Our Translators’ Stammtisch is open and free to all translators and will meet monthly on a Tuesday or Thursday, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow. The events are free to attend.
Literary translators – and translators more generally – are often forced to spend the majority of their time alone, glued to their computers and/or dictionaries. Though many translators are very sociable creatures who enjoy passionate discussions about foreign languages, native tongues, culture, society, politics and (even) grammar! The Translators’ Stammtisch [German; a regular’s table, usually in a pub] is offers a monthly opportunity for literary translators (mainly working into English, though open to translators of all language combinations) to get together and discuss their work and other joys and issues related to literary translation.
Our topic for this semester is "border-crossing and bridge-building", which will include discussions on the role of translation and translators as intercultural mediators, through communicating between different language variants, political convictions, ideologies, in times of war and peace and (EU) political upheavals. We'll also be looking at the way in which texts and their interpretations might change across state borders (in addition to the obvious linguistic boundaries) and at newer phenomena like "bridge translators", producing draft translations to be honed into the final text by non-linguists.
Translators with any language combination are invited to bring along an excerpt from their current work (up to 1000 words of work in progress, prose or poetry, destined for publication or for pleasure) to share and discuss and benefit from the hive-mind of emerging and experienced literary translators. Translators are also welcome to bring along textual examples of common issues, or theoretical work on the topic of translation, to discuss in a group. There will also be plenty of time to discuss translation topics more generally!
If you are interested in attending one or all the meetings, please sign up on our Eventbrite page (under Related Links).
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