Event Highlights: European Voices in Translation Festival
European Voices in Translation: László Krasznahorkai and George Szirtes (with James Wood)
On May 10, 2014, we hosted our first ever European Voices Festival with a focus on European Voices in translation. Funded by a grant from the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC, the festival was organized as a celebration of “Europe Day.” Headlining the event was Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai, in a “reading and conversation” event his translator George Szirtes, who read several of his own poems, moderated by literary critic James Wood. Below you can listen to the conversation on BUniverse. Please note that the recordings from this event are not up to our usual technical standards, but they do convey some of the day’s magic.
German Stage Performance of “Brandung/Abyss” Followed by Conversation with Playwright and Translator Maria Milisavljevic and Director Guy Ben-Aharon
Next up, German Stage players, directed by Guy Ben-Aharon, performed an excerpt from Maria Milisavljevic’s newly translated play “Brandung/Abyss.” Following the performance, Maria and Guy discussed the translation process – Maria worked on the English translation herself while living in Toronto – and the challenges of performing the play on both sides of the Atlantic. As one reviewer asks, “Does the distrust of (even a little) narrative ambiguity by North American dramaturgs and audiences mean that international plays must be made more ‘cinematic’ when they are produced here?” For a great review of the staged reading, visit Arts Fuse.
European Voices in Translation: Semezdin Mehmedinovic and Ammiel Alcalay (with Ainsley Morse)
We did not know when we invited German playwright Maria Milisavljevic to take part in the festival that her play, Abyss, centered around Serbian immigrants in unified Germany, still reeling from the trauma of the Yugoslav wars. The staged reading, was, therefore, a perfect segue into the conversation with Bosnian poet Semezdin Mehmedinovic and his translator, Ammiel Alcalay.
European Voices in Translation: Stacey Knecht reads from her translation of “Harlequin’s Millions” by Bohumil Hrabal
We had some technical difficulties processing this recording, please grab your headphones to listen to this video!
European Voices in Translation: Veronika Tuckerova reads her translations of Ivan Blatný
No video of the Cambridge Concentus Concert, sadly – be sure to catch them at their next concert – Bach’s Multiple Harpsichord Concertos – at the First Church in Cambridge on November 23, 2014.
Enjoy our photos!
Created with flickr slideshow.