Gawd. Shortlisted for Gate translation award!
Amazingly, I have been shortlisted for the Gate Translation award, for my interpretation of a Noh play, Nakamitsu. Gawd! Shortlist of 6 from over 70 entries, supposedly.
“I am extremely happy to inform you that NAKAMITSU has been shortlisted for the award. The standard of submissions was very high, so congratulations for making the shortlist of six plays.
Here are a few comments from their reports which may be of interest to you:
The world of ancient Japan is clearly evoked through the formal language and the thematic sense of obligation and hierarchy.
Although this play belongs to a canon of work for the Noh stage and is thus difficult to remove from its formal context, it does have resonance with today’s world in its themes.
The translator brings out the tone and feel of Japanese Noh Theatre but makes the piece work by its own merits.”
I am surprised for several reasons but mainly: 1. There is strong competition. 2. Noh plays are short.
Still, it is great news. I’ve also heard that Simon (or more properly Chi Kuen Simon Wu) has been short listed for, Wolf in the House, which is a Chinese play. So, it’s great news for Asian theatre as well.
However the Gate has shown up a slight misunderstanding of Chinese by suggesting there have been translations from “the Mandarin, Japanese, Krio and Chinese.”
Speakers of different varieties of Chinese all use one formal standard written language, athough in modern times this written language is itself based on one variety of spoken Chinese, Mandarin. (In pre-20th Century China Classical Chinese was used.) So unless the translation was from an oral tradition (possible) a written translation of Chinese or “Mandarin” is effectively the same.
Krio is (according to wiki) a creole language native to the Krios, a community of about 250,000 descendants of freed slaves living in Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown. It is also spoken as a lingua franca, or second language, by about 4 million Sierra Leoneans of other ethnic groups, and by thousands of Krio descendants living in other parts of West Africa. Although it is also a Dayak language from Indonesia/Borneo.
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6 Responses to “Gawd. Shortlisted for Gate translation award!”
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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Brilliant, Ben, many congrats. Good luck with the final cut. And thanks for the plug!
Well done! that’s great!
have to admit that i really wanted to enter this remembering how much i used to enjoy translating opera, but given the amount on my plate it wasn’t anywhere near feasible…next year maybe…
Hana, you should definitely enter. It’s always a last minute rush for me every two years (this is the third time I have entered) but it’s fun – reminds me slightly of doing latin at school – and intellectually satisfying and I so didn’t expect it to go anywhere….
Ben
This is a brilliant achievement! Congratulations!
All the best
Yang-May
Excellent news Benjamin, fingers crossed for the award, but being shortlisted is already recognition of your hard work in itself.
CONGRATULATIONS!