The fate of a Japanese silent film in translation

I have one thing to say about this year's Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

!!!!!!!

OK, two things:

\o/\o/\o/

It was my first visit (it's been a banner year for film festivals, what with the Slapstick Festival in Bristol, Il cinema ritrovato in Bologna, and then the first ever Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol) and I can't wait to go again.

I thought I would celebrate the brilliance that was this week by sharing a snippet of film translation history that I came across recently. It's a sordid story of silent film, translation, Ireland, criminal behaviour and flammable nitrate...

In researching the distribution of foreign films in Ireland (a task made more complicated because for much of the twentieth century 'foreign films' meant anything not made in Ireland) I came across a fascinating anecdote. On Thursday 21 September 1944 Dublin's Evening Herald newspaper reported on the theft of eight reels of 'the only English translation in the world of a foreign film, entitled "The 27 Martyrs of Japan". The case was heard at the Metropolitan Juvenile court, as the film had been stolen by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy:

Five rolls of the film had been recovered by the time of this first court hearing, and three were still missing. The unnamed boy reappeared in court on 28 August 1944, at which point it was discovered that the missing rolls of film had met an unhappy fate:

The film was in fact The 26 Martyrs of Japan, which had had a long run in Ireland. As reportedly the first Catholic-themed film to be released in Japan, it was much trailed in the Irish press, and opened at the Savoy in Holy Week, 1937:

It's not clear to me yet what form the translation took (there was some talk of a lecturer alongside the film), and why the print was still in Ireland in 1944 - and indeed whether the remaining reels of that print survive somewhere - but the good news is that a version of the film did survive elsewhere and it's once again being screened.

Two Irish events for International Translation Day, Cork and Dublin, 2016

A flurry of posts, as St. Jerome's day heaves into view.
This next event looks fantastic; I wish I could go! What a dream line-up of speakers including Professors Luis Perez Gonzalez, Michael Cronin, Hilary Footitt, Lawrence Venuti and other very distinguished scholars...

There is more information at https://www.ucc.ie/en/french/translationactivism/#d.en.685554.

The event is organized by Dr Caroline Williamson of University College Cork whose article "Post-traumatic growth at the international level: The obstructive role played by translators and editors of Rwandan Genocide testimonies" was published in issue 9(1) of the journal Translation Studies.

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As it happens the reason I can't go is a happy one; I will be taking part in another event on Tuesday 27 September for International Translation Day, at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The programme is as follows:

10:45—12:30
Translation Seminar with Professor Reine Meylaerts, KU Leuven

Translation and Citizenship: 'La loi doit être connue pour être obligatoire'

Since the European democratization processes of the long nineteenth century, the very core of the legal and political potential to act as a citizen was formed by communicative resources. Communication between authorities and citizens through one (or more) national language(s) thus became of utmost importance. That is why studying language and translation policies is crucial to understand the role of language and translation in the construction of democratic citizenship. Drawing on examples from nineteenth-century Belgium, this presentation will reflect on issues of translation and citizenship and on methodological and theoretical implications for Translation Studies.

14:00—16:00, choose one of the following round tables:

1) The Work of the Professional Translator

This roundtable will discuss topics such as training, freelance v staff translator, the translation market, specialising and technology. Chair: Annette Schiller (ITIA)

2) Translation History: Why Bother?

This roundtable will discuss the function and utility of translation history, approaches to translation history, futures of translation history, interdisciplinarity and impact. Chair: Carol O'Sullivan (University of Bristol) and Alice Colombo (NUI Galway)

3) Why Translation Matters

This roundtable will look at the function and place of translation in society, its role in intercultural dialogue, its challenges and its future. Chairs: David Johnston and Piotr Blumczynski (Queen's University Belfast)

The afternoon's roundtables will be followed at 17:00 by 'Translating Anne Enright' - an event with Anne Enright in conversation with four translators of her work; Sergio Claudio Perroni (Italy), Hans-Christian Oeser (Germany), Isabelle Reinharez (France) and María Porras Sánchez (Spain). 

Click here to book tickets for the 'Translating Anne Enright' event at 17:00 on 27 September 2016.

More information on both events and booking links at https://www.ria.ie/events/translation-seminar-and-roundtables.

Poem about translation 26: Paul Muldoon on the erotics of retranslation

I've been thinking a lot about retranslation recently - indeed, earlier this year I did a first draft of a Wikipedia entry on the topic. And as it happens, I have just come across a poem on precisely the topic of retranslation. This seemed too serendipitous not to blog about, as part of my occasional series on (more or less) translation-themed verse.

