British Centre for Literary Translation mentor scheme, 2013

The British Centre for Literary Translation has announced the list of languages and mentors for 2013, with an amazing lineup of participating translators. All mentorships are for translation into English.
For more information, see the BCLT website:

Considering making a career in literary translation? Already embarked on your course but feel you could do with more help and support? If so, you might be one of the talented emerging translators we’re looking for to participate in the 2013 BCLT Translator Mentoring Scheme  (1 January – 30 June 2013)

Launched in 2011, the scheme has already produced twelve mentorship ‘graduates’ in languages ranging from Catalan to Polish. Several of the 2011-12 mentees have had work published as a result of contacts made and skills honed during the mentoring process, and our Arabic mentee, Emily Danby, was commissioned to translate a novel, The Scent of Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek, during her mentorship.

How to apply

Mentorships will be awarded in fifteen languages

• Arabic (mentor PAUL STARKEY)
• Danish (mentor BARBARA HAVELAND)
• Dutch (mentor DAVID COLMER)
• Italian (mentor HOWARD CURTIS)
• Greek (mentor DAVID CONNOLLY)
• Japanese (mentor MICHAEL EMMERICH)
• Norwegian (mentor DON BARTLETT)
• Polish (mentor ANTONIA LLOYD-JONES)
• Portuguese (mentor MARGARET JULL COSTA)
• Russian (mentor ROBERT CHANDLER)
• Swedish (mentor SARAH DEATH)
• Tamil (mentor LAKSHMI HOLMSTROM)
• Welsh (mentor TONY BIANCHI)

Mentees in these languages will be selected by open application.
To apply for a mentorship please submit the following:

• A brief, up to date CV
• A statement as to why you believe you would benefit from a mentorship and how you would use it
• A short sample of your translation work (not more than 2000 words) with accompanying notes

We expect most applications to come from translators living and working in the UK, but will consider all applications on their merits.

All enquiries and applications should be made by email to Sarah Bower, Scheme Co-ordinator at S.Bower at uea.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is 31^st October 2012

Successful applicants will be informed by 30^th November 2012. Mentorships will commence immediately after the New Year holiday.

PhD studentship at Bangor University

Applications are invited by the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities at Bangor University for an AHRC PhD Studentship in Translation Studies beginning on 1st October 2012. 

We welcome applications for research on any aspect of Intercultural Studies and Translation (preferably with the language combination of English and Chinese; other possibilities may combine English or Welsh with Spanish, German, French or Italian) or a practice-led PhD in Translation Studies (preferably with the language combination of English and Chinese; other combinations as above). Applications for research projects on any aspect of translation in Wales, preferably from a cultural perspective, will also be welcome.

More information at http://www.bangor.ac.uk/cah/translation_scholarship.php.en 

Poems about translation 8: Twm Morys, 'To My Translator'

Les Murray is a very difficult act to follow, so it's been an (a)eon since we had a Poem About Translation. But lo, here is the Welsh poet Twm Morys with a series of poems, all of them presented as being in some way concerned with translation. First is Morys' poem 'CV' in Welsh, French and two different English versions. Then follows a number of poems with literal and more 'polished' English translations, and notes by Morys.

'To my Translator' is the one which caught my eye. In his notes, Morys says of the poem that:

This is a poem about a poem about to be translated! By the time it lands on the translator’s desk, it will have been prepared already for the operation by being put into English. The poem in English is like a note for the surgeon attached to the (dead) body. But in the original language, this hasn’t happened yet, of course! The poem in Welsh tells us what the surgeon will do to it, after it’s been “prepared.”

So it's a poem about translation which is first presented in a literal translation, in order that it can be translated by some eager-beaver non-Welsh-speaker, and then actually translated. (I think). The prickly literal translation, which I hope Mr Morys will not mind us reproducing in full, reminds us by its strangeness how much interpretation and rewriting takes place between the poem and its translation. Is it just me, or does it also act as a mischievous reminder to those of us who don't read Welsh that we have to take it on trust that this is actually a translation at all...?

To the One Who is in My Translating

By to him my receiving,
my brain and my insides
after going, without blood (any) more,
without breath, in ice,
this one will-be-able, like a surgeon,
to my opening without nausea.
And without mess, transplant,
put himself into the hole black.
After doing (of) the needlework,
Not you-will-see trace (of) his hand, either.
May-put the doctor then
On me the name which he-wishes.

Click here to read Morys' more fluent English translation, and wonder. Click here for another piece by Morys on Welsh prosody (but be warned that it may make your head chime).

For more information on the EmLit project, of which these translations were part, click here.

(Btw the workshops run by the Poetry Translation Centre at SOAS also work by means of literal translations into English. Their excellent site has lots of poems in the original, juxtaposed with the working literal and the polished 'final' draft, for your reading enjoyment.)

translation competitions deadline reminder: 16 July, 31 July

Dear all,

A quick reminder of imminent deadlines for two translation competitions.

The deadline for the Translators' House Wales translation challenge from French into Welsh or English is tonight (Friday 16 July) at midnight GMT. Or possibly tomorrow at midnight. You know, I'm not sure. You can come to your own conclusion here.

The deadline for the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize is 31 July 2010. This prize will be presented to a translator at the start of their career and will focus on a different language each year. In 2010 – the inaugural year – the chosen language is Spanish and entrants will be asked to translate ‘El hachazo’, a short story by the Argentine writer Matías Néspolo. The short story and details on how to enter can be found here. The prize is open to anyone between the ages of 16 and 34, with no restriction on country of residence.

One of the judges, Margaret Jull Costa (translator), commented ‘There are very few prizes open to the young, unpublished translator, who is either trying to get a toehold in the world of literary translation or who simply loves translating. All praise to Harvill Secker, then, for instigating this Young Translators’ Prize.’

Good luck to any readers who enter either of these competitions!

Haitian Translation Challenge: French-English/French-Welsh, deadline 16 July 2010

Another very interesting translation challenge was launched by Translators' House Wales at the Hay literary festival the other day. The challenge is to translate an extract from the short story 'La folie était venue avec la pluie' by the Haitian writer Yanick Lahens into English or Welsh. The closing date for entries is July 16th 2010. The prize is a commission to translate the whole story, two nights' accommodation at Ty Newydd-Translators' House Wales (to be arranged with Ty Newydd) and the 2010 Bardic Staff.

The Bardic Staff - you know you want that. Another chance for aspiring literary translators to prove their mettle. The text for translation and more information are available here. Good luck to any of our readers who decide to give it a go!