Text by Summer Freeman, BA Modern Languages and Cultures (Dutch and German) and participant Translation Project
Interconnected Stories
Oroppa, the 2024 debut novel by the Dutch-Moroccan author Safae el Khannoussi, is a trove of interconnected stories that span two continents and multiple perspectives. Shedding light on the post-colonial and migration histories of Europe and North Africa, the novel is an ode to resistance and resilience, and contends with the notion of what it truly means to be European – something that could not be more relevant in our current political and cultural climate.
Considering all this, the prospect of translating an excerpt from such a compelling, complex and prize-winning novel was a little daunting and very exciting at the same time. My fellow students and I were tasked with the translation of ‘The tale of the taxi driver and the widow’, told from the perspective of a character in Oroppa and set in Morocco. We began with crafting individual translations, by taking smaller sections and interpreting the Dutch text in our own ways. Despite us all working with the same source text, it turned out that everyone had produced entirely different and unique translations. We then discussed our individual translations in small groups, comparing our choices with each other and combining our versions into one comprehensive English text.
I really enjoyed the experience of working with everyone on this translation, being able to share our different ideas, and putting four years of language studies to use in such a collaborative and engaging way.
Summer Freeman
Translator on the project
Translation Symposium
The project culminated in a Translation Symposium, where we worked closely with Shimanto Reza, who is the official English translator for Oroppa. Together we discussed our translation decisions, corrected mistakes, and shared our thoughts. Here, I discovered just how complicated and detailed literary translation really is. With every single word choice must also come a consideration of meaning, tone, literality, representation, perspective, and flow. And Khannoussi’s language is rich and full of subtle references. This is something that definitely posed challenges for the editorial team when finalising our English translation.
Looking back at the project as a whole, I can only conclude that it was a truly wonderful, insightful and inspiring experience to work on this text and to discover more about the world of literary translation. Perhaps the most important thing that I learned is that translation is so much bigger than you may realise when you are reading something in translation – the impact that translators have and the role that they play significantly shape the final product. In this way, it was invaluable to have all of us contributing to this translation: we each brought a unique and special angle to it, just as Oroppa itself captures and highlights just how different and complex human perspectives can be, and how important it is to recognise that.
Publication
Our translation was published on the international cultural platform the-low-countries.com: Sheffield Students Translate 'Oroppa' by Safae el Khannoussi. It is wonderful to see our work shared with the wider world reader. I hope we do original text the justice that it deserves, and that you can see how much joy we had in doing this together.
