Latvia's ancient poetry is getting its first major translation - The Economist - Translation

Mar 31st 2021

OVER THE years, Swedes, Germans and Russians have all had a go at conquering Latvia and imposing their flavours of Christianity on it. Today Lutherans worship mainly in the country’s west, and Russian Orthodox in the east. But Latvia’s deepest rituals are still inspired by its home-grown brand of paganism. They include wild summer-solstice parties and a national song-and-dance festival every five years.

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The hymns of this prehistoric faith are folk poems, typically four lines long, called dainas. Thanks to Krisjanis Barons, a folklorist who encouraged Latvians to note down such quatrains in the 19th and early 20th centuries, over a million of them are on file at the national library in Riga, the capital. Some have musical notation, but since dainas follow predictable schemes the tunes tend to be repeated, as in Celtic jigs and reels.

For the past 22 years, Ieva Szentivanyi has been rendering dainas into English. Her first volume was published in 2018 and the second is ready for the press. The rhythm of Latvian is hard to translate, but more difficult is conveying the affection of the language’s diminutive suffixes. The English diminutive of “book” is “booklet”; in Latvian, she explains, it more like a “dearest, sweetest, most beloved book”. Dainas are short, but rich in metaphor and symbolism:

Birch tree, dear, thou art so ample All the way to the ground; Dearest wife, thou art so lovely All the way to deep old age.

Aficionados say this canon of folk poems is as significant as any body of classical literature. Ms Szenivanyi calls them Latvia’s wisdom to share with the world. Some scholars claim a few could date from the Bronze Age: in one a warrior duelling with his sister’s abuser breaks his sword against a gatepost, something an iron weapon would be unlikely to do.

There is one class of daina that Mrs Szentivanyi dares not touch, mythical ones that speak of melting seas and waves of sunshine, which are confusing enough in the original Latvian. She aims to finish 2,000 of them. It is a daunting challenge: as one of her favourite dainas has it, “the words go on and on”.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Folk histories in four lines"

Courtesy Translation: Additional restrictions on sports, commerce, culture and gathering of people – night curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Mainz - DVIDS - Translation

Press Release from the Mainz city government, 30 MAR 2021
Courtesy Translation: Nadine Bower, Community Relations

Further restrictions on sports, commerce, culture and gathering of people – night curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Mainz.

Press release: Incidence levels in Mainz exceed limit value of 100 last Sunday – City of Mainz significantly tightens measures to protect the population against coronavirus infections

Yesterday, the administrative staff of the state capital Mainz met again under the leadership of Lord Mayor Michael Ebling and assessed the current developments in the spread of coronavirus infections. Since Sunday, the 7-day incidence - i.e. the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week - in the state capital Mainz is above the limit of 100 - at the same time the forecasts of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) assumes further growing values nationwide.

The administrative staff has therefore decided, in accordance with the 18th Corona Control Ordinance of Rheinland-Pfalz (18th CoBeLVO), to take further measures to protect the population against coronavirus infections. These will be published tomorrow, Wednesday with a general decree and will apply starting Thursday, Apr. 1st, 2021, at midnight until at first and including Sunday, Apr. 11th, 2021:

Contacts

Staying in public spaces is only permitted alone or with the members of one’s own household and a person of one other household (children of both households up to and including six years old are not included in the determination of the number of persons).

Night curfew

Leaving one’s apartment or accommodation located in the area of the state capital Mainz and the stay outside one's own apartment or accommodation is generally prohibited daily between 9 p.m. until 5.00 a.m. of the following day.

During the period referred to in the first sentence, staying in the territory of the above-mentioned localities is in principle also prohibited for persons who are not residents there.

Exceptions to these restrictions apply only if there is a valid reason. The main reasons are:

(a) professional activities;
(b) actions necessary to avert an imminent danger to life, limb and property;
(c) the use of urgent necessary medical and veterinary care services;
(d) visiting spouses, partners within the meaning of the Civil Partnership Act, close relatives (within the meaning of Section 1589 paragraph 1 sentence 1 of the German Civil Code), the elderly, the sick or people with restrictions (outside institutions) and the exercise of the right of custody and access in the private sector;
(e) the support and care of persons and minors in need of assistance;
(f) the accompaniment of the dying and persons in urgent life-threatening conditions;
(g) caring for animals, including the walking the animal (only one person);
(h) the pursuit of hunting in order to reduce the risk of the spread of animal disease, in accordance with the hygiene concept of hunting;
(i) the attendance of Easter services.

