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AGM with guest speaker Stathis Gauntlett

May 30, 2016 1:21 am

Thursday 26 May, 6.30-8.30pm

Kathleen Syme Library, 251 Faraday St, Carlton, VIC

Those present at the AGM discussed upcoming events, debated some new ideas and voted in a new committee for 2016-2017. Details to be circulated soon.

We heard Stathis talk on the PLEASURES AND PITFALLS OF ENGLISHING GREEK FICTION. He discussed three of his translations from Greek published over the last twelve years. The most recent was The Last Varlamis by Thanasis Valtinos, ‘a contemporary text of indeterminate genre, to be launched with some fanfare in London on 13 May’. The others were ‘the Cypriot novella “The Gangsters” by Lefkios Zafiriou and Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros, a 10,000-verse Cretan Renaissance romance that took three of us five years to translate and annotate’. Stathis reflected on the experience of ‘Englishing’ these texts and the issues they raised about translating from Greek and dealing with reviewers.

Stathis Gauntlett is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and currently a Senior Research Associate of the University of Melbourne, where he was first appointed to the foundation lectureship in Modern Greek in 1973. He retired from the Dardalis Chair of Hellenic Studies at La Trobe University in 2006. Among his publications are books on rebetika (‘Greek blues’), articles on Greek literature and oral traditions, and literary translations.

A recording of Stathis’ presentation will be available here soon.

TALK + AGM

May 1, 2016 7:53 am

PLEASURES AND PITFALLS OF ENGLISHING GREEK FICTION

Stathis Gauntlett, FAHA

Thursday 26 May, 6.30-8.30pm

Kathleen Syme Library, 251 Faraday St, Carlton, VIC

Literary translation was initially a displacement activity in which I indulged in the margins of sabbaticals in Greece and Cyprus whenever the opportunity arose to collaborate with interesting authors. The products were published in Australian literary journals, unadorned by commentary. Translation remained a mere parergon until I was persuaded to try producing book-length scholarly translations complete with annotations and analysis that the bean-counters might regard as academic research.

This talk focuses on three such volumes, published over the last twelve years, the most recent being The Last Varlamis by Thanasis Valtinos, a contemporary text of indeterminate genre, to be launched with some fanfare in London on 13 May.

The other translations I shall discuss are the Cypriot novella “The Gangsters” by Lefkios Zafiriou and Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros, a 10,000-verse Cretan Renaissance romance that took three of us five years to translate and annotate.

My reflections on the experience of Englishing these quite different texts raise issues specific to translating from Greek (a highly inflected language with a history of diglossia, transliteration problems, and politico-cultural minefields to negotiate, inter alia), but also challenges or vexations of more general applicability (such as dialect, intertextuality, postcolonial translation, mission-creep, publishing, reviewers) — all of which will be tempered with recollections of the many ways in which the translation process enhanced the pleasures of a literary text.

Focus language for 2016 AALITRA Translation Prize

December 18, 2015 4:42 am

We are excited to announce that the focus language for the 2016 AALITRA Translation Prize is Chinese.

More details to follow very soon!

TRANSLATION AND THEATRE SYMPOSIUM

October 26, 2015 1:03 am

With presentations by Angela Tarantini and David Mence, Consuelo Martinez Reyes, Henry Méra and Michael Bula.

Saturday 26 September 2015

Boyd Community Centre, Melbourne

At this event organised in association with VITS (Victorian Interpreting and Translation Services), AALITRA hosted three presentations from translators, academics and theatre professionals discussing various issues and questions surrounding translation and theatre.

ANGELA TARANTINI & DAVID MENCE

Photo by Di Cousens

Angela Tarantini is translating into Italian some plays by award-winning Australian playwright, David Mence; together they explained how their two voices merge to create a new work and how non-verbal elements influence translation.

Click here to download the mp3 recording.

CONSUELO MARTINEZ REYES

Photo by Di Cousens

Consuelo Martínez Reyes is in the process of translating and editing the unpublished works of Puerto Rican playwright and poet Victor Fragoso; she passed on some of his ideas and aesthetics, relevant to translators working in multi-lingual communities today.

Click here to download the mp3 recording.

MICHAEL BULA & HENRY MÉRA

With years of experience at Melbourne French Theatre, Michael Bula & Henry Méra shared practical methods of presenting plays in one language so that they may be understood by an audience speaking a different language.

Click here to download the mp3 recording.

Photo by Di Cousens

INTERPRETING FOR WRITERS: LITERARY TRANSLATION AND CREATIVE INTERPRETING

March 18, 2015 1:51 am

A presentation by MARC ORLANDO

Tuesday 10 March

ACJC Centre, Monash University

In this talk, Marc Orlando focused on the contribution interpreters make to our understanding and appreciation of literature in translation, through their work interpreting for authors at writers’ festivals and other international literary events. He also described the particular set of skills this kind of interpreting requires, and gave an account of how some of these language professionals view this aspect of their work. Download Marc Orlando’s slide on Literary & creative interpretation.

INAUGURAL AALITRA TRANSLATION PRIZE CEREMONY

September 17, 2014 11:43 am

With presentations by RAMÓN LÓPEZ CASTELLANO, PENNY HUESTON and PETER BOYLE

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Reader’s Feast Bookstore, Melbourne

At this event, the winners of the inaugural AALITRA Translation Prize were announced, and each read out their translation. In addition, Ramón López Castellano (Deakin University) spoke on the topic “Traduttore creatore”, Penny Hueston of Text Publishing spoke about translating, editing and publishing works of literature in Australia, and poet Peter Boyle spoke about the art of poetry translation.

The winning entries will be published in The AALITRA Review in 2015.

Prize winners, presenters and invited guests (Photo by Michael Reynolds)

Ramón López Castellano
(photo by Michael Reynolds)

Photo by Michael Reynolds

Lilit Thwaites, Chair of the Prize Sub-committee
(Photo by Michael Reynolds)

Photo by Michael Reynolds

TRANSLATING WORLD LITERATURE: JAPAN AND RUSSIA

March 10, 2014 4:41 am

With presentations by ROYALL TYLER and ROSAMUND BARTLETT

Thursday 6 March 2014

Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Melbourne

During this evening dedicated to world literature in translation, two eminent translators talked about their work. Royall Tyler, translator of The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike, spoke about “Translating Medieval Japanese Epic and Theatre” and Rosamund Bartlett, biographer and translator of Tolstoy and Chekhov, among others, spoke about “Translating Tolstoy”.

Click on the links below to download the recordings:

Royall Tyler Rosamund Bartlett

Photo by Di Cousens

SYMPOSIUM: TRANSLATION AND . . .

December 4, 2013 12:33 am

Photo by Di Cousens

Saturday 9 November 2013

Boyd, Southbank

During this afternoon dedicated to translation, Nicholas Jose spoke about “Translation and Creative Practice”, Linda Jaivin about “Translation and Film”, and Chi Vu about “Translation and Diasporic Writing: Cultural Translation in Angula Ma: A Gothic Tale“.

Some of the presenters’ research will be published in The AALITRA Review in 2014 and 2015.

Photo by Di Cousens

Photo by Di Cousens

DIEGO MARANI

May 29, 2013 12:21 am

A conversation with Italian novelist and translator DIEGO MARANI

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Italian Cultural Institute, South Yarra

In this conversation, Diego Marani, author of New Finnish Grammar and The Last of the Vostyachs, talked about language, identity, and the experience of being translated. He also discussed the tongue-in-cheek thinking behind Europanto, a language of his own invention. This event was co-presented by AALITRA, the Italian Cultural Institute and Text Publishing.

Download the recording of Diego Marani on languages, identity and translation.