The plurality of views is both our strength and our weakness. This is what we inevitably inherit alongside the right to freedom of thought and conscience.
Narrowing their eyes, skeptics will see the consequences of this diversity as follows: a thick bold layer of post-truth, a gelatinous slime of delusion and fragile cartilages of distrust of any information. Optimists will notice a light space of choices and decisions, a rich palette of possibilities and a spicy mixture of new impressions.
We want to take a risk and try to seize the unseizable, catch the whole spectrum, hear different opinions, and look from a different perspective. Look at translation as a polyphonic instrument. For each translation is a cover of the original text. The meaning is the same, but the timbre of voice, the tenacity of intonations and the inner melody can be completely different. This difference can be radical and overshadow the integrity of the original, but it can also advantageously highlight its subtle features. It all depends on dosage.
Within the Book Arsenal Festival, we will try to talk about how translators from different countries are working on one and the same novel. How much does the plurality of views affect the perception of the text? Who exactly are these grey figures in the book world – translators – and what do we know about them? How do two different translators manage to work on the novel of one writer, while maintaining their authorial style? How far can the translation dare to deviate from the original?
TRANSLATORIUM is the only literature and translation festival for now in Ukraine, which is dedicated to the International Translator’s Day. Each year during the first October days, the Festival holds such events as discussions, workshops, lectures, informal meetings, and performances relating to literary translation.