Gdańskie Spotkania Literackie

Small languages, great literature. The Gdańsk Meetings of Literary Translators Found in Translation are upon us.

On 6, 7, and 8 April, in Gdansk, we will be talking about literature and translation with renowned writers, literary translators, and readers from across Poland. The Found In Translation festival will be accompanied by the exhibition of photographs by Renata Dąbrowska titled Zobaczyć tłumacza/To see a translator, meetings with the Versopolis poets, and the premiere of Małgorzata Łukasiewicz’s Pięć razy o przekładzie/Five pieces on translation. During the festival, the Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Translation Work Award, instituted by the President of the City of Gdańsk, will be presented. More info at www.odnalezionewtlumaczeniu.pl.

‘The third edition of the festival will put a spotlight on the phenomenon of “small languages”. We have invited translators and writers from culturally diverse places, e.g. Lithuania, Catalonia, Wales, or Swiss Grisons. We want to look at how their literature is translated, and what strategies are employed by the writers and the translators functioning in the shadow of the more dominant languages and literary traditions of their neighbouring countries and the globalised world. Nonetheless, it’s still translation that is the focal point of the festival. We show different aspects of how it works. We have asked a distinguished translator (Małgorzata Łukasiewicz), a writer (Eva Hoffman), and a world-famous expert on literature (Alberto Manguel) to share some thoughts and ideas on the matter. The focus of the Pisarz i jego tłumacze/The writer and his translators debate will be Wiesław Myśliwski, the Polish author whose works are translated most often,’ says Urszula Kropiwiec, one of the creators of Found In Translation.

The Gdańsk Meetings of Literary Translators begin on 6 April at 5.30 p.m. at Dwór Artusa with a lecture by Alberto Manguel and a discussion panel with Wiesław Myśliwski and his translators. At 9.30 p.m., in CCI, we will be listening to poems by young authors from Sweden, Slovenia, Lithuania, France, and Norway, accompanied by Stefan Wesołowski’s music.

On Friday (7 April), we begin at 10 a.m. at the Faculty of Languages of the University of Gdansk. We have planned discussion panels on translating into ‘small languages’ and on multilingualism, as well as a competition between Czech translators. A renowned translator and the author of Pięć razy o przekładzie published specifically for the festival, Małgorzata Łukasiewicz will also give a special lecture. At 4 p.m., we are going back to the CCI, where Grzegorz Jankowicz is going to talk to Alberto Manguel. The vernissage of Renata Dąbrowska’s exhibition starts at 5.30 p.m., in Dom Chodowieckiego i Grassa (Sieroca 6).

The Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Translation Work Award gala begins at 8 p.m. in the Museum of the Second World War. In the second edition of the Award, for the first time it will be given out in two categories, i.e. for an individual translation work, and for lifetime achievements in translation (the names of the nominees will not be divulged). In the former category, there are 7 nominations, i.e. Małgorzata Buchalik (for Rosja by Maxim Gorki), Jacek Giszczak (for Niedziela, 4 stycznia by Lyonel Trouillot), Hanna Igalson-Tygielska (for Niedziela życia by Raymond Queneau), Krzysztof Majer (for Depesza by Michael Herr), Monika Muskała (for Tak. Wyjadacze by Thomas Bernhard), Piotr Paziński (for Przypowieść o skrybie i inne opowiadania by Szmuel Josef Agnon), and Marcin Szuster (for Alfred i Ginewra by James Schuyler).

The Award Jury is Anna Wasilewska (chair), Jacek S. Buras, Andrzej Jagodziński, Michał Kłobukowski, Sławomir Paszkiet, Justyna Sobolewska, and Tomasz Swoboda. The admission to the gala is by invitation only.

On Saturday (8 April), the meetings begin at 10 a.m. in the temporary exhibition hall of the European Solidarity Centre. Apart form the debates on how translators work, on nautical fiction, and on the challenges inherent in publishing books translated from ‘small languages’, selected creative work houses in Europe will be presented.

Full programme at www.odnalezionewtlumaczeniu.pl.

Organised by the CCI and the City of Gdansk

www.odnalezionewtlumaczeniu.pl

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