Översättningssamtal with translator Nichola Smalley: HOW TO SAY SOMETHING

Translators often get asked whether they write as well as translate. When asked this question, my standard response has been a slightly defensive, ‘No, I have nothing to say’. But when I think about the books I have translated and dream of translating, there’s a clear pattern: the vast majority of these books are either aligned with my world view (politically or aesthetically) or have given me an opportunity to learn more about a subject I’m interested in. By giving these books the best life I can in English, it seems I am trying to speak through them.

But how can we, as translators, make choices that enable us to say the things we want to through the books we translate? To what extent are these choices available to us, depending on our backgrounds, levels of experience and the demands of the market? How can we reconcile a need to say something with the need to make money? How can our engagement with our peers and working conditions also be a way of saying something about the world and our place in it?

Nichola Smalley is an award-winning literary translator from Swedish and Norwegian, working with authors including Johannes Anyuru, Lars Jakobson, Oliver Lovrenski, Amanda Svensson and Andrzej Tichý. She is Chair of the Swedish-English Translator’s Association and an English PEN Translation Advisory Co-Chair, and was a Translators Association committee member. She has a PhD in the use of slang in contemporary Swedish and English literature and spent several years working in publishing. She lives in London.