Denmark – CEATL

The Danish Authors’ Association has filed a lawsuit against the Danish secret service

The Danish Authors’ Association (https://danskforfatterforening NULL.dk/danish-authors-society/) (representing translators and writers) has filed a lawsuit against the Danish secret service. One of its members, Arne Herløv Petersen (https://da NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Arne_Herl%C3%B8v_Petersen), a writer, poet and translator of some 200 works of literature, was briefly investigated in 1981 on charges of espionage for the Soviet Union. →

Global streaming premiere of documentary ‘Dreaming Murakami’

Today at 19:00 (CET) the documentary Dreaming Murakami has its global streaming premiere. The movie follows Danish Murakami-translator Mette Holm in her quest for the perfect translation of the Japanese author’s debut novel Hear the Wind Sing, and gives a rare view into the creative process of the literary translator. The young award-winning director Nitesh Anjaan’s poetic images and story telling captures the essence of Murakmi’s universe and Mette Holm’s attempt to pass it on to his Danish readers. →

Europe celebrates International Translation Day

On 24 May 2017, the United Nations General Assembyl recognised 30 September as International Translation Day, to be celebrated every year across the entire UN network. Translators’ associations all over Europe organise a variety of festive events. To name a few:

Austria

The Austrian association of literary translators (http://www NULL.literaturhaus NULL.at/lh/ueg/) has a tradition of celebrating International Translation Day together with the other translators’ and interpreters’ associations in Austria by taking turns in organising the event. →

Call for applications: ‘Translating the North’ into Italian (deadline: 15 July 2018)

StradeLab (http://www NULL.traduttoristrade NULL.it/stradelab/), a cultural association linked with SLC-Strade, is organising ‘Laboratorio Nordico – Translating the North’, the first peer-to-peer seminar for literary translators from Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish into Italian. The seminar is funded by the Danish Arts Foundation (https://www NULL.kunst NULL.dk/english/danish-arts-foundation/), Icelandic Literature Center (http://www NULL.islit NULL.is/en), Norla (https://norla NULL.no/en/pages) and the Swedish Arts Council (http://www NULL.kulturradet NULL.se/en/In-English/). →

Public event during CEATL’s AGM: Boundaries in literary translation (11 May 2018, Kopenhagen)

This year, the annual meeting of the CEATL will take place in Copenhagen, and as part of this gathering, the delegates and the general public are invited to a special edition of the literary event The Red Couch.

On Friday 11 May, literary translator Niels Brunse is in conversation with colleague François-Eric Grodin on borders in literary translation: on being a mediator of literature across cultural and linguistic boundaries and on limitations and possibilities in translation as an art form. →

Documentary about the Danish Murakami translator Mette Holm premiered at the IDFA festival (Amsterdam, 17 November 2017)

The director Nitesh Anjaan has made a documentary about Mette Holm, who has been translating the work of the Japanese author Haruki Murakami into Danish for many years: Dreaming Murakami (https://www NULL.idfa NULL.nl/nl/film/62075d91-295b-4171-ae39-b739672c9381/dreaming-murakami). This glimpse into Holm’s life follows her on a trip to Japan while working on the translation of Kaze no uta o kike (Hear the Wind Sing), the world-famous author’s debut novel. →

Danish language in focus on International Translation Day 2017

On 30 September, to celebrate International Translation Day 2017, the Danish Translators’ Association (http://danskforfatterforening NULL.dk/) is hosting a conference in Copenhagen on the topic ´Nuances in Danish: Renewal and/or Impoverishment´. The event will include a translators’ fair, workshops, talks on subtitling of the Norwegian TV-series ´Skam´, translating Astérix, marketing language, words as artwork, and a debate on the topic ´Who Determines Language?´

As has been the tradition for the last seven years, the international translation day celebration brings together translators from many fields, including state-authorised translators, interpreters, subtitlers, students and researchers of translation and literary translators. →

Language diversity in the spotlight at two Danish translation events (Copenhagen, Aarhus)

To celebrate International Translation Day 2016, the Danish Translators’ Association is hosting two events in different parts of Denmark.

On 25 September, in Aarhus, four literary translators – working from Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic and Chinese into Danish – will talk about their work under the heading ‘Languages we don’t understand’.

On 30 September, in Copenhagen, a whole day of talks, workshops, debates and a translators’ fair will take place under the heading ‘Language diversity is a strength!’ This second event brings together translators from a broad spectrum of fields and genres and has become a tradition and a celebration of the art and craft of translation. →

What language do you eat? (Milan, 30 September 2015)

Greece, Israel and Denmark will meet in Milan on 30 September 2015. Andrea Di Gregorio, Raffaella Scardi and Eva Valvo, literary translators working into Italian from Greek, Hebrew and Danish respectively, will discuss their professional and practical experiences around food and translation with experts on the three national cuisenes.

A delegation of students from Istituto alberghiero Ballerini (Seregno) will be there to listen together with their teachers, who will afterwards help them prepare some dishes that will be presented and tasted during BookCity Scuole in October. →

Danish Association initiates online encyclopedia of literary translators

Had it not been for translators and their work, much of the world’s most important literature would only have been accessible to readers with specialized skills in foreign languages. Furthermore, without translations and the people who wrote them, a country would have been deprived of the contrasts, reflections and inspirations from other literatures that are so essential to the life and spirit of its national literature. →