Listen here:
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: How does a translator bridge between the language of origin to the language of destination?
A: It's not all that seamless and easy. I don't think any translator is ever completely satisfied with the end result. We all talk to each other about what we call imposter syndrome because we never feel that it's finished. And of course, translations can be done more than once. Unlike the original written book, there can be more versions in translation, because in a way you're interpreting, you inevitably will change some things. But what I personally try to do is I try to think of two particular people. They're kind of always there, hovering behind me when I'm sitting at my desk. One is the author, of course, and the other is the reader, because what the translator aims to do, or at least what I aim to do, is to be faithful to the author. I don't introduce things of my own, which I think some translators do, and that's just a different approach. But I also try to be faithful to my reader, because I try to imagine how would this author have written this book if they wrote in English. And I try and understand not just the meaning of the text, but also how that author has conveyed that meaning, what they want to express in the way they've written the text, and then try to find an equivalent way in English to do that.
Q: How many times do you read the original text before deciding to embark upon the translation?
A: Well, some translators don't read the original text at all. They just launch in. They want it to be a fresh experience. But what I do is I have almost always read the book at least twice, because I've often prepared the materials that have convinced publishers to take it on. In this case, because (Nobel winner) Olga (Tokarczuk) was already so successful, there was no question of having to persuade a publisher to take the book. But I had read it. And then I work with audiobooks , and I'm very lucky, because in Poland they do a lot of audiobook recordings, far more than they're done in English. And so I get hold of the audio and while I'm working, I will listen to a few pages of the audiobook and then translate them, and then the next day I'll go back over them. But when you're listening to somebody Polish read the text, yes, you're getting an actor's interpretation. Sometimes it's the author themselves reading it, but it tells you more about the text, to listen to the text, to me, it's incredibly important to listen because there's a great deal going on. And then when I've finished, I often read aloud to myself, or read it to the cat and listen again. So that's part of my technique.
Q: How do you discover words in the language of origin to the destination language? How do you make that work?
A: Well, there are sometimes words I've never seen before in the Polish, but sometimes I find myself writing words I've never heard of before in English and I learn the whole time. And then Olga Tokarczuk in particular makes words up. So then you have to be quite inventive to capture these neologisms. So, for instance, the title of one book is a made-up word, 'The Empusium', but it's based on the Symposium of Plato combined with Empusa, which was the name of an ancient Greek mythological shape-shifting creature that appeared in all sorts of animal forms, but in her fiercest form was as a harridan woman. And it seems people can manage this strange word. They're not having problems with it.
Q: How did you embark on this profession as a translator?
A: I grew up with an obsession with languages. And I studied Russian originally, partly because my father, who was a very brilliant linguist, didn't know it. And I think subconsciously I chose something where I could impress him finally. And then when I had just graduated, I was only 21 and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I had a sort of vague idea about becoming a journalist. But I'd met some young Poles who had been working on building sites in Berlin in 1981. And in the meantime they'd had martial law in Poland. And these friends of mine were facing an awful fate because they'd have to be in the Army, they didn't really want that. So they were planning to get out and go and live in Germany. And it was all very sad because their parents lives had been made extremely difficult by World War II . And here it looked as if another generation was going to have little choice, and a rather dismal future in Poland. So I went to stay with them, and I could only speak Russian, which was rather embarrassing because it was the enemy language, as it were. And I read 'Teach Yourself Polish', and that's when it started. And then, through a series of accidents, I was editor of a Polish language magazine produced by the British foreign office. Then I met Michael Glenny, who was a brilliant translator of Russian literature and other languages too. And he kind of took me under his wing and he helped. He wanted me to help him translate some short stories because he had too much work to do. So I did that. And he went through this work with me and taught me a lot about how to approach translation. But he also taught me a very valuable thing, which was how to approach publishers. And he taught me how to write a book report, and then he helped me.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: How does a translator bridge between the language of origin to the language of destination?
A: It's not all that seamless and easy. I don't think any translator is ever completely satisfied with the end result. We all talk to each other about what we call imposter syndrome because we never feel that it's finished. And of course, translations can be done more than once. Unlike the original written book, there can be more versions in translation, because in a way you're interpreting, you inevitably will change some things. But what I personally try to do is I try to think of two particular people. They're kind of always there, hovering behind me when I'm sitting at my desk. One is the author, of course, and the other is the reader, because what the translator aims to do, or at least what I aim to do, is to be faithful to the author. I don't introduce things of my own, which I think some translators do, and that's just a different approach. But I also try to be faithful to my reader, because I try to imagine how would this author have written this book if they wrote in English. And I try and understand not just the meaning of the text, but also how that author has conveyed that meaning, what they want to express in the way they've written the text, and then try to find an equivalent way in English to do that.
Q: How many times do you read the original text before deciding to embark upon the translation?
A: Well, some translators don't read the original text at all. They just launch in. They want it to be a fresh experience. But what I do is I have almost always read the book at least twice, because I've often prepared the materials that have convinced publishers to take it on. In this case, because (Nobel winner) Olga (Tokarczuk) was already so successful, there was no question of having to persuade a publisher to take the book. But I had read it. And then I work with audiobooks , and I'm very lucky, because in Poland they do a lot of audiobook recordings, far more than they're done in English. And so I get hold of the audio and while I'm working, I will listen to a few pages of the audiobook and then translate them, and then the next day I'll go back over them. But when you're listening to somebody Polish read the text, yes, you're getting an actor's interpretation. Sometimes it's the author themselves reading it, but it tells you more about the text, to listen to the text, to me, it's incredibly important to listen because there's a great deal going on. And then when I've finished, I often read aloud to myself, or read it to the cat and listen again. So that's part of my technique.
Q: How do you discover words in the language of origin to the destination language? How do you make that work?
A: Well, there are sometimes words I've never seen before in the Polish, but sometimes I find myself writing words I've never heard of before in English and I learn the whole time. And then Olga Tokarczuk in particular makes words up. So then you have to be quite inventive to capture these neologisms. So, for instance, the title of one book is a made-up word, 'The Empusium', but it's based on the Symposium of Plato combined with Empusa, which was the name of an ancient Greek mythological shape-shifting creature that appeared in all sorts of animal forms, but in her fiercest form was as a harridan woman. And it seems people can manage this strange word. They're not having problems with it.
Q: How did you embark on this profession as a translator?
A: I grew up with an obsession with languages. And I studied Russian originally, partly because my father, who was a very brilliant linguist, didn't know it. And I think subconsciously I chose something where I could impress him finally. And then when I had just graduated, I was only 21 and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I had a sort of vague idea about becoming a journalist. But I'd met some young Poles who had been working on building sites in Berlin in 1981. And in the meantime they'd had martial law in Poland. And these friends of mine were facing an awful fate because they'd have to be in the Army, they didn't really want that. So they were planning to get out and go and live in Germany. And it was all very sad because their parents lives had been made extremely difficult by World War II . And here it looked as if another generation was going to have little choice, and a rather dismal future in Poland. So I went to stay with them, and I could only speak Russian, which was rather embarrassing because it was the enemy language, as it were. And I read 'Teach Yourself Polish', and that's when it started. And then, through a series of accidents, I was editor of a Polish language magazine produced by the British foreign office. Then I met Michael Glenny, who was a brilliant translator of Russian literature and other languages too. And he kind of took me under his wing and he helped. He wanted me to help him translate some short stories because he had too much work to do. So I did that. And he went through this work with me and taught me a lot about how to approach translation. But he also taught me a very valuable thing, which was how to approach publishers. And he taught me how to write a book report, and then he helped me.
