We were lucky enough to talk with translator and dramaturg Eva Buchwald about her career, her work on Purge, and the art of translation.
TJB: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
EB: I was born in London and studied Finnish and Russian at London University back in the eighties. I moved to Helsinki permanently after completing my PhD and acquiring a job with a translation agency, mostly translating articles and other texts related to the arts. In the early 90s, I started working for the Finnish National Theatre, first as a literary assistant, and later as a dramaturg which is the post I still hold today. Throughout my career in the theatre, however, I have always continued doing freelance translation. I specialise in translating plays, though I have also done a fair bit of prose fiction, and academic articles on the theatre.
TJB: What made you decide to become a translator?
EB: I have always loved translating, even though it is not my main occupation. I am fascinated by form rather than content. In translation, the content is a given, and I enjoy the puzzle of finding ways to convey it in the right style, rhythm, and melody from one language to another, matching but adapting according to the needs of the target language, which in my case is always English. In a way, I also do much the same in my work as a dramaturg, as I often adapt prose works for the stage, which is another way of translating content into a form which suits the language of theatre.
TJB: Can you tell us a bit about being a professional translator?
EB: As I work freelance, I am not the best person to answer this, but I will say that translating plays is a unique branch of the field. Plays are, if not always dialogue, then at least mostly the ‘spoken word’, with all its idiosyncrasies, contradictions, inaccuracies, blunders, lies, incorrect punctuation and above all, sub-text. This is always a challenge to translate without interpreting too much and making choices for the characters that are your choices, not theirs. And you have to be aware that there is no real way of knowing if the character is speaking the truth or not, since there is no narrator, as in a novel for example.
TJB: What was it like working on Purge?
EB: Sofi Oksanen wrote Purge for the Finnish National Theatre in 2007 and I followed it from its first draft to its final version in my work as a dramaturg, so by the time the play opened, I had seen its progress and knew it was an important text with international potential, despite the context being so specific. The play didn’t get funding to be translated however, but I decided to do it anyway, and it helped launch the novel too, which came afterwards. I felt the play had a powerful rhythm and intensity which is well served by the often brisk, clipped dialogue. Sofi is primarily a prose writer, but I feel she really used the compact form of drama to advantage here.
TJB: What's your process like? Is it different from play to play or project to project?
EB: Each play is unique, and I would say that of every project I work on as a dramaturg too. I think that is the best part of my job – no two days are the same, no two projects are the same. Each translation has its own set of criteria. Translating from Finnish to English has its own challenges in that you are always translating into a void, on speculation, because Finnish plays are only picked up once they are translated. This makes the process different from, for example, translating from English to Finnish, where theatres in Finland commission translators to translate a play for a specific production, so the translators know which theatre they are writing for, often which actors, and so on. This makes a difference to the choice of slang and swear words, etc. As I don’t have that privilege, I tend to use the language most natural to me (British) and the given play (urban, provincial, sci-fi, young, old, etc) without resorting to any specific dialects or changing
the location of the play. If the play is picked up, I do usually adapt it for the location however, for example Americanising the most severe Britishisms if necessary. Sometimes this isn’t even necessary, however. In America, I have sometimes been told that the British lilt gives the play a European feel.
TJB: What's the most rewarding thing about translating plays/being a translator?
EB: I think what I find most rewarding about translating relates to what I’ve mentioned before, solving the riddle of finding the right rhythm and expression for the characters involved. Similarly, in prose translation I enjoy the fine line of recreating the atmosphere of the original without compromising the fluidity of the target language. And with plays of course, it is always rewarding if someone actually produces the play in translation, which is not so common after all, for Finnish plays in English. They tend to be produced in places like Germany or Eastern Europe, but the English-speaking world is often very insular, not least because there are plenty of exciting writers who write in English. But I think seeing a play from another culture is always a worthwhile eye-opener.
TJB: Is there anything else you would like to add (upcoming projects, website, anything you feel is important to add)?
EB: My most recent play translation was produced earlier this year (online of course, due to COVID) by Cut the Cord Theatre in London, who profile Nordic writing in translation. In their last series, which focused on young writers, they commissioned a translation of a play by a debut writer, Arda Yildirim, called Hornblende (Sarvivälke), which is a touching, charming coming of age monologue for a very young actress. (This was a rare occasion where I knew where and when the play would be performed before translating it.) I also have a long-term project translating a Finnish classic feminist novel from the turn of the century, full of steamy decadence. Otherwise my current focus is on various productions I am working on at the Finnish National Theatre, most notably an adaptation of Goethe’s Faust due to open next spring, all being well with COVID.