Setter, she is in many ways. First of all, because in her translations she has heard some of the greatest voices of Slovenian literature, Boris Pahor or Drago Jančar, whose translation of a new novel is announced in January by Phébus. Also a guide, because, with patience and passion, but also with remarkable tenacity, she has allowed the Slovenian field, a singular linguistic and cultural universe, little frequented in France, to emerge, then to find its readers and its audience. « Slovenian literature was absolutely unknown in France, but what I really wanted was to make it known, and that became my goal ”, sums up Andrée Lück-Gaye.
By handing him, Thursday, September 14, the Grand Prix for translation work 2023 awarded jointly by the
Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, was not mistaken. “ Thanks to you, we have the chance to know better the masterpieces of Slovenian literaturesaid the Minister. Vyou have patiently and generously made them accessible by building bridges between two languages deeply rooted in you and between two countries that are dear to you Andrée Lück-Gaye agreed to come back for us on her journey, the day before the award ceremony.
How did you come to the translation?
Completely by chance, following steps to find my family. My grandfather was indeed of Slovenian origin but he spoke French badly, and anyway he was not very talkative, he said that he was born in Yugoslavia or Hungary, and he actually had papers in Slovenian and Hungarian because he came from a region in northern Slovenia under Hungarian rule. In the late 1960s, I went to Slovenia to meet my family. When I came back, I started learning Slovenian. After a year, I enrolled at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), and in my third year, Claude Vincenot, who was my teacher, offered me to translate a novel by Vladimir Kavčič on the Dachau trials. This text is still in my drawers today but for all these years I have had time to refine the translation! Subsequently, I translated news for articles and journals until Slovenia offered me the translation of Pilgrim among the shadows (The Round Table, 1990) by Boris Pahor, which made it possible to put a first spotlight on Slovenia. But the professionalization really started with my first translation of Drago Jančar, Joyce’s Student, at the initiative of Éric Naulleau, who was then managing the publishing house «L'Esprit des Péninsules».
Did you immediately perceive the role you would have played in Slovenian literature?
All translators are ambassadors and smugglers, but Slovenian literature was absolutely unknown in France, and what I really wanted was to make it known, and that became my goal. I had fun making a bibliography of all translations of Slovene. The first one dates back to 1925. Then, from 1925 to 1990, the date of my first published translation, about ten books were translated, and from 1990 to today, more than forty, with a clear acceleration from 2002. What I am also pleased about is that the next generation is assured. Two young translators, Stéphane Baldeck and Feriel Kraševec, have already taken over.
How would you present the works of Boris Pahor and Drago Jančar?
They come from two different regions: Drago Jančar comes from Styria, a region in the north of Slovenia, while Boris Pahor was born in Trieste, today an Italian city, he comes in other words from the seaside, literally « Primorje » in Slovenian. I have translated four novels or collections of short stories by Pahor while, with one exception, I have translated all of Jančar’s work, so I know her very well. In France, Jančar is mostly spotted as someone who worked around the Second World War. He has written two novels that speak to it precisely, and it is a reference that covers all his work, but the other novels are not focused on the Second World War. I am thinking in particular of Six months in the life of Ciril (Phébus, 2016) which shows the difficulty of contemporary life in Ljubljana for young people. A theme that we always find is that of the absurd.
For Boris Pahor, what is decisive is that he returns from the concentration camps. The theme of extermination haunts all his work. His news notably sheds light on the abuses committed by Italian fascists. From the 1920s, Slovenes were martyred. Two examples: black shirts burned down the house of culture in Trieste. When the firemen arrived, the fascists cut the hoses, in other words, people burned alive. A short story from Pahor tells of this. Another, always inspired by a true story, depicts a choir master at the church who continues to sing in Slovenian when he is not allowed to. When he is arrested, he is made to drink machine oil which has the effect of blocking the intestine and he dies.
And in terms of translation?
Boris Pahor, who died last year, was a great defender of the Slovenian language but he was educated in Italian, and his Slovenian, which uses very long phrases, is affected. The translation is not easy, but no matter how long it takes, if the sentence is long, I will make a long sentence too! For Jančar, it’s quite different, he writes a classic Slovenian, and the problems I encountered to translate are rather cultural: during the Second World War, Slovenes are the only non-Jewish population to have been racially classified by the Nazis. There is mention of this classification in Slovenian and German, but not in French. So I have to invent a terminology and it’s complicated. I also encountered difficulties in the translation of The extraordinary escape of Johannes Ott which takes place at the end of the 17th century in Central Europe in regions that are not studied at all. The language is classical but it uses a lot of archaic vocabulary that I only found in the first Slovenian/German dictionary.
Not to mention that there is only one time in the past in Slovenian for five in French…
When you start translating, that’s the first difficulty, I always wonder how the interpreters do it! When you read a novel in French, you immediately see when there is a flashback. In Slovenian, you have to read a little more to understand it.
What was your reaction to the announcement of this award. What do you expect?
I was very surprised, I have been living in Slovenia for three years, and even though I am a member of the translators' association, I wondered how the jury could have found me. I cannot thank him enough today. This award recognizes my work and highlights Slovenia. I hope that the texts that are still in my drawers will find an editor thanks to him. In general, I hope that it will help me realize some projects that are important to me.
Is there one you would like to mention?
The project around the Alexandrines of Vladimir Bartol is particularly close to my heart. On the literary level, there is no research, but the story is fascinating, it tells the fate of these women of the region of Trieste and Gorica who, for some, from the opening of the Suez Canal, left to work in Egypt, A movement that intensified from the 1920s, following the fascist push when everything was done by Italy to ruin the Slovenes. If they are not enrolled in the fascist party, men lose their jobs, and the only way to support the family is for women to go to Egypt, and mainly to Alexandria, where more than a third become nannies. In other words, these are women who give birth in Slovenia but leave their babies to their mother or sisters, and who go to breastfeed another woman’s children in Alexandria, English, Lebanese, French, Greek… Alexandria was very cosmopolitan at that time. The last Alexandrian came back in 1960. These are extraordinary destinies. I have translated a large part of the book and am looking for a publisher.
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