Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Prize-winning author’s exclusive blog on the complexities of translated fiction

http://www.translatedfiction.org.uk/

Prize-winning translator Daniel Hahn is writing an exclusive blog for Booktrust’s translated fiction website.

Hahn, who won the 2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his translation of José Eduardo Agualusa’s The Book of Chameleons, is about to embark on translating a fourth Agulausa book, Estação das Chuvas.

Booktrust’s translated fiction website, which went live earlier this year, is dedicated to promoting novels originally published in other countries but now available in English in the UK. As well as a searchable database of hundreds of titles, the site highlights new and forthcoming novels and reviews a selection of them. It also features articles about the world of translation, reports about translation events and interviews with authors and translators
Daniel Hahn comments:
“In this blog, I hope to examine the translation process, working through a novel from my own first launching into a first draft, right up to publication. It’s not a blog about the life of a translator, but intimately about a single piece of translation work, which I hope will bring you closer to the experience, to the pleasures it brings and the questions it raises.”

Website editor James Smith said:
“Daniel Hahn's online diary recording the progress of his new project will provide a fascinating insight into the way he works and also give us an idea of the pitfalls and joys of translation.”

The first entry can be read on the site now.

No comments: