The first EST Translation Prize, of 2 000 euros, has been awarded to the team of Alojz Keníž, Lucia Kozákóva, Xenia Liashuk and Katarína Koreňová for the translation of Anton Popovič’s Teória umeleckého prekladu (Theory of Literary Translation) from Slovak into English.
The project was ranked first by all members of the Translation Committee, who considered that it would have a major impact on international Translation Studies, making the work accessible to a wider audience. The proposal followed all the EST guidelines, had the backing of a major publisher (John Benjamins), and was clearly thought-through, feasible, and presented by a high-quality translation team.
A total of seven projects were received and assessed on the following criteria:
- Publication in the field of Translation Studies
- Submission rules applied
- Impact on international Translation Studies
- Feasibility of the project
- Pertinent experience of the translators.
The committee discussed in detail the three strongest proposals, of which two involved translations of Antoine Berman.
A proposal to translate Berman’s L’Âge de la traduction (2008) into English was found to be very solid and feasible, but less attractive than the Popovič project because it involves two major European languages, whereas Slovak is a minority language.
The third proposal, to translate Berman’s L’épreuve de l’étranger (1984) into Armenian, was also highly attractive, especially since it would show that EST supports the translation of a major TS work into a minor language. The idea of awarding two prizes, one for a translation into a major language and one for the translation into a minor language, was proposed and discussed; however, the idea was abandoned because it would seriously reduce the financial incentive. However, this is a point to remember for the future.
The Translation Committee was chaired by Aline Remael, with Isabelle Robert as Secretary, Andrew Chesterman, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, Riitta Jääskeläinen and Douglas Robinson as members, and Defeng Li and Jeremy Munday as external advisors.
For more information:
EST Translation Prize