Ian Gwin is a translator, writer, and graduate student in Scandinavian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. He completed his undergraduate degree in linguistics at the UW, during which he learned Estonian, Finnish, and Latvian through the Department of Scandinavian Studies.
How did your interest in translation begin?
I’m interested in translation as an excuse to learn more about language. You get to a place in learning a language when you start looking into literature and ways of expression. I’ve read a lot of translations that I enjoyed and there was a time where I sort of read them indiscriminately. It’s said that if you really want to understand a place or a people, you have to go to its art, and I feel there’s a truth in that which can be shared through translation.
Do you have a particular focus?
I’ll say that my specialty is literary translation. My ideal is poetry, because it’s so difficult. Some would say it’s impossible, and I find that really challenging and thought-provoking. The works that I’ve been translating have been more or less prose, but to me literature is an inclusive category. I’d like to translate something where I couldn’t say what it is. I’ve also translated essays and criticism, and for that reason part of me is hesitant to say that I even have a specialty.
Have you had formal translation studies, or has it been more independent?
It’s kind of been a mix. I did some independent translations after undergrad when I hadn’t had any training. It’s kind of like flying without a pilot’s license, as long as you land. But since then, in this [Scandinavian Studies] program, I have taken several seminars and I’ve done mentorships with various translators.
Could you speak more about the mentorships you’ve done?
It can be challenging starting out in translation because both the trade and the skills are sometimes closely guarded secrets. It reminds me of medieval guilds. People are very protective of their alchemical secrets, and I don’t blame them. They work magic. But I think there’s an element of normative evaluation that goes on in translation that can get hidden.
I did a mentorship this past year with Kaija Straumanis who works at Open Letter Books. I was paired with her by the Latvian Literature Centre. We’ve been working together on work by a contemporary Latvian writer, Andris Kuprišs. I think it’s partly because of Kaija’s generosity and ability as a teacher that I’ve learned how to do some of the very detailed work that can come into translation.
Is there a translation that you found particularly challenging?
The writer I’m working on currently, an Estonian named Jaan Oks, has been challenging. Some of his work is more straightforward, but his prose is very poetic and oftentimes hard to interpret even for Estonian speakers. He has a series of late prose poems that I’d like to translate which are really difficult, even in the original. The language can get very fragmented and associative. Deleuze describes how writers in a minor literature "stutter." Oks is a Symbolist writer, and I think he stutters in a private language and that only thickens the margin.
What projects are you working on now?
I want to do more [of Oks’ work] and have it published in English. I have other projects: I’m working on Kuprišs' first book of stories and I’m also working on a novel by Friedebert Tuglas called Felix Ormusson. It’s also grouped with Oks as a work of decadent literature, with some regional differences.
And for your thesis, you’re researching Jaan Oks as well as translating him.
Yes. I would definitely recommend this to anybody doing translation at the graduate level. One thing that I learned from Michael [Biggins], Heekyoung [Cho], and Rich [Watts] in their seminar* was that in translating a text you get to engage with it at the microscopic level and the interpretive demands are immense. Coming out of that, you have done this really close reading. At this point I can more justifiably say what I think the texts mean and where they compare with similar writings in other cultures. A big conversation we had was [about] the invisibility of the translator, and I think that part of the project is making myself visible as the reanimator of this person.
Finally, could you share some recommended reading?
Definitely. Kirsten Lodge has some excellent work translating Czech decadent work. She has a collection called Solitude, Vanity, Night. She also translated a novel called A Gothic Soul. Also, Keys to Happiness by Anastasya Verbitskaya translated by Beth Holmgren and Helena Goscilo. And, finally, I want to say that my department has seen some amazing translators such as Tiina Nunnally and Lola Rogers.
*This is in reference to a graduate seminar in translation at the University of Washington taught by professors Michael Biggins, Heekyoung Cho, and Rich Watts. This course is offered again during the Spring 2022 quarter. Students working in any language may register under ASIAN 590 A, FRENCH 590 A, or SLAVIC 590 A.