Afroditi Kosma

Hello, Mrs. Kosma. Thank you very much for being here with us and for agreeing to give us this interview.

Good afternoon, thank you for inviting me. I’m glad to be here and I’m happy for your project.

So let’s talk about translation. First of all, how did translation come into your life and what kind of translation was it?

Yes. It came about quite early on, during my studies. I chose to do an MA in translation studies. My BA degree was in political science, at a British university. I wanted to be involved in art, but I couldn’t through my graduate studies. So the MA that was closest to art for me back then was in translation. I think that translation has artistry both as a profession and as an activity. So I did an MA in English-Greek and Greek-English translation. That’s how it started. And I wanted to specialize in literary translation from the beginning. That is, not terminology translation, literary translation. And that’s how I started my professional occupation.

In literary translation.

Yes. The hard way. And the interesting way, too.

And then, how did you make the transition to broadcasting? You do the broadcast “Letter to a Translator”.

Yes, there is this radio broadcast. But many other things happened before the broadcast…

Of course.

I was involved in translating literature in the early years, and then came the transition to television and to subtitling documentaries for ERT TV channel, which was another very interesting area of translation. It combines discourse, sound and image. And the meaning has to be rendered in two lines and match the image. That was very interesting, it was another door. Many years, many documentaries, a very interesting occupation. Then, at some point, I was transferred to ERT radio, to the Third Programme, and I was asked by the management to do a broadcast that had to do with books. And I thought of doing – and I’m very happy I chose it, and they accepted it with great pleasure – a radio broadcast about translators. Why exclusively a broadcast about translators? Ι don’t know about now, but until 3 years ago when this broadcast started, there was no other broadcast exclusively about translators. Most of them are usually about books in general or art and they mostly include musicians, actors, directors, writers, poets. And I’m very happy, because the translators are very happy too. And it’s very… I mean, every time a translator comes to the studio to record their broadcast, it’s like a whole different world enters the studio because every translator carries all this multiculturalism with them and at the same time they are very interesting people in general. They are open, they have knowledge, interests, they’re into music and film… So all of that becomes evident. Regarding the concept of the radio broadcast, it is on the Third Programme, so far it’s been broadcast on the last two Mondays of the month, from 17:15 to 18:00 and it’s called “Carte Postale – A Translator Confesses”. Why? Because we invite translators to write a postcard to an author of their translation career, to say whatever they want to say to them, to talk like we are talking right now, whether it is their own personal life considerations, or translation problems and difficulties they have encountered in their work, or their own questions about the author’s work, or it can also be something completely imaginary, that is, I have suggested, if the translator wants to, that they go into the author’s book and live in it. And this has been done, one translator has actually done it. Or maybe they go on a trip together. Whatever, it doesn’t have to be rational.

Very creative.

We also like… Υes. So the translators write their thoughts to the author they themselves choose and they also dedicate some music to them. We record their voices, so it also works as an archive of the translators’ voices in the Third Programme of the Hellenic Radio. And we edit it afterwards with a lot of love and zest.

Wonderful. And this way, a very interesting and useful legacy for the future is created.

Yes, I think so, because translators deserve it. They are people who work hard, very hard. I know it, you know it, the translators know it, of course, the publishers know it and the readers know it. And they deserve a much better financial reward if we consider that the Greek publishing production is very much based on translated literature and philosophy. So translators deserve much better conditions and fees. They say this themselves, it’s not our opinion only.

We can also confirm this from our side, from the interviews we have done here. And through this experience that you have gained, what would you say “to translate” means?

I want to say something that has to do with the previous part of the discussion. We also have very good translators in Greece. Very good translators. Especially if we consider that the Greek language is difficult in comparison with some other languages. So, what does “to translate” mean? I could answer in a very academic way, but I’m not so academic. I also like improvisation quite a lot, which is why I like jazz music. I’ll describe the image that is created in my mind. It means “I dive into a people, a language, a culture, a person, a writer, a story, I dive in and travel”. That’s why the motto of the radio broadcast is, “Translators, trumpeters of the secrets held by peoples, times and languages”. And I think that’s what it is.