Businesses and retail

Commercial facilities are closed to customer traffic, unless otherwise specified below. Pickup and delivery services of commercial facilities are permitted upon prior order in compliance with the general protective measures.

Commercial establishments may open if, by prior agreement, individual appointments are made in which only persons belonging to the same household are granted access to the establishment at the same time.
The obligation to register contacts applies for such individual appointments.

If several individual appointments are allocated for one day in a row, a period of at least 15 minutes between the end and the beginning of the individual appointments shall be kept free. The above also applies to libraries and archives.

Excluded from closure are:

- retail establishments for food,
- direct marketers of food,
- beverage markets,
- drugstores,
- baby markets.

In addition, excluded are also:

- booths on farmer’s markets whose supply of goods corresponds to the permitted retail establishments,
- pharmacies, medical centers, health centers,
- gas stations,
- banks and savings banks, post offices,
- laundromats
- newspaper and magazine sales, bookstores,
- tool stores, animal supply markets,
- wholesale,
- flower shops,
- gardening stores, horticultural establishments and horticultural markets.

If an establishment offers other goods or services in addition to the above-mentioned goods or services, this is permitted, provided that the additional range of goods or services is not the focus of the sales assortment or offer.

If the distance between persons cannot be complied with because of the nature of the service, such as in beauty studios, wellness massage salons, tattoo or piercing studios and similar establishments, the activity is prohibited.

Medical-hygienic services

Services intended for medical or hygienic reasons, such as those provided by:

- opticians,
- hearing aid acousticians,
- hairdressers,
- foot care and podiatric,
- for physical therapy, occupational and logo therapies,
- in rehabilitation sports and functional training (within the meaning of Section 64 paragraph 1, number 3 and 4 of the Ninth Book of the Social Law Code).

Only those services of the hairdressing trade may be provided where compliance with the mask obligation is possible. Hairdressers have to control access by prior appointment. For all offers, the distance requirement must be observed between customers.

The mask requirement applies if the type of service permits, provided that a medical face mask (surgery mask) or a mask of the standards KN95/N95 or FFP2 or a comparable standard is to be worn. In addition, the obligation to register contacts applies.

Gastronomy

Dining facilities inside and outside are closed.

Sports
Training and competition in amateur and leisure sports in team sports and in contact sports are prohibited.
Individual training in amateur and leisure sports on and in all public and private uncovered sports facilities is only permitted outdoors and only alone, in pairs or with persons belonging to one’s own household.
In addition, the distance requirement applies.

Cultural institutions, museums
Museums, exhibitions, galleries, memorials and similar facilities remain closed.

Regulation on additional sales outlets
Outlets and similar establishments, in particular gas stations, kiosks, retail shops and supermarkets, are prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
By way of derogation from Section 3 No. 2 of the Rheinland-Pfalz Shop Opening Act, sales outlets close no later than 9 p.m.
On the basis of the Infection Protection Act, in agreement with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor, Health and Demography of the State of Rheinland-Pfalz and the local health office, the state capital Mainz therefore will issue a corresponding general decree for these measures, which will be announced on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 and thus will enter into force on Thursday, Apr. 1st, 2021, midnight. The general decree will initially apply until the end of Apr. 11th, 2021.
Lord Mayor Michael Ebling said: "The additional significant increase in infection rates, not least due to the British mutation, shows us that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over and that we must continue to exercise the utmost care and caution. The measures are being taken to protect all citizens - and we are all demanding concessions. I appeal to everyone: please observe the strict guidelines, continue to adhere distance and hygiene rules at all times, avoid meetings and accept the curfews that have been imposed, as have been and will be accepted in other cities and states. This approach is in line with the agreements made by the federal and state governments to apply the 'emergency brake' with incidence levels over 100. This is a time of sacrifices, but that is the only way we can protect our neighbors, our families, from contagion and help reduce the number of infections. However, the increasing number of vaccinations and rapid tests will contribute to the improvement of the situation in the long term. Until then: Stay disciplined and remain patient."

