I normally read books by Swedish authors in Swedish, but this one was less than $1 at the thrift store. It was a nice, hefty hardback edition with large text which felt like a luxury.
I had never heard of this author before, but it sounded good so I gave it a go. I read it in one sitting. I was exhausted afterwards, but it was so gripping I could not put it down. It’s not a heavy read though, so if you are a quick reader you could easily read it over a couple of hours.
The book is set in present-day Stockholm, in places I know very, very well. The translation was excellent, although a bit too UK-centric in places. Part of it dealt with the education system and that is so specific to each country that I would have used more general terms to make this book more accessible to international readers.
Translating novels is a real art, because you have to be not only correct also true to the style of the writer and the world of the book. AI translations of novels are pretty obvious still, but I guess they will get better, putting another profession out of work.
I am not a good enough writer or translator to translate novels. I translate technical documents and legislation because I have deep knowledge of the field. Due to the development of AI, I do way fewer translations than I used to, which I don’t mind because I am first and foremost a teacher with good knowledge of specialist terms.
I read somewhere that the Swedish translation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is much-debated. I have never been able to get to grips with the books, even in the native English. Plus they have so many strident devoted fans. Imagine having to translate them!
I have a translation diploma but when I graduated, the internet exploded and my profession soon became obsolete. It was so hard find work and I never really did. I was always hired for my language skills but to do something other than translation. In the end, I took a course to become an ESL teacher when I was still living in England. Once in Germany, I tried doing literary translation but I found it so incredibly difficult compared to technical translation. I think that people who do literary translation are severely underpaid compared to the skill that they need to provide. On the plus side for me, I absolutely love teaching languages. I don’t just teach English, but I also teach French and Spanish. Right now, my focus is more towards teaching French.
I love teaching language as well. I would not have worked in translation at all, but for the fact that I had specialist subject knowledge which the procured translators did not. The state generally goes for the cheapest procurement bids, but those translators are not specialists in EU/the Swedish system/the Swedish model, and tend to use the wrong words. I was originally hired to proofread these documents afterwards, but after that I was employed for several months a year to translate the most difficult publications, which were all very technical. Nowadays, because of AI, it is very rare, but that means I can teach more.