Irwan Syahrir – Translator of the Month
Our Translator of the Month for September is Irwan Syahrir, who translates from Norwegian into Indonesian. He is originally from Surabaya and is qualified in the field of computer science, but he has been passionate about books and language since he was a young boy. During his studies, Irwan started teaching English at a language school that he had attended a few years beforehand. During that time, he also spent a year learning German, something that helped him a great deal when he moved to Norway in the year 2000 and started learning Norwegian. He has a Masters degree in computer science from the University of Oslo, and now works full-time as an IT consultant in Oslo. Since 2014, Irwan has translated 10 books from Norwegian. His most recent work is the Indonesian translation of the third novel in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, The Cross, which is due to be published in late 2025 or early 2026.
How did you end up translating Norwegian literature?
‘Serendipity’ is the word I like to use whenever this question arises! An Indonesian publishing house first opened the door for me after I sent them a letter enquiring about translation work out of the blue. I was a student at the time. They sent me a sample chapter and asked me to translate it (from English) and send it back within the week. Luckily for me I was offered a job and a lot of feedback upon completing the sample. It was a training course of sorts, a ‘trial by fire’, and the only real translation training I’ve had. My editor guided me into the world of translation, if I’m honest. This was in late 1999, before I moved to Norway in the year 2000. Fourteen years later, after living in Norway for quite some time, I stumbled across someone from the same publishing house on Goodreads; she asked me if I would be interested in translating a book from Norwegian. That was the start of my journey as a translator of Norwegian literature. A Jostein Gaarder translation led to a Dag Solstad translation, which then led me to the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. One book at a time I have built up my portfolio – quite literally!
Do you have any other professional roles in addition to translation?
I work full-time as an IT consultant, using programming languages to build data systems. I use an approach called Software Craftmanship, where I focus on writing high-quality code. In this regard, I can see a lot of similarities between writing code and translating books. I’ve given a few presentations at work featuring insights from my ‘hobby’ job as a translator, and lately my passion for literature has only grown. Since 2021, I’ve been recording good conversations with authors or fellow readers about books and turning them into a podcast. The podcast is called Ujar Pembaca (What Readers Say), and it is available in Indonesian and English. I’m always on the lookout for new podcast guests, so please get in touch if you are interested in joining me!
Your Belgian colleague Sofie Maertens passed the baton to you:
‘Hi Irwan, it was lovely to meet you recently at the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer! First and foremost, I’m curious to know whether translating from Norwegian into Indonesian is difficult for you. You live in Norway, so I’m sure you understand the vast majority of the source text, but translating isn’t the same as speaking Norwegian when you’re out and about. There must be a completely different way of expressing things in Indonesian than there is in Norwegian. I would imagine that it has a totally different language system.
Does this make it more or less difficult to translate? Perhaps Indonesian has some Dutch loan words from the colonial age that might be related to Norwegian?
The short answer is no. It’s not frustratingly difficult – I’d be more inclined to describe it as educational. I very much enjoy learning and mastering languages. In the process of translating Norwegian books, I really feel my knowledge of the language expanding. Naturally, I started out with a book that suited my abilities at the time. The more that I translate, the better my language skills become (both in Norwegian and Indonesian). With that, I become more comfortable accepting more challenging assignments. I tend not to think too much about Dutch loan words when I’m translating given that I’m not familiar with the Dutch language. The side effect of translating books is that I become better acquainted with Norwegian and Indonesian language and culture, allowing me to enjoy both of them more fully. My interest in Indonesian history during the Dutch colonial period might be a byproduct of that, but it isn’t directly linked to my translation work.
Read more
Learn more about Irwan on Books from Norway.
You can listen to Irwan’s podcast Ujar Pembaca here.
Those of you who understand Norwegian can read his interview in full here.
See also other translators interviewed in the Translator of the Month series..
