TRANSLATING THE WORLD

Great excitement . New Zealand now has a centre for literary translation.

Based at Victoria University and led by Jean Anderson, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation hopes to offer a translator residency in the near future.

Says Dr Anderson, the centre aims to increase awareness of literary translation, to increase the amount of translation from other literatures into New Zealand English, and to assist with the translation of New Zealand writers into other languages.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, along with many Embassy representatives, attended the launch last evening, Monday March 3, in the Rutherford House foyer, Lambton Quay, Wellington.

The event also saw the launch by Helen Clark of the NZCLT’s first publication, the international fiction anthology,

Been There, Read That: Stories for the Armchair Traveller,

edited by Jean Anderson with a foreword by IIML director Bill Manhire. Published by VUP $30.00

This is a a great collection of short stories from around the world, (France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Korea, MNexico, Spain, Tahiti among them), many of the writers having their work appear in English for the first time.

Unlike any other collection of short stories ever published in NZ previously I offer my congratulations to Jean Anderson and her team of talented translators.

And such a superbly approriate title to mark the opening of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation. Great title and I love the cover image too.

From Victoria News:

The anthology took centre director Jean Anderson nearly four years to compile.

"I think what we have got is a really interesting range of different types of texts. People will have their own favourites. Some of them are funny, some of them aren't. There isn't a theme as such. What I did was to ask the translators to find a piece that they really loved and trusted them as expert readers with literary sensitivity," says Dr Anderson.

"In many cases, this is the first time the writer's work has appeared in English. Some authors are well-known within their language community, others are relative newcomers. In almost every case, the translator has selected his or her piece out of the desire to bring it to a wider readership and to share the unexpected pleasures of encountering a new voice."
The anthology, Been There, Read That! Stories for the Armchair Traveller, will be available for purchase at the 3 March launch, which will also mark the establishment of the centre.

Based at Victoria University, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation has a core group of translators from the Asian and European Languages department at Victoria, but also plans to work with translators from outside the University and even outside New Zealand, as is the case for the anthology.

Dr Anderson says literary translation is much closer to creative writing than is generally understood. "For us, the launch is partly about education âs most people don't really know what is involved in literary translation."

"As a centre, we are going to have two mission statements. One is to do whatever we can to increase awareness of what literary translation is, and increase the amount of translation into New Zealand English. The other is to assist with the translation of New Zealand writers into other languages. Both these activities will be supported by research into the processes and reception of translated works."