The administrative staff of the state capital Mainz will continue to monitor the development of coronavirus infections continuously and will adapt the measures accordingly. The administrative staff shall meet at close intervals.

Up-to-date information from the Mainz City Council on the protective measures to control coronavirus infections under https://ift.tt/3fsgj7b.

Source: https://ift.tt/2OeQ1ds

Date Taken:	03.31.2021
Date Posted:	03.31.2021 11:08
Story ID:	392682
Location:	WIESBADEN, HE, DE

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This work, Courtesy Translation: Additional restrictions on sports, commerce, culture and gathering of people – night curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Mainz, by Nadine Bower, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://ift.tt/2vbbNT7.

NEC and Sumitomo Introduce Translation App for Multilingual Workplaces - Mobile ID World - Translation

NEC and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction have unveiled a new translation system that is designed to facilitate communication in settings in which multiple languages are being spoken. The system has already been deployed in Sumitomo’s DoKoMinaPhone smartphone application, which will initially be marketed to organizations in the construction industry.

According to NEC, the new system is noteworthy because it introduces a broadcast function that allows someone to make an announcement to an entire workplace, knowing that the message will be translated and received in each listener’s preferred language. The system currently offers support for Japanese and English, though NEC is planning to add additional languages to the platform in the months and years ahead.

With the DoKoMinaPhone app, users can use their phone to record a voice message. The app will then translate that message, using a neural translation engine that mimics the sound of human speech. The app will also create a text version of the original message and its translated counterpart. For those interested, the app can reverse translate the text message back to the original language so the sender can confirm that the translation is correct.

The neural engine that powers the system comes courtesy of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The app uses QR codes to make it easy for new employees to join pre-set working groups.

NEC will use feedback from early deployments to refine the app over time. The company is already planning to add a hands-free utility, and improve the system’s vocabulary to better deal with industry-specific terms and phrases.

The new app expands on NEC’s existing relationships with various Sumitomo entities. The Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group used NEC’s facial recognition technology in a payments trial in 2016, while Sumitomo Electric has worked with NEC to develop technologies for connected cars. Financial Group CEO Jun Ohta also joined the NEC Board of Directors in March of 2020.

Courtesy Translation: Administrative staff: Avoid contacts and take quick tests - DVIDS - Translation

Official press release from the state capital Wiesbaden, 31 March 2021
Courtesy Translation: Nadine Bower, USAG Wiesbaden Public Affairs

Administrative staff: Avoid contacts and take quick tests

Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende as well as Mayor and health department head Dr. Oliver Franz appeal to all Wiesbadeners to continue to reduce personal contacts with other people – especially during the upcoming Easter holidays. "Although there is no officially extended Easter rest, the holidays offer the opportunity to contribute to the containment of infection through responsible behavior – especially by reducing contacts," said Mende and Dr. Franz. Contacts outside the home should be restricted and, if possible, limited to a constant group of people.

Regular or event-related quick-tests also make an important contribution to breaking infection chains. However, even these tests are always only a snapshot, so they do not replace contact avoidance, adherence to hygiene rules and the requirement to wear a mask. The administrative staff reminds that there are currently quick test centers in a total of eleven locations in the state capital Wiesbaden. These centers are spread over the city. In addition, many pharmacies offer quick tests. The locations, the operators and further information can be found on the city's homepage under www.wiesbaden.de. According to the test regulation, every citizen is entitled to at least one quick test per week. This right also applies to persons of foreign nationality, even if they are only temporarily present here. The costs for the tests are borne by the federal government, the settlement is made via the health insurance association. "Corona tests are essential in containing the pandemic. Get tested," say Mende and Dr. Franz. "We ask all Wiesbadeners to continue to be patient and thank them for their understanding. Please follow the measures and wear a mouth-nose cover."

