Isabelle Chapman talk

by Elisabeth Heurtier (level B2)

Member of the Jury for the 2023 UIAD Prize for Literature

On February 8th, Isabelle Chapman came to the UIAD for a talk about the 2023 UIAD Prize for Literature.

Last year, “La douceur de l’eau”, the French translation of “The sweetness of water” by Nathan Harris obtained the UIAD Prize for Literature. It was the opportunity to invite the author of the novel. But he couldn’t come from the USA and the UIAD invited the translator, Isabelle Chapman.

In place of having a lecture about the inspiration, the intentions, the genesis, or the aim of the writer, we had a very interesting report about the problems related to translation. 

The meeting began with a summary of the book by an enthusiastic member of the jury 2023. The story is set just at the end of the Civil War. It evokes the problems between the slaves and their white owners when the former were declared free. Nathan Harris tackles the theme through the story of two slaves (two brothers) and a couple of farmers whose son seems to have been killed at war, and who decide to give a job to the brothers. The novel is about the consequences of the farmers’ choice; there is beautiful nature and a rather inhuman environment. 

But to get back to the subject at hand: the translation. 

I can tell you what I’ve understood and remembered about what Isabelle Chapman said regarding her job of translator:

- Isabelle Chapman was chosen to do the job by the French publisher. It was a five-month task.

- In general the author and the translator don’t meet each other. The translator is only in relation with the book. Her work is neither a word-for-word translation, nor a creation. It’s an interpretation.

- Isabelle Chapman’s aim is to make the reader understand the author’s feelings about the world he describes.

-She also has to reproduce the music of the text. She thinks that French is less musical and more abstract than English. For example, in English, repetitions can be used to give rhythm to the text, but in French repetitions are generally incorrect. English uses the vocabulary of the body more than French to express feelings. Sometimes Nathan Harris doesn’t use certain words with their real meaning. The translator has to search for the best way to change the words, staying close to the idea and the rhythm of the author.

-She also explained that a translation depends on the translator and the period when the work is done because languages change across the time. 

If we had to remember only one idea from Isabelle Chapman, it is that this first novel of Nathan Harris shows that he is, and he will be, a brilliant American author. You really ought to read the book  - in English or in French! 

Thanks to Isabelle Chapman for her clear, honest, intelligent, instructive, answers to our numerous questions.

 

Une Histoire d'images (2)

by Josée Bernard (level B2)

Rosana Sam’s group of English students visited the Grenoble museum on January 11 in order to see the photographic exhibition Une histoire d’images. 

The exhibition features 270 photos assembled and donated by the art-collector Antoine de Galbert.

The world from the end of the second world war till today is described by 95 more or less well-known photographers in various ways; photojournalism as well as staged photos all telling their own fascinating story. 

It’s difficult during a visit to see everything, to understand everything…

We had a young guide in English who selected and explained several photos per room (perhaps too many?) but the explanations on the walls could complete.

The collection is very diverse, we encounter irony and humor as well as horror and sadness.

All these photos speak on contemporary History, at the level of the “greats of this World” or at the level of “the little people”:

We all admired the magnificent portrait of Massoud, and we were moved by those of the young volunteer fighters in Donbass.

I wondered at the impassivity of the North Korean filling his cart at the supermarket.

I had the impression of being physically present in Gdansk, during these public confessions.

I trembled between the two shots of the demonstrations during the release of Nelson Mandela, on one side the white crowd with swastika flags, on the other the jubilant black crowd.

Despite everything, I smiled at the photos titled “la fin du Monde nous aura quand même donné de beaux couchers de soleil”

Lots of humanity and a lot of humans in this exhibition even if the final results are rather pessimistic.

 

The Audacity Road

by Véronique Feltrin (level B2)

                                                                                                                                                      

Crédit photos :PhotoNomades production

      Do you know this young woman? You don’t? Yet she lives in Grenoble and she set a women‘s record in 2023. Her name is Nathalie Baillon, and she‘s a long-distance cyclist.

She deserves to be talked about, because ultra-cycling is a very demanding sport, physically and mentally, however little publicized compared to others sports disciplines. 

In May 2023 she tried to break a record, biking alone across Europe from the south of Spain to the North Cape in Norway, without any assistance. 6,400 kilometres, across 10 countries, 38,500 metres of cumulative height difference! 

A British man, Ian Walter, currently holds the record time: 16 days, 20 hours and 59 minutes.

Nathalie established the women’s record for this challenge: 18 days, 15 hours and 27 minutes.

Here is the route, which is not entirely correct. Competition rules do not allow taking a ferry, also she had to cross part of Russia.

She biked on dangerous roads without sides, with many trucks, in Estonia and Russia. She says she has never been as afraid as crossing Saint Petersburg, where nothing is planned for cyclists, and Russians drive fast.

She entered Russia easily but spent a lot of time at the border between Russia and Finland, with a lot of questions from customs officials who wanted to understand who she was and why she was here. And on the Finnish side, officials stopped her too, and wanted to know what questions were asked by the Russians!

Variations in climatic conditions were difficult too: heat and storms in Spain and then cold, snow and hail in Norway and Finland. She was hampered by a headwind during a large part of the race. 

During this race, rest times are not deducted from the final time. So, she was biking during between 15 and 18 hours a day, with increasing pain as the days passed.

She was sleeping between 4 and 6 hours, sometimes in a hotel, but most of the time outside in fields so as not to waste time.

She didn‘t have any assistance, so she was having to stop to buy food. These were often sandwiches, hamburgers, cereals or chocolate bars. Junkfood as she says! 

The race was full of emotional moments. Human meetings with people who were following her on social networks and were waiting for her, offering her food or accommodation to rest. And magnificent landscapes, wild animals, herds of reindeers, unforgettable moments…

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" 

                                                                 Hunter S. Thompson

 https://www.nathaliebaillon.com/

Congratulation to this young Grenoble resident, and encouragements for her next challenge, the Atlas Moutain Race which will begin on February 9^th.