Once at a translator's conference
I attended a workshop Anthea Bell gave on the translation of Asterix books, and
she told us the strict rules the publisher sets: one may not increase the size
of a speech balloon, and if a joke is 'untranslatable' (and Asterix books are
full of puns, the most untranslatable things of all) one must put in another
joke in a nearby window (or whatever the boxes in such books are called) as
close as possible. I have often recommended Asterix books in foreign languages
to learners. So I was very pleased to read the following, sent to me by
a fellow-writer in England:
Translator Anthea Bell awarded Cross
of the Order of Merit
29 January 2015
On 29 January
2015, Ambassador Ammon presented the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal
Republic of Germany to the distinguished translator Anthea Bell at a reception
at the Embassy attended by Mrs Bell's family and colleagues.
Anthea Bell
has been renowned as an outstanding translator of German titles into English.
For years she has taken on works by Kafka, Stefan Zweig, ETA Hoffmann, as well
as Erich Kästner and Cornelia Funke.
In making these authors and their
books accessible to wider readerships by the means of translation, she has made
an invaluable contribution to furthering understanding between Germany and the
UK.
She has been much acclaimed for her work, and among many other accolades
she has received the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, the Schlegel
Tieck Prize for Translation from German and the Marsh Award for Children’s
Literature in Translation. She also won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize,
for which she has also been nominated a further three times. Ambassador Ammon
was delighted to add another honour to the list.
On 29 January 2015, Ambassador Peter Ammon presented the Cross of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to acclaimed translator
Anthea Bell. This award was in recognition of Mrs Bell's services to
translation and outstanding contribution to cultural understanding between
Germany and the UK.
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