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This month we decided to do something different and have interviewed, Diane Oatley, who is a translator of books among her many other talents. Her most recent translation was The History of Bees which comes out in August 2017.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you became a translator?
I was born and raised in the US and am an American citizen. My mother is Norwegian, and in 1982 I went to Norway to do a junior year abroad. Six months became a year, and finally I ended up transferring to the University of Oslo, and completed my BA there, with a major in Comparative Literature (Anglo-American and Scandinavian literary traditions), and a minor in Women’s Studies. I then went on to do my MA at the same institution, in the same field, specifically on the tradition of the novel, with an area of specialization in women writers and French feminism.
My becoming a translator was not something I set out to become, rather, one of many things I found I knew how to do upon completing my studies. I also have a long list of non-fiction publications (dance reviews, journal articles, and creative non-fiction) in the field of dance studies. I have presented my research on dance for 20 years at conferences and institutions internationally. I was very inspired by the philosophy and writings of a French philosopher Hélène Cixous, which led to my dedicating a lot of time to the development of my own literary voice, as well, initially by writing poetry. My poetry has been published in anthologies and journals in England, Sweden, Spain and Norway, and I have written and published three poetry chapbooks
I have worked with the translation of Norwegian literature into English since 1992 and have a long list of translated titles to my name, both fiction and non-fiction. In 2014 I received NORLA’s translator’s award for non-fiction. I am a member of the Norwegian Non-fiction Translators Association, the Nordic Forum for Dance Research and the Norwegian chapter of PEN. Since 2005 I have divided my time between Oslo, Norway and Jerez de la Frontera, Spain where I am studying and writing about Flamenco dance and culture.
What projects are you working on right now?
I am currently translating two books, both of which are non-fiction. The first, “The Longest Chase” is based on investigative journalism about pirate fishing in the Antarctic and is written in the form of a novel. The second is about psychology. I have just written a review of a book about Norwegian contemporary dance, which in many ways finds expression for my 25 years of work as a dance critic and scholar. I have also written a novel set in the town of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain. Drawing from ten years of research on flamenco dance and culture, the book explores these subjects as well as issues of identity and embodiment. In terms of genre, the novel employs elements of literary and women’s fiction. The novel won me acceptance into a New York City-based writers program, which will culminate with an on-site workshop in June of this year.
Writing and translation are both related and highly divergent processes. By improving my writing I also become a better translator. The editing skills I have learned through translation also improve my writing.
What is your translation process typically like? Do you have a set system or routine that works for you?
I normally do a rough first draft whereby I translate straight through the text, marking any terms I am not sure of as I go along. The first draft is about finding the rhythm and voice of the narrative as I work. This is perhaps the part I enjoy the most, if the book is well written, and I am able to connect with the voice. Then I go through the entire draft, sentence by sentence, editing it as I go along, but primarily comparing it to the original, to ensure that I have not skipped or misinterpreted anything. I subsequently work through the manuscript again, at this point with the certainty that the “core” is in place, and paying particular attention to flow and consistency.
I then do a subsequent edit, and at this point, if I have done my job well, the text will begin to cohere, and become a work in its own right. I enjoy this part of the editing process very much, it is exciting to experience the English version acquire a life of its own, while at the same time maintaining a faithfulness to the original. Then I proofread my work, the first time moving from the end of the manuscript to the beginning, paragraph by paragraph. This enables me to notices sentences or phrases that I might have become blind to in my own process. Then I do a final proof (or two or three…) reading the work from beginning to end.
What is the best book you have read lately?
I am currently experiencing a kind of Hemingway obsession, and am reading everything I can find by him. My tastes have always been more along the lines of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, but a few years back I read the book The Paris Wife by Paula MacLain, and was moved by her capacity to invoke Hemingway’s voice within her own writing. Perhaps being a translator makes one particularly attentive to such nuances. Anyway, it intrigued me and this also inspired me to return to Hemingway. He has also written a lot about Spain where I have spent approximately half my time for the past 12 years. Most recently I have read The Moveable Feast, where he also writes about his own writing process and his time spent in Paris. I wrote my Master’s thesis about Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, also a US born expat who lived in Paris in the period following the Second World War. So this is a literary period that has always interested me.
I also read a lot of philosophy, currently the work of Alfred Whitehead and Erin Manning; the latter is an artist, philosopher and activist based in Montreal.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I meditate, do yoga, power walk and … read! When I am in Spain the majority of my free time is otherwise dedicated to Flamenco, in the manner of learning about the music, the history, and attending performances. Up until three years ago I also took dance classes, but due to a knee injury I had to give that up.
How have libraries impacted your life and writing?
I grew up in Underhill, a small town out in the countryside of Vermont. All members of my family were avid readers and this combined with my Norwegian mother’s absolute faith in the curative potentials of walking, regardless of what ails you, and regardless of the weather, conspired to create my Saturday morning ritual from around age 11: I would walk the mile and a half to the small local library “in town,” where I would fill up my knapsack with books, stop by the five and dime to buy snacks and walk home, secure in the knowledge that I had reading materials for another week. The books I remember best from that time were the biographies; there was a series for adolescents, I believe. And I remember reading many about famous women, such as Louisa May Alcott, Juliette Low, Emilia Earhart and Florence Nightingale. I have no doubt that this influenced me in terms of my thinking about what it would be possible for me to achieve as a woman, so I think it’s wonderful that these books existed. This was in the 1970s. And I am sure that my parents’ insistence on reading rather than television fostered my writing and translator self, and also motivated me to set out every Saturday morning to go to the library.
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