What kinds of things can be expressed in Czech that are difficult or impossible in German?
By using distorted German expressions, you can give Czech a distinctly colloquial feel that is impossible to achieve with equivalent linguistic means in German.
Does a character’s personality change when you translate them from Czech into German?
God forbid. That would be a bloody awful translation.
When translating, do you tend to think in images, in meaning or in words?
First and foremost, I have to see what the text is describing – in other words, what I’m translating. Only then do the words and their meanings follow.
What is particularly difficult about translating Czech humour into German?
Good humour has no trouble being translated.
What are you currently working on, and what will your next project be?
At the moment, I’m translating a novel by Katarína Kucbelová from Slovak. After that, I’m keen to see just how much this year’s book fair will fuel interest in translations from Czech. 🙂
Photo: Anja Kapunkt
The interview was conducted by Annika Grützner.