book. In order to spread awareness of the role of literary translators and strengthen their visibility in the media space, each participant places special emphasis on the translation itself, thus paving the way for the development of translation criticism. Since our main idea was creating a modern, urban show different from other shows dedicated to culture, each one of them is accompanied by a musical number that adequately evokes the atmosphere of the presented work, and we hired four actors and actresses who interpret the selected passage to give listeners additional insight into the text. The result is a mosaic of brief conversations about translated literature and the importance of reading, short enough to intrigue the listeners, and yet highly professional.

How-to:

– Arrange cooperation with a radio station and journalists who will host the show

– Choose 16 translators and 16 writers / critics / theorists

– Participants should choose one translated book to talk about (make sure that the recommendations are not repeated)

– Make a broadcast schedule

– Record material (5-minute conversations with participants, reading short readings with the actors)

– Edit the show

 – DHKP sends the announcement of the show to the membership, and after the show has been broadcast, a link to the recording on the Mixcloud streaming service: https://www.mixcloud.com/discover/knji%C5%BEevni-trenuk/

Budget: 12.000 euros

A literary translator in your neighborhood (SUCCESS STORY)

Visibility,

A success story from DHKP in Croatia.

Starting from the fact that at least 80% of all books published in Croatia are created by translating from foreign languages, the Association of Croatian Literary Translators (DHKP) has designed the project „Literary Translator in your neighborhood” so that readers can get to know the authors of those translations, people responsible for their joy of reading.

As part of the project, from February to July of 2018 DHKP organized several meetings of literary translators with readers in some informal city environments: in the city park behind the library in Dugave, in the mountain hut Puntijarka on Sljeme, at the Oncology Ward of the Children’s Hospital , in Bookar’s bookstore and in famous cafes Lusso and Kinoteka…

On those occasions, our translators read a clip from some of their translations and concisely presented the work to the audience with whom they talked about their vocation.

Meetings were moderated and prepared by Ana Badurina and Ursula Burger.

The goal of this project was to familiarize our citizens, in their neighbourhood,with the work of literary translators, to increase its visibility in the local community and in media. In addition, DHKP initiated this project as a step to those potential readers to whom it does not reach through conventional literary events.

On the Oncology Ward of the Children’s Hospital there were 5-7 children who were free at the time and did not receive any therapy. They were at different stages of their illness, so some just smiled or were very serious, others took part. We talked about the book “The Storm Whale” by Benjy Davies. One of the girls even read it in English (because she grew up in America), and we talked about their favorite animals and pets they have at home.

Some children arrived during the meeting, they were also accompanied by their parents.

After the discussion on the picture book, read by Vanda in Croatian and then ih English, we made a whale and continued a more informal conversation. A girl who was attached to infusions, and initially was terribly serious, began to rejoice and smile. We believe that, with our visit, we brought some joy and hope. The leader of Hospital School expressed interest to continue the meetings this year.

Conclusion: The project “Literary translator in your neighborhood” proved to be a valuable project that allowed literary translators to speak in a variety of environments in front of a diverse audience. Also, the project was very well advertised and attracted media and attention of public to literary translation. The project was reviewed on several occasions by various portals and newspapers and the Facebook announcements were submitted to the DHKP website.

Later on, the project evolved in “Literary translator in your town”, so members of our organization travelled Croatia far and vide to talk with readers. Also, in the pandemic times we developed “Literary translator on your screen”, and we organized on-line talks with our members that live abroad about there experiences in literary translation.