The poem is by Paul Muldoon and is entitled 'Whim'. It can be found in Muldoon's New Selected Poems 1968-1994. A chat-up line based on the obsolence of a nineteenth-century translation leads to an unfortunate al fresco incident in Belfast's Botanic Gardens:

Extended deadline for abstracts for IPCITI postgraduate conference, November 2012

Received from Dorothy Kenny at Dublin City University:

IPCITI 2012
8-10 November 2012
Centre for Translation and Textual Studies
School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Dublin City University, Ireland

Dear colleagues and students, 

This is to inform you that the deadline for submission of abstracts to the 8th International Postgraduate Conference in Translating and Interpreting has been extended to 23rd July 2012.

IPCITI is designed to provide *new* researchers from all areas of translation and interpreting studies with the opportunity to share their research with peers in a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment. Day one of IPCITI is devoted to pre-conference workshops; days two and three are devoted to keynote lectures and parallel conference sessions.

The conference aims to showcase the great diversity of research in current translation and interpreting studies and invites abstracts from all relevant areas. Topics of specific interest to our organising committee include (but are by no means limited to):

Audiovisual translation
Community interpreting
Intercultural aspects of translation/interpreting
Lexicography/terminography
Literary translation
Localisation
Models of translation
'Periphery' cultures and minority languages
Research methodologies in translation/interpreting
Sign language interpreting
Translation of children's literature
Translation/interpreting pedagogy
Translation technology
Translation/interpreting and ethics
Translation/interpreting and media, including social media
Translation/interpreting history
Translation/interpreting process studies
Videogames localisation

Abstract Submission Guidelines
English-language abstracts of 400-450 words should be submitted no later than 23rd July 2012. Information on abstract submission is available at: http://www.ipciti.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=55

Keynote Speakers
Dr Federico Federici, Durham University, UK
Prof Andy Way, President of the International & European Associations for Machine Translation (IAMT & EAMT), Director of Language Technology at ALS, UK
Prof Jenny Williams, Dublin City University, Ireland

Pre-Conference Workshops (8th November)
Mixed Methods Research  Stephen Doherty
2nd workshop to be confirmed

Important Dates
Abstract submission deadline: 23rd July 2012
Notification of acceptance: 13th August 2012
Early bird registration deadline: 8th September 2012
Registration deadline: 8th October 2012

Publication of Papers
Following the conference, some papers may be recommended for publication in the journal New Voices in Translation Studies (http://www.iatis.org/newvoices/).

Registration
Registration information will be available shortly on the conference website at www.ipciti.org.uk. 

Further information, including information on accommodation and transportation to the conference venue, is available at: www.ipciti.org.uk

Enquiries concerning the conference should be directed to: ipciti2012 at dcu.ie

Information about Dublin can be found at www.visitdublin.com

DE-EN translation workshop, Dublin, and Translation Ireland call for papers

Excited about going back to Ireland this weekend! (Less excited about the fact that I can't seem to make the fonts on this blog behave; sorry about that). To mark the occasion, here are two Irish-related snippets:

Translation Workshop with Angelika Overath

28 June 2012, 9:00-12 noon
Goethe-Institut Irland, 37 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
in German
Admission free, please register
Tel. +353 1 7168180
gillian.pye at ucd.ie

Angelika Overath

As part of the annual conference of Women in German Studies (WiGS) – which is hosted by University College Dublin and the Goethe-Institut Irland this year – there will be a translation workshop with the author Angelika Overath. Overath, born in 1957 in Karlsruhe, is a German writer and journalist, who lives in Switzerland. During the workshop the participants learn in small groups how to exercise their translation skills (German-English) using some short works by Angelika Overath. Afterwards the translators Rachel McNicholl and Nick Johnstone will present their own versions of two texts in the form of a 'translation-slam'. Angelika Overath will read from the original German texts and talks about the experience of 'being translated'.

As part of the conference the authors Angelika Overath und Julya Rabinowich (from Austria) will read from their works on 28 June 2012 at 6:30 pm im Goethe-Institut.

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We are currently accepting articles for the forthcoming edition of Translation Ireland, the journal of the Irish Translators' and Interpreters' Association (ITIA). For this general issue we are accepting articles on any topic that would be of interest to ITIA members, particularly pieces concerning practical issues relating to the professional activities of translators and interpreters. Contributions may be in English or Irish and may be up to 5,000 words in length. They should be formatted according to the style guidelines available at http://bit.ly/JpeKxU. Articles which need extensive language correction and revision will not be accepted.

Articles should be submitted in their finished form by July 15th 2012. The journal's editorial committee will consider all submissions and you will be informed within the week following the submission deadline whether your contribution has been accepted for publication. It is hoped that the new issue will be ready in autumn 2012. All contributors will receive a free copy of the journal.

All submissions and queries should be sent to the general editor of Translation Ireland, John Kearns: kearns at pro.onet.pl.