Jannis Kalifatidis

Good afternoon, Mr. Kalifatidis.

Good afternoon.

Thank you very much for being here today for this interview. We’d like to start with some questions that concern your personal relationship with translation. How did translation come into your life?

I have been translating from a young age. Before finishing my studies, I had even completed two books, which, at some point, I wanted to suggest to publishing houses, but, returning from Germany to Greece while on vacation, I discovered that the books had already been published, so I didn’t even bother to go to a publisher.

Interesting. What does “to translate” mean to you personally?

“I translate” means I open my door every now and then to a person, I let them enter my house, live with me for a few months and then let them leave, sometimes sooner than I’d like them to, sometimes later than I want them to.

Great. Now about translation as a process. What kind of texts do you most like to translate?

I generally prefer dark texts. I don’t like texts that are – how can I put it? – cute, so to speak. I like serious literature. I like the elements of death and insanity.

Do you choose the texts you will translate?

Many times, yes. I also suggest books to publishers.

Based on what criteria?

The ones I just told you about.

Regarding translation problems that may arise during the process, could you tell us, if you wish, about the most common ones or something that gave you a hard time and you still remember it?

Well… In fact, it is a job that only has problems, I mean, it’s not like in the exact sciences where a formula will help you. The dictionary provides little help and many times we need a lot more tools which are cultivation and reading a lot of books. Cultural differences are major, often insurmountable problems. Such can be a religious vessel of the catholic church, the description of a landscape that is completely foreign to the Greek… For example, I was recently in Switzerland and I had started translating a book in Greece that described a Swiss landscape, the image of which was completely different in my mind. When I went to Switzerland, I deleted what I had written and started to approach it from scratch. It was a foggy landscape, which, much as I tried to imagine it at my home in Greece, was actually completely different.

Great example. In your opinion, what is it that makes a good translation?

A good translation is when I see – that goes for me, but for the others as well – that the translator has really pulled their finger out to do the best they can. I want to see the effort gone into the text and yet the result to be effortless. But I want to understand that it is what we say “I did the best I could”.

Very interesting. Let us now move on to translation as a profession. Professional conditions, for example. What are the biggest challenges you face in this area and how could they be dealt with?

The aspects of taxation and insurance are a huge challenge, because the translator is often treated as someone who owns a cafeteria in the city center and makes a huge turnover. The translator is, unfortunately, one person, they cannot be cloned and multiplied, so they have a specific amount of time during which they can work. But they are forced, at least speaking from personal experience, to sleep and rest less and less, in order to be able to do more work and cope with this vicious circle, that is, plugging holes. The situation of taxation and insurance is, as it stands at the moment, like trying to plug a hole at the bottom of a bucket. Even if you plug it, another hole will appear next to it. They are like moles, they come out from everywhere. This is a huge problem, I think. And it is somewhat discouraging for young people who want to start translating professionally, to commence professional practice. But even for the experienced professional, it often acts as a deterrent in the sense: where will all this go? This can be dealt with, of course, by claiming all our rights both individually and collectively i.e. through a trade union body that has power. Power and persuasion.

With your answer you also covered my next question regarding financial rewards.

Okay.

Let’s move on to something else. What interaction do you have with the authors whose works you translate? Do you have any interaction?

With the authors?

Yes.

I’ll tell you. With the writers that happen to be alive, I always seek communication and all of them are always really kind and they answer me and we handle points where I have a question or a difficulty of any kind and we find a solution. For example, last year we had a book on theater at Nefeli Publications, by Rüdiger Schaper, a theater theorist from Berlin. It was the history of theater, but through examples. And, in the part that concerned the ancient Greek tragedy, we found that various points could be improved, with which he also always agreed and thanked me and the editor of the book. A great collaboration.

So your experiences are mainly positive.

You feel that you are also part of the book, you’re not just the translator. Well, you are never “just” the translator. You are the translator of the book. You rewrite it in your own language. But when you have – how should I put it? – an active role both in transferring the book and in improving it, it is even more wonderful.

 Yes, indeed. How about editing? Is it necessary? And if so, what is your relationship with the editors?

