Hell & Blood, Translated from Romanian by Christine Coleman
April 7, 2010 at 11:04 pmDo I speak Romanian? No. Can I read Romanian? No. Am I a fraud? I hope not.
Then why has EgoPHobia, a Romanian cultural e-journal posted my name under the name of a Romanian writer of a short story called Hell and Blood?
Here it is – see?
“by Cristina Nemerovschi (Morgothya) (Romania)
Translation from Romanian by Christine Coleman and Mircea Filimon, MTTLC student
edited by Robert Fenhagen”
And here is the lively opening of a story that I appear to have translated into English from a language I know nothing about (apart from its links to Latin and Italian)
“Today I started spitting blood.
The first thing that I thought was that I might have tuberculosis, which, actually, made me feel alright, because after all, it’s a disease which sounds good; it kind of gives out a romantic aura: tuberculosis; mononucleosis, well, at least, I think so, and I don’t die too quickly— the worst case scenario, I have a few months to live, which is plenty of time for me to write a novel, or a really good short story, or, at least, some poetry, or, at the very least, an essay–something that will be found after I croak, of which people will say, “He was a prolific writer; we’ll miss him. He died of tuberculosis, you know.” And the other person will say, “Oh my, I had no idea.”
So how did I get involved in the first place?
It was thanks to Anne Stewart, the talented and energetic founder of poetrypf, ”a growing showcase of poets writing in English, some fully accomplished with several published collections, others at the start of their poetic careers.” Anne agreed to collaborate in the translation project set up by Lidia Vianu, Professor of contemporary British literature at the English Department of Bucharest University.
This project began in February 08 with translations of poetry into Romanian and publication online at the Translation Café, along with a programme of broadcasts by the Romanian National Broadcasting Corporation. Anne asked for poets to volunteer some of their own poems for this project, and in early December 08 I had the surreal experience of hearing my own brief biography, and then my poems, read in Romanian.
When you’re on the site, click on: ‘The Poets’ on the top right of the page. Then scroll down the alphabetical list till you reach my name and that of the translator, and click on ‘Listen’, to hear my poems being read first in Romanian, and then in English
Follow the poetrypf link again and scroll down to find out more about this project, including the CD, the anthology and the international tour. I didn’t take part in the tour, but one of my poems, Something Like a Stone, is on the CD in both languages. Read more about my first ever prize-winning poem, here
But that wasn’t the end of the Romanian connection for me. Towards the end of February, I received an email from Anne, “am I right in thinking that you were interested in ‘polishing’ translation from Romanian? We have a short story translated by one of Lidia’s students that needs polishing to publishable standard.”
I tend to try anything once, when an opportunity arises for a new experience, so I agreed. Almost by return, the organiser of this project, Silvia Bratu, sent me the story.
And now for the tricky part: when you can’t understand the original language, how can you be sure of the author’s intentions? Was that slightly clumsy phrasing a deliberate representation of the narrator’s own lively speech patterns? Or was it just ‘bad English’? How far should I go in imposing my own personal views on another writer’s work?
I’d enjoyed reading this story as it had a fresh and quirky style with some highly original images – I particularly liked the narrator’s musing about the moment of death:
“ If…you keep your soul after death, then you need to mark it very clearly so you don’t mistake it for someone else’s. Because there should be some sort of little border to cross, a tiny rupture, during which you and your soul are separated for a short time. It’s like putting it on a plate while you go through the metal detector.”
When I followed this link and read the final version, I was glad to see that the editor had tightened a few of the passages that I didn’t feel a ‘translator’ had the right to do.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
[...] Autoarea marturiseste ca a fost o experienta interesanta, cu atat mai mult cu cat nu vorbeste romana – daca sunteti interesati cum a tradus totusi povestirea, aflati aici. [...]
April 11th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Hello Morgothya
Unfortunately I can’t understand your comment so you will have to ask someone to translate it into English if you want me to know what you’ve said!
Thank you
Christine
April 12th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
[...] vote. Back to the subject of vampires, I’ve just realised that today’s topic links nicely with my previous one: Romania is the home of the first ever vampire, Vlad Dracula. so I’ve spent an entertaining [...]
April 17th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Hello Mrs. Coleman, I want to let you know that I liked a lot your translation, the English version of my story
It’s very expressive and it also keeps unaltered the atmosphere and the idea of the original version. I read both versions of Hell and Blood, yours and the edited one (by Robert Fenhagen), and I think both were very good. I’m also thrilled that you enjoyed reading my story 
I hope that maybe in the future we’ll do this one more, or maybe I’ll translate some of your works in Romanian… All the best wishes and thank you for the interest!
Cristina (Morgothya)
April 19th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Hello Mrs. Coleman, I wanted to let you know that I liked a lot your translation, the English version of my story
It’s very expressive and it also keeps unaltered the atmosphere and the idea of the original version. I read both versions of Hell and Blood, yours and the edited one (by Robert Fenhagen), and I think both were very good. I’m also thrilled that you enjoyed reading my story - I hope that maybe in the future we’ll do this one more, or maybe I’ll translate some of your works in Romanian… All the best wishes and thank you for the interest!
Cristina Nemerovschi (Morgothya)
May 13th, 2010 at 12:33 am
When I teamed up with Robert Fenhagen to initiate “Short Story,” both of us were confronted with the same questions. I do not believe that there is possible a “straight, faithful“translation. That does not mean that we do not try to do it, but some words, nuances and metaphors, idiomatic expressions, dialect or regionalisms used in the language, are just resistant or don’t impart themselves to a straight translation. Viewed from this point of view, a translation may look like an interpretation, a re-imagining, an adaptation or in extreme cases, a re-write or alteration of the text. Some writers perceive it like an ego busting test and reject anything that does not look like a “literary” translation. Often, they say that “it does not sound like me”. Then, of course, you look around for text written by writers “who sound like them”, and try to negotiate a compromise. I read stories, which sound, feel or look average in Romanian but once translated in English are amazing. And vice-versa. It has to do with the underlying structure of the language where cultural differences intersect or collide. At that, somehow deeper level, you can understand the authors’ intentions, even if you are not a native-speaking Romanian. Can you impose your personal views on other writers work? It depends. Some authors have the wonderful and liberating power to detach themselves from their own text. In this regard, American writers are less “narcissistic.” Culturally they are subjected to a larger degree of diversity and interethnic relationship than eastern –Europeans and this shows in their attitude. Since Prof. Dr. Lidia Vianu came on board with her great team of translators from The MA Programme for the Translation of the Contemporary Literary Text – (University of Bucharest) many of our questions related to the translated versions of the stories, were answered. It’s important that a writer and translator from an English speaking country work together with a counterpart from Romania and the author. This collaboration gives us all, a solid assurance and satisfaction and I’m so glad to have you on our team. Thank you, Adrian