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But getting in was only the first step! Then we had to prepare a non-fiction translation from De stamhouder by Alexander Münninghoff and a fiction translation from Jij zegt het by Connie Palmen, two very different and equally challenging texts. The non-fiction masterclass was given by Susan Massotty, prize-winning translator of Anne Frank, Cees Noteboom and Margriet de Moor, among many others. We worked through the nitty-gritty details of Münninghoff’s text, comparing and revising our work. But what stuck with me the most from Susan’s teaching were our discussions on the importance of fully understanding both the explicit and implicit aspects of the source text, in other words thinking through the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where and Why) before embarking on the How. By understanding these 5 W’s, we were able to extract the irony in Münninghoff’s writing and better convey it in English.

Later in the week, we had our fiction masterclass with Sam Garrett, translator of Dutch greats like Herman Koch, Tommy Wieringa and Gerard Reve. We spent two days combing through our translations of Connie Palmen’s Jij zegt het, a historical novel in which a reflective Ted Hughes looks back on his tumultuous marriage to Sylvia Path. As English translators, we had the extremely difficult task of re-finding Hughes snobby, cynical, unabashedly British voice in Palmen’s Dutch interpretation of it. We were constantly asking ourselves questions like: This is what Palmen’s Hughes says in Dutch, but what would the real Ted Hughes say in English? Would Hughes really have said it like this? Is Palmen’s Dutch dialogue based on real encounters between Plath and Hughes? If yes, then what did they really say in English? So, do we translate Palmen’s Dutch or do we adapt the dialogue to what the real-life versions of her characters said (or what we, as English native speakers, think they would have said)?  With Sam, we also talked about intertextuality and the role it plays in literary translation, i.e. how important it is to unravel the layers of a text and understand the other texts, myths, languages and histories referenced within it.

Other than the two masterclasses with Susan Massotty and Sam Garrett, we attended lectures on literary translation, which offered an overview of major literary thinkers like Walter Benjamin, Umberto Eco, Octavio Paz and James Holmes. Désirée Schyns of Ghent University lectured on issues such as translator agency, semantic equivalence and the discursive role of the literary translator. We also enjoyed an afternoon on translating children’s literature with Michele Hutchinson and had a lot of fun working on Dummie de Mummie. Throughout the week, the ELV organized several valuable networking opportunities with publishers, agents and the Dutch and Flemish Foundations for Literature.

In addition to the lectures, masterclasses and networking events, each language group spent the week working on a collective translation of a beautiful, gut-wrenching slam poem about immigration by award-winning Belgian poet Carmien Michels. She was kind enough to join us for our final performance of her work and we all had the opportunity to experience its resonance in English, French and Turkish. While each language had its own quirks, it was interesting to discover that we all faced some similar challenges.

All in all, the ELV Zomercursus Literair Vertalen was a rare, enriching experience and I am so happy that I rushed to apply for it at the last minute. I would recommend it to anyone interested in developing their translation skills in literary translation from Dutch.

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“Taal is mijn manier om vat te krijgen op dingen, om controle te bewaren in bepaalde situaties. Een lichaam wordt gebombardeerd met tig zintuigelijke indrukken, door deze te benoemen maak je ze opnieuw eendimensionaal, beheersbaar.”

Sitting on stage between her and French translator Maud Gonne, I understood what she meant. All our ticks, fears, and nerves need words to latch onto. However fascinating foreign languages may be, however much we people with so-called “talenknobbels” like them, we still need the single dimension of our own language to really wrestle with ourselves.

A branch of the Crossing Border Festival of literature and music, The Chronicles paired up young writers from around the world with emerging literary translators to create a multi-lingual narrative of the event. The writers submitted a series of five blogs: a prologue, three about the festival itself, and an epilogue. And we translators converted them into various languages, coached by more experienced mentors along the way. I worked with Michele Hutchinson, writer and English translator of well-known Dutch authors like Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and Esther Gerritsen. Together we decoded unfamiliar Flemish words like lavabo (wastafel) and valling (verkoudheid) – Het Vlaams Woordenboek came in really handy here! We also worked through more complicated translator conundrums like how to untangle an untraceable Virginia Woolf quote, which had been taken from a Swedish book in Dutch translation, and translate it back to English (see Blog 1) or how to go about translating French and German words that appear in a Dutch text (see Blog 3). In some cases, I wanted days to mull over a single line, but we had just a few hours before our translations went live on the site.

Other than translating, the best part about the festival for me was spending time with the authors and other translators. Meeting young writers who have been so successful, talking about their process, all of the risks they take, discovering that they too have a “little dictator” marching around in their head (see Blog 4) – it made the whole literary world feel within reach. We translators also got to involve them in what we do, discussing the challenges we face in not just translating, but actually re-writing their texts.

When you’re starting out in literary translation, you worry constantly about fidelity to the original text, about preserving the author’s words at all costs. But then you meet the author who says, “No, just make me sound good in English,” and you’re liberated. You’re free to find creative solutions. You can look at a sentence and ask yourself, “Okay, if this author were writing in American English, how would she have said this?” You can look at yourself and say, “You’re a writer too you know.” And then, all of a sudden, you start becoming a much better translator.

On Saturday night of the festival, Lize Spit read from the first chapter Het Smelt and my English translation appeared on the screen behind her. The following week, during my residency at The Amsterdam Translator’s House, I had the opportunity to work on this translation intensively with another mentor – but that’s for another post. Stay tuned!

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