I have a completely clear view on the matter. I believe that editing is absolutely necessary. The more pairs of experienced eyes read the book, the better it can get. Nobody is perfect. What I ask for – and I try to have it as a term in the contracts that I sign – is to have some communication with the editor and read the final proof. That way, I can improve myself through what I’ll see and say, “Oh, what did I do here?” or “What a nice idea!”, but I can also protect myself from possible interventions with which I disagree and I can support, so to speak, my point of view on my choices.

What’s your opinion on the relationship between translators and publishing houses?

I have mixed emotions. I mean, I have very good cooperation with some publishing houses, there are disagreements with others, but I believe that, if there is good will, we always reach the desired result. I consider it very important for the translator to carefully read the contract they sign and always keep in mind that, as the word suggests, a contract is a consensual plan, it is like a marriage, that is, it can only be done if both agree to it. Although there are also forced marriages, of course. So the translator has to make sure that the contract doesn’t cover only the other side, the side of the publisher, but also themselves. It should protect them.

And in matters concerning, for example, the title of the book, do you think you can intervene enough?

Yes. Let me tell you. First of all, like in all things in life, as you grow older, you learn. For example, from the next book on, i.e. the one I’ve already signed to translate next, and actually with no objection from the publisher, I’ve decided to include the following term: the title of the book will be decided jointly with the translator. I believe that we can reach a compromise if necessary, but I don’t like it at all – because it has happened to me in the past – when the publisher decides on the title on their own, while I have serious objections.

What advice would you give? How can a young person who wants to be involved in translation get into the game, so to speak?

In literary translation or in translation in general?

Both.

Regarding translation in general, I don’t know. There are translation agencies, which, however, offer translators very low fees. Regarding literary translation, one idea is maybe to translate an excerpt of a book they like and to suggest it to a publisher. I can’t really give advice, because… I can only say they should just try and get better, and dare, because translation requires boldness.

Have you ever received any criticism for a translation that goes so far as to make you feel that you are being censored for something you’ve translated?

You mean negative criticism.

Yes.

Nothing comes to mind right now. To tell you the truth, I don’t read that stuff. I’m totally unaware of what’s going on in the media in that regard. Many times, others relay such information to me. I’m happy when something is written about translation, because nothing is usually written about it. In Greece we have no criticism of translation. I haven’t happened to hear anything negative. But I also try to protect myself, you know. That is, I dig into the subject as much as I possibly can, at least to be sure.

Regarding the relationship with the publisher, have you ever felt that you have to compromise on another issue besides what you said before?

Concerning choices?

Yes.

Yes, it has happened. Let me give you an example. In Marx’s Communist Manifesto, it reads: “A specter is hovering over Europe: the specter of communism.” How would it seem to you if it read: “A specter is looming over Europe: the specter of communism”? I’ve accepted a compromise at such a level, to write “looming over” instead of “hovering over” in a text where for me it was clearly “hovering over”. “Looming over” can be used in another case. So I think that the translator has a reason to substantiate their choice.

How do you imagine the translation profession in the future? In twenty years, for example.

Look, if these internet models don’t improve – as one of your professors, Mrs. Kyriakopoulou, said in her great presentation at the seminar I participated in – there will be work for the years to come, since translation memories think completely differently from the literary author. I believe that as this “after Babel” grows, there will also be translations. We have a Book Fair, there is interest in translation, there are translation pavilions and events, e.g. Litrix has focused these two years on the translation of German books into Greek… I believe that the interest is growing.

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

I will mainly repeat what I said before. To be bold when dealing with a text, and to feel the text as if it was their own and to only take on texts that they would write themselves. I think it is very important to become one with the author. It is what I told you at the beginning. You host a person at your home and you become them. In a sense, you become an actor. That is, it is also a schizophrenic relationship, because every now and then you have to get into the skin of the role. That is, of another role each time, because the translator must always have a job. As long as they make a living from translation, when one book is completed, another must begin. Maybe they let a week pass to clear their head a little. But most of the time, they immerse themselves in texts. However, they should only take on texts with which they can connect and whose hero, whose writer they can identify with. E.g. I’ve happened to identify with a Swiss writer, Friedrich Glauser, and to admire his life so much, because I generally admire and really like damaged characters – he was a junkie, he was in and out of psychiatric institutions, he was in the Foreign Legion – and before even reading his texts, I had said, “I want to translate this author”. When I read his texts, it was exactly that, the perfect match.

Wonderful. Mr. Kalifatidis, thank you very much for being with us today.

I thank you.