Translation - a demanding discipline ****************************************************************************************** * Translation - a demanding discipline ****************************************************************************************** At a meeting of the Research Council on Thursday 18th April, 2013, the Silver Medal of the was awarded to British scholar and translator Patrick Corness in recognition of his achiev dissemination of Czech culture and scholarship abroad and the advancement of Czech transla linguistics and language teaching methodology. In the interview we talked about translatio problems of poetry translation and software applications designed to assist translators. How did you first become involved in Slavonic studies? That is a long story, partly to do with various family connections. I have family in Pragu wife and I come here regularly to see them and our many Czech friends. There are also the cultural events, the National Library, my associations with Charles University and much mo present visit I will have the great honour of receiving a Silver Medal from the Faculty of exceptional life event for me. Amongst your list of publications, the English translation of The Art of Translation by Ji particularly caught my eye. How did you come to be involved in that project? Is it actuall translate a book such as this, which is a kind of handbook for Czech translators? As it happens, I acquired the first edition of the book in Prague in 1963. Subsequently, J revised versions of his work for German and Russian readers, and these editions were trans two languages. Unfortunately, the revised source texts in Czech have not survived and the edition is actually a back translation from the German version. Translating Levý’s classic English was a complex task. For example, in discussions with my Editor, decisions had to b the selection of appropriate translation case studies for the English-speaking reader and sections which were too specifically addressed to a Czech reader. I subsequently compiled a tetralingual parallel corpus of the respective editions, for inc InterCorp project of the Czech National Corpus. This makes it easier to understand the his in its various manifestations. Is it possible to learn to translate this way, or can translation be learnt only through e practice? Jiří Levý’s book is a brilliant guide for the translator. It may seem very straightforward readability is deceptive; the theory is subtle and involved. What are the future directions of translation? Will automated systems take over? How will generations of translators be educated? Translation tools are very sophisticated today, but they can never be totally reliable and replace the human translator. People sometimes have the impression that they could simply the Google Translate application instead of employing someone to translate it for them. Th aware that technology, however sophisticated, is still only a tool. There are excellent online resources, including extensive dictionaries. Actually, one of t for translators is the Google search engine itself, which enables you to check usage, gram and much else in a foreign language; if an expression cannot be found on Google (as an exa chances are it is not correctly written. I use Google this way myself and I cannot imagine translator without access to the internet, a treasure trove of information. Do you also translate fiction? Yes, I am mainly engaged in translating works of literature – novels, short stories and po enjoy translating contemporary Ukrainian literature, which is relatively little known. The Ukrainian labourers in this country, but people are less familiar with the historical conn Czechoslovakia and Ukraine. Fortunately, there are people like Rita Kindlerová, who transl literature into Czech, raising cultural awareness, for which she has been awarded a presti prize in Ukraine. I have translated some works by Nataša Tanská into English – a children’s book, and some o which I like a lot. I am tempted to consider translating some Czech fairy tales. I recall that once some Engli to Prague asked for a book of Czech fairy tales, translated into English, for their grandc Unfortunately, none of the available publications had been translated by an English native were unsuitable. I hope that such a book could be successfully published. Today’s children are more used to but hopefully a book of Czech fairy tales in English would have a place on the shelves too Is Czech “grown-up“ literature translated into English? Very much so. Everyone knows Milan Kundera, but then one might ask whether he is actually In addition to the classics like Čapek, there is Viewegh, for example. His Bringing up Gir been excellently translated by A.G. Brain. Or Miloš Urban, some of whose writings have app – not his collection of short stories entitled Mrtvý holky [Dead Girls], however, as far a would be a popular publication. Regrettably, the proportion of translated literature on the English book market is very sm with the situation in this country, where translations possibly account for something like They say that writers master either the “discipline” of the novel or that of the short sto case with translators Levý expresses the view that good translators of prose often make poor translators of poet versa. I attempt both. Translating poetry is something of a brain-teaser. A particular pro fact that the rhyming vocabulary of English is limited, making the translation of poetry i especially difficult. ****************************************************************************************** * Patrick Corness ****************************************************************************************** was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Staffordshire. He studied Slavonic languages and G the University of London (SSEES & UCL), Moscow State University and Charles University Pra a university teacher for most of his career (Russian and German at Sunderland, Coventry, W contributing to development of the pioneering applied languages degree at Lanchester Colle from 1970. Liaison interpreter and translator in Russian and Czech. Examiner in Czech/Engl for University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. Postgraduate supervisor and exam PhD) at Coventry, Birmingham, Hull, Leeds, Manchester (UMIST). Examiner for HM Diplomatic translating and interpreting qualifications (via Language Testing Associates). Director of centre for IT in language learning at Coventry University). During the 1990s, co-ordinator Tacis project (Coventry/Lviv/Zwickau) promoting developments in the teaching of English an universities of Western Ukraine, contributor to a similar project with Moscow State Univer literary translator into English (mostly Czech, German, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian), wi interest in applications of literary translation corpora. He is affiliated to the Centre f Studies, University of Leeds, as an (honorary) Visiting Research Fellow and he is a member of Authors/Translators Association, London.