'This Little Art': Kate Briggs and Daniel Hahn discuss translation
Kate Briggs reads from her latest book, This Little Art published by fitzcarraldo Press, in the Médiathèque of the French Institute (2017).
On the 21st September, Daniel Hahn joined Kate Briggs, for a lively discussion about translation and Briggs' recently published book This Little Art (available now through Fitzcarraldo Editions).
See below to listen to the full recording from the event.
The evening proved a unique opportunity for translators and lay audiences alike, to explore the complex and permutating effects of translation with two of the field's luminaries.
Daniel Hahn, a distinguished writer, editor and translator, has never strayed far from the spotlight of the literary world. He has for example been a judge for the International Man Booker Prize (in the category for fiction in translation in the UK) and a winner of the International Dublin Literature Award in his capacity as a translator for his work on José Eduardo Agualusa's A General Theory of Oblivion. Incidentally, he used half of the winnings to establish a prize for débutant translators and recently put together a selection of young European writers for the Hay Festival as part of the new Aarhus 39 project.
Kate Briggs, who humbly describes herself as a translator, writer and tutor, has been universally praised for her translation of Barthes' posthumous work La Préparation du roman which was published in 2011 (The Preparation of the Novel). The Times Literary Supplement extolled Briggs’ 'wonderful' translation, saying 'Briggs finally makes available in English a most unusual book by one of the most significant literary figures of the twentieth century.'
The translation threw much needed light into the shadows of Barthes' later writings and many years later provides valuable context for scholars and enthusiasts of Barthes alike. The recent translation of Laurent Binet's La Septième fonction du langage (The Seventh Function of Language) for example alludes frequently to Barthes preoccupation with La Préparation du roman.
Briggs spent 5 years on the two volumes of Barthes' lecture notes which she claims was the most formative educational experience she had received. Far more indeed than her PhD had been. She wrote the latter in her mid-20s whilst trying to engage with the 'theory' of translation but confessed it was difficult to comment on such ideas having not been fully immersed in the practice of translation at that stage.
"Who do I think I am, presuming to translate Roland Barthes?"
- Kate Briggs
Such positions inevitably raise questions, as Briggs points out on more than one occasion, such as what is an amateur and what is a seasoned translator? At what point can anyone be qualified to undertake to translate? In a particularly candid moment, Briggs talks about the pressure she felt ("who do I think I am, presuming to translate Roland Barthes?").
Kate Briggs and Daniel Hahn extrapolating translation and This Little Art.
These considerations are captivatingly borne out in her new book This Little Art which examines the forces, trajectories and "white spaces" which translation opens up to the reader and practitioner. Briggs is also honest about the serendipity in which a translator can be matched with a particular writer and how deterministic that be for a career in translation. Briggs certainly uses her experiences of translating Barthes as a point of departure in her book but makes clear that the book itself should not be read as the 'definitive word' on translation as a professional practice or experience. How could it be? she says in effect.
This is reaffirmed by Hahn who says, that for him, the pleasure of the book was in the realisation that translators tended not to articulate their practice and their experiences. "You then discover that there aren't really received wisdoms.... It's much more complicated, a lot more personal and harder to pin down".
Writing therefore presented Briggs with a way of reconciling complex thoughts and positions about how she felt about translation but also a channel through which to offer her own voice. She also cites the experiences of other female translators (which is possible largely thanks to their written correspondences), most notably Dorothy Bussy who translated the works of André Gide and Helen Lowe-Porter who translated the works of Thomas Mann.
"You then discover that there aren't really received wisdoms... It's much more complicated, a lot more personal and harder to pin down."
- Daniel Hahn
The latter was apparently greatly criticised. But Briggs talks about how she was more interested in knowing what she thought she was doing and her relationship with the work. In this respect she is less concerned with the act of translation as an entirely selfless act and throughout the book she avoids using terms such as 'faithful' or 'true'. Indeed This Little Art does not shy away from translation as a conscious recognition of personal and individual growth and learning rather than as an act of pure sacrifice.
This is neatly summarised by Hahn who recalls the quote by novelist David Mitchell: '[a]s a writer I can be bad, but I can't be wrong. A translator can be good, but can never be right. Translators are jugglers, diplomats, nuance-ticklers, magistrates, word-nerds, self-testing lie detectors, and poets'.
In essence Briggs says that the book is an effort to describe these processes which at any one time can be strained, neutral or self-exploratory amongst many other things. She also has a strong desire to share the experience with the reader (imagining at one point a readership of three or four confidants) and refers to how Barthes' lectures made accommodations for his students in order to promote collaboration and dialogue.
The book is very much written in this spirit, providing spaces where translators, scholars, readers and writers can come together.
To listen to the full recording of the talk, click here. You can also browse other works including a selection of works by Roland Barthes now available as e-Books on Culturethèque.
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