For the second time in a row, the Forum of Slavic Cultures hosted the opening event of the traditional International Translation Seminar of Slovenian Literature in the garden of Villa Zlatica. This year’s discussion evening was entitled Language Nomads: Foreign Translators in Slovenia.
The 12th International Translation Seminar of Slovenian Literature was attended by 11 participants from 9 countries, 6 of them were Slavic. In a discussion evening moderated by writer Agata Tomažič, translators and authors Ivan Antić, David Heredero Zorzo and Liza Linde shared their personal stories and insights into their translation workshops. They told us what brought them to Slovenia as translators from a foreign language background, what motivated them to translate from Slovenian, how they preserved their mother tongue, how they maintained contacts with publishing houses in the target languages and how they negotiated the publication of their translations “from a distance”. They also answered the question whether their stay in Slovenia facilitates their translation work because they are in constant contact with the original environment and the authors of the original texts, and whether they ever feel the burden of “losing” their mother tongue.
The value of “linguistic nomads” for the spread of Slovenian culture and literature was also highlighted by the President of the Slovenian Literary Translators’ Association Tanja Petrič, Miha Marinč from the Slovenian Book Agency and Mateja Jančar from the Forum of Slavic Cultures. She added that the essence of the 100 Slavic Novels collection, which is managed by the FSK, lies in translation. It encourages translations of selected works and their promotion. The FSK strives to put translators at the forefront, alongside authors.
The seminar participants also visited the museum exhibiton in Villa Zlatica. The event was supported by the Slovenian Book Agency and the City of Ljubljana.