“Sometimes I tear my hair out – but it’s never boring”
For more than a decade, Daniel Gustafsson, teacher in Literary Composition at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, has worked to bring László Krasznahorkai’s complex prose into Swedish. Today, he is regarded as one of Sweden’s foremost interpreters of the Hungarian Nobel laureate – continually finding new life in the author’s winding sentences.
Daniel Gustafsson made his literary debut with the novel Odenplan, which was nominated for the August Prize in 2019. In 2022 he released the critically acclaimed Fine de Claire. Since 2023, he has been a teacher in the Bachelor’s Programme in Literary Composition.
He has translated fiction from Hungarian into Swedish and English since 2009, including works by Péter Nádas, Krisztina Tóth, and Attila Bartis – and, most recently, by the latest Nobel laureate in literature, László Krasznahorkai.
– I discovered him during a period when I often spent time in Hungary. I had heard about his debut Satantango, which I immediately bought. The first thing I translated was the novella The Last Wolf, purely on speculation, says Daniel Gustafsson.
A single 375-page sentence.
Last year, he received the Translation of the Year Award, presented by the Swedish Writers’ Union and the Natur & Kultur Foundation, for his translation of Krasznahorkai’s novel Herscht 07769. It is the fifth of Krasznahorkai’s works Gustafsson has translated, and perhaps the most challenging one: the text consists of a single 375-page sentence. He describes Krasznahorkai’s authorship as both intricate and full of momentum.
– He unites great, universal themes with the prosaic – and often quite ugly – reality of life on earth. He also has a distinctive language, where sentences sometimes stretch into infinity, yet never lose their forward motion. Despite the complexity, he’s incredibly fun to translate. I do tear my hair out at times. But thanks to his drive, it’s never boring! says Daniel Gustafsson.