The state capital Wiesbaden and the Wiesbaden fire department continue to ask not to call the emergency number 112 if you have any questions about the coronavirus. The information hotline of the Health Department can be reached by phone at (0611) 312828; Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Hessen-wide Corona hotline can be reached by calling (0800) 5554666. Vaccination dates cannot be schedule by calling these two numbers. Online, the state informs about the vaccinations under https://ift.tt/2PnvbJm. Up-to-date information on the topic of Corona is also available at wiesbaden.de/coronavirus.

Source: https://ift.tt/3djroom

Date Taken:	03.31.2021
Date Posted:	03.31.2021 11:08
Story ID:	392687
Location:	WIESBADEN, HE, DE

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This work, Courtesy Translation: Administrative staff: Avoid contacts and take quick tests, by Nadine Bower, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://ift.tt/2vbbNT7.

Democracy should be last word in Mamata's dictionary: BJP - Yahoo India News - Dictionary

New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) Slamming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP on Wednesday said that democracy should be the last word in her dictionary as it hit back at her following her letter to opposition leaders against the Narendra Modi government's alleged assault on democracy. 'Democracy should be the last word in @MamataOfficial & @AITCofficial dictionary. Their cadre attack @BJP4Bengal candidates, intimidate voters, capture booths, block all hoardings and at the end leaders preach Democracy,' BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh tweeted. The sharp attack by Santosh came following Banerjee's letters to non-BJP leaders, expressing serious concern over alleged 'assaults' by the BJP and its government on democracy and constitutional federalism of India. Ahead of the second phase of polls in the state, Banerjee's letter, which was released by the TMC on Wednesday, seeks to drum up support from opposition leaders by highlighting how non-BJP states have suffered due to the saffron party-led Centre's actions. PTI KR PYK PYK

Bible translation organisations join to “make God's Word accessible to all by 2033” - Evangelical Focus - Translation

Ten of the world’s leading Bible translation organisations have recently launched the “I Want to Know” campaign, which aims to “make God's Word accessible to all people by 2033”.

This alliance of Bible translation partners is called IllumiNations and includes the American Bible Society, Biblica, Deaf Bible Society, Lutheran Bible Translators, Seed Company, SIL International, United Bible Societies, The Word for the World, Pioneer Bible Translators and Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

According to IllumiNations, over 1 billion people lack access to God’s Word in their language, 3,800 language communities worldwide do not have a complete Bible, and more than 2,000 of those languages do not have a single verse of Scripture translated yet.

The project hopes that “95% of the world’s population will have access to a full Bible, 99.96% will have access to a New Testament and 100% will have access to at least some portion of Scripture in 12 years”.

“Imagine your life if you didn’t know the Truth. Didn’t know the unconditional love of Jesus. Didn’t know the life-altering Word of God, because it didn’t exist in your language. That’s the grim reality for over one billion people around the world”, says the campaign.

And it adds: “We are on a mission to change that, because knowing the Truth changes everything”.

  A scene of the campaign. / Illuminations.

 

According to its creators, the "I Want to Know" campaign is the largest Bible translation campaign introduced on social and digital media and it shows testimonies of 6 people who don't yet have access to the full Bible in their own language.

Participants in the initiative can sponsor “one Bible verse translated in a language awaiting God’s Word” for $35. They are also encouraged to post the Bible verse they “want the world to know” on social media using the hashtag #IWTKBible.

“The translators are in place, the strategy is in place, and with support from Christians across the U.S. and around the world, we can help every single person on earth access Scripture in the language they understand best”, pointed out Bill McKendry, campaign creative director.

Mart Green, ministry investment officer at retail company Hobby Lobby, rallied with resource partners and translation agencies to form illumiNations in 2010, with the goal of translating the Bible into every language for all people, “a 'Goliath' of biblical proportions for generations".

"But now we are on the brink of a giant slingshot; every person can have at least a portion of the Bible in their own language within the next 12 years", he added.

According to Green, “no other Scripture translation project in history has been this ambitious or this well-coordinated, and never before have translators had the ability through technology and software to supercharge translation at such a rapid pace. The strategy, the people and the technology are in place to make it happen”.

