The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1995, Síða 11

SPRING/SUMMER 1995
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
121
time, that I am losing French faster than
Spanish. I was quite comfortable in Span-
ish at that time and to this day I feel that
I’m coming home when I go to Spain.
Evelyn: Do you still think in Spanish
sometimes?
Alfrun: Yes, when I’m teaching. Though
I teach in Icelandic, I am talking about
Spanish or French literature which requires
a different mode of thinking. But now I al-
ways Yvrite in Icelandic . When I was young
I only wanted to know languages to be able
to read them, I never expected to go
abroad. We learned Danish in school so
that we could at least read important works
and translations in Danish, and I learned
to read English and other languages for the
same reason. But I wasn’t just interested in
learning languages; I was interested in the
whole area of linguistics and wanted to
know what the languages were like in the
original, structurally as well.
Evelyn: But you can tell about the prob-
lem of translation from another side as well.
Since you write for a small nation with only
a quarter million speakers, you have to be
translated if you want to reach readers who
cannot read Icelandic. Your latest novel,
Hvatt ad runum, has been nominated for
the Annual Literary Prize of the Nordic
Council and is being translated into Swed-
ish now. Are you involved in any way in this
translation?
Alfrun: No, because I can’t read Swed-
ish well enough to understand the fine
points. But actually, I prefer not to have
anything to do with it. It is the work of the
translator.
Evelyn: But doesn’t it make you feel un-
comfortable to know your work is in the
hands of another person whose transla-
tion/interpretation will determine how
your novel will be read — or possibly mis-
read — by a foreign audience?
Alfrun: No, it doesn’t. If you believe that
the translator is good, you need not worry.
There are probably always mistakes in trans-
lations — but that’s not important. Impor-
tant is that your translator appreciates the
style of the original work and does not im-
pose his own style upon it. I’m not worried
that he might change the work itself —
except in minor ways.
Evelyn: Your latest novel is not exactly
an easy text to read or translate. You say
style is important, but how about content?
Alfrun: Well, if the style is good, the con-
tent should be able to take care of itself!
{Laughter.) There are some translators who
look at translation as something merely
mechanical. That was exactly what modern
scholars have reproached the old Norwe-
gian translators for — that they hadn’t been
as accurate as they should have been. They
did not translate every single word of the
original, they shortened sentences, they
abbreviated poems while adapting them
and turning them into new stories. As you
know, translation is also interpretation. You
can never translate if you don’t interpret.
Interpretation is part of the style, I think,
and those translators who look at translat-
ing as something mechanical don’t realize
that. It is better to have some kind of inter-
pretation, maybe not the exact one you
would like to have, rather than leaving eve-
rything up in the air. The text has to live
and should not be sterile.
Evelyn: I personally don’t think translat-
ing for style alone is enough. In the case of
your latest novel, everything seems to be
interwoven and complicated; you have cre-
ated so many levels of reality in the book
that readers can interpret them in many
different ways. What do you expect your
translator to do?
Alfrun: I intended to give my readers a
number of ways to interpret what I said in
the novel. I expect my translator to try to
recreate not only one, but perhaps two or
more levels while leading the readers
through my novel. I’m told that my Swed-
ish translator is very experienced and him-
self a poet. If I intervene in his work, I