Certainly. And what translation problems have you encountered in your career so far, both in subtitling and in translation?

I’ll talk mostly about subtitling, because it was my longest translation involvement, it lasted eleven years. In subtitling, the greatest challenge is to be able to render the meaning in two lines with a specific number of characters – I don’t remember now exactly how many – and to render it in a condensed way. And what is heard, because it is heard by the viewer, should be synchronized to what they read. The sound must coincide with what they read, which is not easy. You are confronted with various options, but here there is also the sound, it’s not just what we read, the viewer hears what is said. So there is a danger of disturbing the flow of the film, of the script for the viewer. You must have the viewer watching the film and reading one subtitle after the other easily.

And how about the professional conditions in both subtitling and translation?

The problem is always the same, in television as well, it’s the deadlines. We are always pressed for time. Time is here, there, everywhere around you. I think time is the greatest challenge. In television, too. For example, a documentary was perhaps scheduled at the last minute because of the current affairs of the time. And it had to be done by working overtime to deliver good quality. That means research, study, everything. I think time is unfortunately the problem.

Let’s go back to the radio broadcast. It’s been 3 years now since it started.

I think so, yes, it’s 3 years.

And, I guess, a lot of important translators have already visited the broadcast. What are the aims of the broadcast and what are your future plans for it?

Shall I reveal the plans?

Or a wish!

My plans? Well, it’s already happening now anyway.

Tell us maybe what you’d wish for the broadcast in the future.

It’ll happen in June. It is very interesting that this broadcast is evolving on its own. And all things that are evolving on their own show their potential. So yes, there is potential. The next step is Greek or foreign translators who translate Greek writers into other languages. It is the broadcast’s next step because so far we’ve only had Greek translators who translate foreign writers. And there’s also a third stage but…

We’ll hear it in the broadcast.

You will hear it, yes.

Would you like to tell us about your interaction with the translators during, before or after the broadcast? How do you choose your guests? What is this relationship like?

It’s not a matter of choice. We want all translators to be our guests. Who we invite first is not so important, there is no hierarchy. It has to do with the flow of daily life and work, with finding data, finding the translators themselves, with checking if they are available, because translators are always working, they’ve got deadlines. It’s not a journalistic broadcast where the translator comes and we just talk, maybe without them having to prepare anything, that would be easier. They have to sit down and write. And a lot of them, since they’re thoroughly editing the texts and know what the written discourse is, are very demanding in that regard. They want their broadcast to be great and they want to work on it and they want it to be something special. So all this maybe… Some come sooner, some come later, some need inspiration, an idea… So there is no hierarchy in this respect. We want everybody to come as a guest.

And two closing interview questions about the future of translation. How do you imagine the translation profession in, let‘s say, 20 years from now?

In Greece?

Yes, how do you imagine the future of translation in Greece?

I don’t know if I can imagine it. I think it’s a profession that has no “expiration date”, so to speak, because, no matter how many software tools or applications exist, which translate a sentence or a text, it’s always the human factor, the human being that makes the difference. I think there will always be translators, because they are internationalists. Without them, I think, it would be like saying that peoples and circumstances have reached a dead-end. Translators will always be needed. There will always be this exchange between peoples and persons and cultures and people who are able to learn other languages will be needed.

Right, so…

As far as the working conditions are concerned, I can’t say how things will be. I hope that, in Greece at least… I’m optimistic, I think the conditions will be better for translators. What do you think?

We hope so! So what advice would you give to a student who wants to be professionally involved in translation?

I admire translators, just as I admire musicians. I think professional translators have probably answered that better than I can. They are people who have long been in the hard field of books, of literature, which is very fascinating, but also quite demanding. So what would I advise? Patience, perseverance for sure, and, I think, the key is this desire to explore, something that translators have anyway: “Why do we call this differently?”, “Why is this called this way?”, “What is this called and where did it come from?”. You need to have a desire to explore and discover.

A passion.

A passion, yes, definitely. That’s for sure.

Thank you very much and we wish you good luck with your plans.

We thank you very much too, the Third Programme and the Hellenic Radio thanks you as well. Congratulations on what you’re doing and good luck in everything you do. And good luck to translation and translators!