Paul Olchváry will give a talk entitled, “Staying True and Breaking Loose: The Translator’s Paradoxical Craft”.
With particular reference to the challenges of translating prose fiction from the inscrutable language he specializes in, Hungarian, Paul Olchváry will explore a range of questions at the heart of translation—from navigating the elusive roadmap of associations each word or turn of phrase conjures in readers of the original language versus those of the target language, to resolving technical problems of rhythm and diction; from balancing one’s obligations to the original and its author with those to readers of the translation, to the very possibility of recreating the cultural-historical-linguistic island of the original text in a “global” language such as English. Olchváry will also comment on the contemporary situation and prospects of translation in North America, and read excerpts from his recent translations.
PAUL OLCHVÁRY has translated numerous books from Hungarian, including Vilmos Kondor’s Budapest Noir; György Dragomán’s The White King , Ferenc Barnás’s The Ninth , and Károly Pap’s Azarel. Stories in his translation have appeared in the Paris Review, the Kenyon Review, and the Hungarian Quarterly. A recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN American Center, he is currently translating a major work of cultural history. He lives in North Adams, Massachusetts, and Kismaros, Hungary.
April 5, 7pm 241 Hollander