Funded Translation Grants for 2016
Translation Grant
Applicant: Midsea Books
Reference Number: CETG 11-FN 1597
Project Title: Translation of the original novel in Maltese ‘L-Eżodu taċ-Ċikonji’ by Walid Nabhan into English to be used also as a bridge-language for translation into other languages
Amount Awarded: €3,000
The novel by Walid Nabhan presents an intense and uncomfortable story that widens the geographical boundaries of the Maltese narrative. Nabil, the protagonist, finds himself thorn between a tangled past which has little or nothing to do with the present. His desire is to distance himself from the silence of a nation that has failed even before he was born, but still has to carry its burden wherever he is. He recalls his childhood memories of the spectacles the storks used to put on. And realises that, even though these recollections are fading, no war, no departure, how cruel it may be, can redeem him from that ‘bullet’ embedded beneath his wings. The only relief is found in the extraordinary use of language, in the rich narrative of a person that wishes to make sense of his life and maps his destiny.
Applicant: Alfred Buttiġieġ
Reference Number: CETG 10-FN 1596
Project Title: Translation of three contemporary plays by Alfred Buttigieg. Ippermettili Nitlaq, Dwar Menopawsi, Minorenni u Muturi High Speed and Mela Hawn xi Manikomju?
Amount Awarded: €2,737
The plays by Alfred Buttigieg present the human spirit struggling with the deterioration of the human body and at the same time having to withstand incomprehension from society, its impositions, indifference and difficulty to fit into society’s moulds and expectations. Ippermettili Nitlaq deals with bio-ethics and end-of-life issues including quality of life in severe disability and responsibilities of medical practitioners. Dwar Menopawsi, Minorenni u Muturi High Speed deals with intergenerational relationships and middle-age dissatisfaction. It is about fading opportunities for happiness, difficulties in marriage and in bringing up children. Mela Hawn xi Manikomju? deals with extreme old age, the care of the elderly, the responsibilities of younger generations towards the aged and institutions that are supposed to care for them. This play is full of bawdy humour, but there are several moments of poetry and pathos as it invites the audience to contemplate human beings’ experience of homesickness, grief, abandonment, dependence, betrayal, loneliness, the body’s frailties, memory and death.
Applicant: Claire Vassallo
Reference Number: CETG 20-FN 1879
Project title: Translation into English of Trevor Zahra’s recent collection of short stories, Vespri
Amount Awarded: € 4,500
Claire Vassallo will be translating into English Trevor Zahra’s short stories published in the novel called “Vespri” (Merlin, 2015). The themes of the stories in the book are mainly of an adult nature and should appeal to a broad international readership. In addition, many of them are set in Malta and will hopefully provide an added appeal for the target readership of this translated volume, which is the Australian reader.
Applicant: Adrian Grima
Reference Number: CETG 18-FN 1877
Project title: Last-ditch Ecstasy – Online Poetry Videos and Print Publication
Amount Awarded: € 3,000
Albert Gatt will be translating into English the collection of poems by Adrian Grima, published in “Klin u Kapriċċi Oħra” (Klabb Kotba Maltin, 2015). The book is divided into six collections, each with a different mood – all the poems are a love-letter of sorts, whether to a woman, to pain or even to life itself. A number of the poems either refer to foreign shores within the stanzas, or else end with a reference to a place, a decision that somehow makes the words and feelings leap from the page and from fiction into a more concrete reality, almost as though the poet were allowing us a glimpse into selected pages from his personal journal. The plan for the international distribution, dissemination and promotion of Last-ditch Ecstasy, is two-pronged: 1. Promotion of the poems through of a series of 10 short videos in Maltese, which require subtitles in English and 2. Promote the translations through the publication of a book, which will be entitled Last-ditch Ecstasy
Applicant: Yana Psaila
Reference Number: CETG 15-FN 1844
Project title: Sfidi by Trevor Zahra translated into Russian
Amount Awarded: € 2,500
Yana Psaila will be translating into Russian Trevor Zahra’s book called “Sfidi” (Merlin, 2005) which was awarded the National Book Prize 2006 in the category for Adolescents’ literature. The Russian publishing house Khudozhestvennaya Literatura based in Moscow, which has recently also published Trevor Zahra’s book called “Il-Hajja Sigrieta tan-Nanna Genoveffa”, will be responsible for publishing the book, promoting it and distributing it.
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