On 22 September 2022, SJ Naudé was awarded the UJ Prize for Literary Translation for his translation of his book Dol heuning into Mad honey. Michiel Heyns delivered the following commendatio during the event.
Since this is a commendation, I think I should start by commending the University of Johannesburg, and the School of Languages and Professor Pienaar in particular, for their initiative in instituting a prize in literary translation. As a translator myself, I am only too well aware of the fact that, in general, translators tend to be treated as the Cinderella of the literary scene, expected to stay anonymously in the kitchen while the real stars get to go to the ball. So, on behalf of all literary translators, thank you for this moment of recognition and limelight.
Of course, our winner tonight, SJ Naudé, does not, strictly speaking, need the limelight, since he is also the author of the translated text and has already won the Hertzog Prize for the Afrikaans version, which, as you may have noticed, garnered a fair amount of publicity. He is, one might say, both the Cinderella and the Prince Charming of the occasion.
The fact that Fanie translated his own Afrikaans collection into a prize-winning English text raises some interesting questions regarding the relation between source and target, in particular the perennial problem of the target’s fidelity or otherwise to the source: how much liberty can a translator take with the source? Is a translator empowered to “improve” the source text in translation?
SJ Naudé delivering his acceptance speech during the prize-giving ceremony in Johannesburg (Photo: UJ Multilingual Language Services Office)
Now, where the translator is also the author, presumably he or she is at liberty to change the original text in any way that seems advisable or convenient, the only possible drawback then being that the translation is now, strictly speaking, not a translation at all. It was thus instructive to examine in detail Naudé’s procedure in this respect, and the adjudicators agreed that he managed to produce a flexible, readable translation that was yet very faithful to the original without being pedantic. One adjudicator commented that the clarity and control of the source text are replicated in the English, while retaining something of the lyrical quality of some of the Afrikaans.
Another adjudicator commented, “The author/translator avails himself admirably of the author’s advantage in translating his own work, that is, his total command of the source text and the freedom to adjust that text to the demands and resources of the target language.” Thus, this adjudicator argued, in this case, we have at times a meticulously faithful translation, and at times a slightly more adventurous version of the original.
The point is not that the latter is a better translation than the more literal one, but that the author-translator adjusted the register of his narrative from a largely factual one in the earlier stories to a more speculative, visionary one in the later stories. It’s the kind of freedom an author can take, whereas an “external” translator might feel obliged to follow the source more closely. One adjudicator commented that it seems possible that the author-translator had “relaxed” into a more venturesome and imaginative style in the later stories; whether this was the case or not, the result is a wonderfully diverse and yet thematically and tonally related collection of stories that thoroughly deserves the unanimous commendation of the adjudicators.
Read SJ Naudé’s acceptance speech here:
UJ Prize for Literary Translation 2022: SJ Naudé’s acceptance speech
Further reading:
Persverklaring: Dol heuning wen nog ’n prys – en die skrywer maak sy stem dik