Mit Aussicht

In this post I will tell you of some of my problems with translating a novel from Latvian into German (yeah, I'll be whining...) and of my language learning processes.

It all began in 2012, when I borrowed a novel by Latvian writer Pauls Bankovskis from the library in Riga. I had learned Latvian for two years before I spent 6 months in the country, diving into the everyday life there. There I was, trying to read this short novel (only a mere 112 pages), but getting nowhere. In the end, I brought it back to the library - unread.

In 2013 I desperately searched for a topic for my bachelor thesis and browsed the shelves in the library of my university. And what can I say - there it was, the novel by Bankovskis, still unread, still daring me to understand it. So I accepted the challenge and started my journey. The first time I read it, I did so in trains, at stations, on the road - without a dictionary, without the help of the internet. I thought that I understood, what was written there and felt happy. After reading it, I put it on my desk and forgot about it for a whole month.

My second reading was a revelation. This time I used a dictionary to pick up on some words, which were crucial for the understanding of some sentences. It seemed to me, that I was reading a completely different novel. Ambition took hold of me, sparking a decision that in the dark nights I regret sometimes: "Translate this novel!" it said to. You see, 112 pages didn't seem too intimidating at that time. There's just one problem: Latvian is a very dense language. One can express something very extensive in very few words. We cannot do that so easily in German. The first chapter of the novel only had 3 pages in Latvian, but 7 pages in German. Imagine my horror at the extent of work.

You will surely not be surprised to hear that after finishing my bachelor thesis, I again chose to not work on this translation anymore. But destiny wants me to get through with it. In January I visited a lecture on World Literature and the novel as a politcal allegory. Now, Bankovskis novel was exactly that and in my thesis I hadn't had the space to explicate on all aspects in detail. So again I wrote a long essay on the novel. This time my examiner did not speak Latvian and she did not have the chance to read the novel. So I had to summarize it and decided it would be a good idea to at least translate those chapters, on which my work relied so heavily. And I did it. 

Now there are 10 chapters ready for the first revision. In the dark of the night a shiver still goes down my spine when I think about the other 20 chapters still waiting for me. but this time I will finish it for good and hopefully I will again find a new mode of reading in this novel by Pauls Bankovskis, which does not cease to amaze me.

What about you? Have you tried your hand at translations? What is your experience? Tell me in the comments!