Jan Gielkens won the Filter Translation Prize 2016 for his translation of The words of Grimm by Günter Grass. The prize of ten thousand euros rewards the most exceptional translation achievement of the past year.
Grass' novel, published last year by Meulenhoff, makes high demands on the reader and the translator, the jury thought. 'Skillfully, Gielkens navigates between Dutchification of the German, preservation of passages in the source language and radically new, target-language solutions, with a sense of sérieux but without letting go of the playful register. [...] The crowning glory of the translation of an oeuvre.'
Other nominees were Robert Dorsman, Jan van der Haar and Alfred Schaffer with the poetry collection Knowledge by Antjie Krog (Podium); Hans Driessen with Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin's classic (World Library); Martin de Haan and Rokus Hofstede with World World World! by Régis Jauffret (Arbeiderspers) and Arie van der Wal with Divorce in the air by Gonzalo Torné, published by AtlasContact.
I LuFF U
The presentation of the Filter Translation Prize was one of the components of the successful Friday night programme of the International Literature Festival Utrecht, or ILFU. A new name for what used to be called City2Cities. 'It must take some getting used to,' Literatuurhuis director Michaël Stoker said at the festival's opening. For him too, by the way, when he discovered that the abbreviation ILFU is also used for very different things on social media that have little to do with literature. 'So it stands for I LuFF U, or I Love You, but also for I Love Fucking You. Next time we come up with a new name, we should google it beforehand,' he joked. 'But chances are you won't forget the name ILFU after tonight.'
The Utrecht literature festival aims to introduce audiences to the best international novels and authors of the moment, which not only shake up the genre but also teach something about the times we live in today, with a special focus on Syrian literature in this edition.
Bomb belt
The first evening offered a nice mix of big names and new and lesser-known talents. After a successful performance by singer and poet PJ Harvey, the audience fanned out across the various halls of the monumental former post office, although a beautiful building (and well-suited for its future function as a library), but somewhat cluttered and unsociable in its current state.
While Connie Palmen was in conversation with Kristien Hemmerechts in the Great Hall, entertaining her listeners with her witty, pithy statements - 'Literature can also be a kind of bomb belt' -, Indian writer Meena Kandasamy and British writer Sunjeev Sahota talked about their committed novels in the much smaller Post Room. Sahota, in his novel The year of fortune hunters attention to current refugee issues. In her remarkable debut novel, Meena Kandasamy chose The Gypsy Goddess for a subject further into the past: a true-life massacre in Tamil Nadu in 1968, when forty-four old men, women and children were burnt alive in Kilvenmani. However, the ancient caste system behind it still exists. For Kandasamy, writing is a form of activism. 'I have been politically active since I was 17. In writing, all the anger that has accumulated in my head comes out.'
Freedom
How carefully criticism must be packaged when you are born in a country like Syria was clear from the conversation with Nihad Series, whose work was banned several times by the Syrian authorities. In the tiny Stamp Room, his story once again forced the audience to face the facts: how good and easy we have it here in the Netherlands. In a country like Syria, you can only dream of so much freedom. Only in very veiled terms and through detours can you criticise the current state of affairs in Syria, but even then you have to hope that it does not lead to a publication ban - or imprisonment. 'I was shaking when I A day of silence and noise wrote, although I did not describe the country where the events of the novel take place.' Series' interesting story deserved a bigger audience.
After an entertaining interview by Theo Hakkert with former banker Zia Haider Rahman, who believes that literature has the task "to expose all the darkness, all the mess of life", it was finally Hagar Peeters' and Nell Zink's turn to conclude the literary evening, where the musical sounds of the Bouconce Quartette accompanied the last visitors to an atmospheric last drink or conversation. A successful evening, with only one downside, which is now inherent to a festival: too bad you can't see everything.
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