The balancing game: a practical crash course on poetry and song translation
Are you interested in branching out into the exciting yet elusive world of poetry translation? Or are you simply curious what the hype is all about? In this workshop, Anne Oosthuizen will introduce five crucial aspects to poetry and song translation. With these five aspects, you'll find that translating such texts is not unlike undertaking a pentathlon: focus too much on one, and it will be very difficult to achieve a great result overall.
Using practical examples, we will discuss the purpose and target audience of a few texts. Subsequently, we will set our aims and formulate a translation strategy that will help to maintain a balance between the five aspects. The meat of the workshop will involve group brainstorms, flash translations and feedback sessions.
As is true for almost all branches of our craft: there is never one perfect translation. Rather, what's more important is whether your target text meets the aims formulated a priori. To this end, we will mainly focus on developing the skills you'll need to create a translation that fits your (or your future clients') purposes.
After this workshop, you will have learnt to:
- analyse a poem or lyric using five crucial aspects,
- formulate a purpose, target audience and subsequent translation strategy and
- apply your strategy to a translation that sees five aspects in (near-)perfect balance.
Time: 11:30–12:45
Room: 1
Click here to register for the 2023 PDD. Click here for the full programme.
About the presenter
Anne Oosthuizen is a creative translator and editor working in English and Dutch. She is also a writing and language coach. Anne completed her BA English Language and Culture in Amsterdam and New Zealand, and graduated cum laude from Leiden University with an MA in Translation Studies.
Besides translating marketing texts and books, Anne's super-special niche within the cultural sector is translating poetry and music-linked texts. In her MA thesis, she explored the multifaceted task of song translation for animated film. Anne has translated several books of poetry, and her translations featured at various poetry festivals such as Dichters van de Prinsentuin and Poetry International. In her spare time, she enjoys singing and reading, and likes to play around with satirical adaptations of well-known pop songs.
Website: www.tott-translation.vpweb.nl
LinkedIn: anne-oosthuizen-tott92016
Facebook: TotTtranslations