Clara Sondermann - Translator of the Month
Clara Sondermann translates into German from Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. She has translated books by Jenny Hval, Eivind Hofstad Evjemo, Athena Farrokhzad, Olga Ravn and Ursula Andkjær Olsen. Clara studied Scandinavian languages and literature in Greifswald, Reykjavík and Berlin, and has worked as a publishing editor in Hamburg. For several years she was on the editorial board of the literary journal Edit in Leipzig. Besides being a translator and freelance editor, she works with children on literature and Creative Writing.
Your colleague Sylvia Kall, who was Translator of the Month in April, passed the baton to you along with the following question:
You have a special interest in poetry. Can you say something about the unique challenges of working in this area?
I was perhaps lucky that nobody presented poetry to me as a more difficult genre — neither at university nor in my private writing group. In fact it was presented as the more open of the two literary fields. As a poetry translator, you become a co-author. I like the density of a poem, the intensity contained within a few words or images. But the most obvious challenge when translating poetry is perhaps that every word, every pause in the original, has been deliberately chosen – and if you replace a word in order to preserve rhythm or rhyme, you risk losing the imagery. And vice versa.
How do you approach a translation: do you jump right into the translating in order to maintain a sense of tension, or do you read the entire book thoroughly before starting?
I read every book once or twice before translating. By that point it will usually be full of little sticky notes, and outlined sentences. This phase is very important in order for me to build a relationship with the text and its tone.
I really appreciate this way of reading – as an editor my reading habits were totally different, I could quickly see what the texts were doing and in what way, but never get that close to them. Being a translator allows me to return to the natural, slow way of reading. I will always do a rough translation first, then move on to a phase involving multiple revisions.
Do you listen to music when you’re translating, and if so, what?
Not usually. One exception to this was during my work on the book Å hate Gud (English title: Girls Against God) by Jenny Hval, who is also a musician. After the first review, I was actually able to listen to music as I worked, especially Hval’s albums Classic Objects and Menneskekollektivet. Her book defies all genre boundaries, including those between art forms, while taking aim at the idea of an artist being a solitary genius. Her music and writing are closely linked which, when combined, enables her work to reach you even better – as a reader, translator, listener. (Gott hassen, März Verlag).
Read more
More about Clara on Books from Norway
You may also visit her website
Those of you who understand Norwegian can read her interview in full here.
More interviews in NORLA’s series
Translators are our most important stakeholders when it comes to the spread of Norwegian literature in the world. Their work is of crucial significance, and in order to shed light on this, we embarked on this series of interviews, known as ‘Translator of the Month’.
You can find all of the interviews here.
