Vicky Alyssandraki

Good afternoon, Mrs. Alyssandraki. Thank you very much for being here with us and for agreeing to give us this interview…

I’m happy to be here.

..about translation.

About translation, yes.

Let’s take it from the beginning, then. How did you start? How did translation come into your life?

It came about in a completely unorthodox way, although I was sure it was always there in me. Languages were always a great love, but they were always on the side, because my first studies were in Law. I had a great love for literature and languages. But when I worked as a student in an office, I was coincidentally assigned the translation of all their contracts and documents into English, and I found that I both liked and was interested in that, more so perhaps than legal matters. I worked for ten years as a legal practitioner and after a fortunate occurrence in Strasbourg, I started studying again for a second BA and I graduated the year before last. Scandinavian languages and literature, at the University of Strasbourg. I had lived in Sweden, I had learned the language completely orally and I wanted to do something for myself, something I would love. After this new beginning, everything took its course. I met Sotiris Souliotis who is a translator from Danish…

He’s been here too. On this very chair!

Yes, he was here, wasn’t he? Yes! …And he introduced me to Yorgos Alisanoglou with whom I collaborated and the translation I presented yesterday was my first attempt to translate from Finnish into Greek. It’s a collection of poems by a young poet, Mikko Viljanen. It’s called On the Island of Carelessness in Greek.

So what does “to translate” mean to you? Throughout the course you’ve had so far?

It means trying, first of all, to find the voice of the poet or writer. And then I try to make them speak Greek. If they spoke Greek, how would they tell us all this? I want to be very respectful of the text, finding, of course, the right ways to render it in Greek, but my primary goal is to make the poet or writer speak Greek. Not me.

And in this process, what problems does a translator encounter? Especially, perhaps, when they translate from a language that is not so common here, like the Scandinavian languages.

First and foremost, Northerners have a very laconic way of saying things. As I said yesterday when I presented the book, they talk in pictures, while we think in words, in many words, which are often disconnected from each other. They play with words, they play with language, they play with the harmony of language. And many times you are faced with a great dilemma: do I render the pun by sacrificing the meaning or do I render the meaning by sacrificing the pun, which is very witty, very clever?

A difficult decision.

Very difficult. Very difficult. And melody and harmony are both very important in poetry and it’s good to avoid messing them up, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

Is there any work you can remember that has been particularly difficult for you, or that you have found very challenging?

Yes, for example, On the Island of Carelessness had too many puns, as I said, too many images, too many plays on Finnish words. I happened to spend a whole day on a couplet, not being able to find a way to render its meaning and the play on words. Until it came to me in the middle of the night and I got up and put on some coffee and started again. Typical.

Do you choose the texts you translate?

Sometimes I choose and suggest them and sometimes the editor suggests them to me. This first effort of mine was suggested to me by my editor, the second one was suggested by me to him.

Since you mentioned the publisher, what is the translator’s relationship with publishers, with publishing houses?

I’m not the right person to answer this, because I don’t have much experience in that area. I haven’t had the chance to collaborate with many publishers. But my collaboration with Saixpirikon Publications and Yorgos Alisanoglou has been very good so far. Very… I think that both sides have the will to listen to each other and take into account what each other is saying in order to have a very good publication.

And regarding editing? Is editing necessary in a translation?

I think so, yes. It is necessary, because sometimes there are things that may linguistically slip one’s attention, since the translator has, so to speak, antennas in two languages. So anything that can be corrected in terms of the use of Greek is necessary, I think. In poetry, things are a little more difficult to much more difficult, because poetic license allows many more things, as long as a very good text comes out, a flowing text that makes you want to read it.

And regarding professional conditions? We talked about the process of translation. What difficulties does a translator face in terms of professional conditions?

The difficulties have to do with the fact that –I’m not generalizing, but it happens in general, not only in Greece– there is a pervasive mentality according to which everything that revolves around literature or art is a hobby or only a pleasure. That’s why sometimes the conditions under which we are paid and the conditions regarding the acquisition of social privileges, are very difficult. Especially the issue of insurance and social rights is a bit tricky, a bit sensitive for translators. But I think things are getting better, because translation is becoming more and more necessary. The need for translation in all countries that have literature is becoming more and more perceivable by both the public and the publishers, because a country wants its literature to be translated into other languages. And I think that in recent years, there has been more awareness regarding the translator’s place in all this.

And a closing interview question. What advice would you give to a student who wants to be involved in translation?

I’d give many pieces of advice.

They are welcome.

First, they will encounter a great many difficulties both practical and others that concern the texts, but they shouldn’t give up, because it’s a fascinating process. They should be careful, selective and assertive. And they should be a bridge, because that’s what a translator is after all. I attended a lecture in France by the Icelandic writer Jón Kalman Stefánsson, who said this: translators are very important not because they make us famous all over the world, but because they are bridges between peoples, between worlds and between cultures that enter into a dialogue through literature. I think that’s the gist, and that’s what motivated me even more to get involved in literary translation.

Thank you very much.

You are welcome.