“Can you imagine not having the Bible in English, or your native language? One billion people still don’t know what God’s Word has to say to them. We can help fulfil the Great Commission and eradicate ‘Bible poverty’ in this generation”, concluded Green.
 

Published in: Evangelical Focus - culture - Bible translation organisations join to “make God’s Word accessible to all by 2033”

Should White Writers Translate a Black Author’s Work? - The New York Times - Translation

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Do you ever read books, plays or short stories that have been translated from another language? Have you ever read a book for school that was translated, such as “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes, “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert, “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse or “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen?

When reading translated works, have you ever thought about the choices the translator made about language and sentence structure, and how those might affect the message of the story, play or poem? Have you ever thought about the translator’s identity? How much do you think a translator’s race, ethnicity, nationality, gender or ability has to do with the translation?

In “Amanda Gorman’s Poetry United Critics. It’s Dividing Translators,” Alex Marshall writes about a debate in Europe about who should be asked to translate work by writers of color. (If you haven’t read Ms. Gorman’s poem, you can read the transcript here.)

Hadija Haruna-Oelker, a Black journalist, has just produced the German translation of Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb,” the poem about a “skinny Black girl” that for many people was the highlight of President Biden’s inauguration.

So has Kubra Gumusay, a German writer of Turkish descent.

As has Uda Strätling, a translator, who is white.

Literary translation is usually a solitary pursuit, but the poem’s German publisher went for a team of writers to ensure the poem — just 710 words — wasn’t just true to Gorman’s voice. The three were also asked to make its political and social significance clear, and to avoid anything that might exclude people of color, people with disabilities, women, or other marginalized groups.

For nearly two weeks, the team debated word choices, occasionally emailing Ms. Gorman for clarifications. But as they worked, an argument was brewing elsewhere in Europe about who has the right to translate the poet’s work — an international conversation about identity, language and diversity in a proud but often overlooked segment of the literary world.

“This whole debate started,” Gumusay said, with a sigh.

It began in February when Meulenhoff, a publisher in the Netherlands, said it had asked Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, a writer whose debut novel won last year’s Booker International Prize, to translate Gorman’s poem into Dutch.

Rijneveld, who uses the pronouns they and them, was the “ideal candidate,” Meulenhoff said in a statement. But many social media users disagreed, asking why a white writer had been chosen when Gorman’s reading at the inauguration had been a significant cultural moment for Black people.

Three days later, Rijneveld quit.

Then, the poem’s Catalan publisher dropped Victor Obiols, a white translator, who said in a phone interview his publisher told him his profile “was not suitable for the project.”

Literary figures and newspaper columnists across Europe have been arguing for weeks about what these decisions mean, turning Ms. Gorman’s poem of hope for “a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished” into the latest focus of debates about identity politics across the continent. The discussion has shone a light on the often unexamined world of literary translation and its lack of racial diversity.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

• What is your reaction to the debate in Europe? Do you think white writers should translate a Black author’s work? How much does a translator’s racial identity matter? Should other aspects of identity beyond race — class, political views, ability, religion, nationality — be taken into account when publishers are deciding who should translate a written work?

• How would you describe the work and responsibility of a translator? Is he or she obligated to stay true to the exact words, phrases, meanings and intentions of the original writer? Or do you think it is important for the translator to find ways for those same words and meanings to translate not only linguistically, but also culturally, to the audience he or she is writing for?

• Think about the language or languages you speak: What are some of the nuances — vocabulary, dialect and grammar use — that could be changed or lost as a result of a translation? If you speak multiple languages, what are some of the limitations or differences in language that make translation difficult? The featured article uses gendered language as one example, but what are others that you can think of?

• The American Literary Translators Association argued that the framing of this debate is false: Instead of “whether identity should be the deciding factor in who is allowed to translate,” the real problem is “the scarcity of Black translators.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?

• Some countries have asked musicians or rappers to translate Ms. Gorman’s poem. What do you think about this approach? Do you think that people who are not necessarily professional translators could, or should, be invited to translate work? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of taking this route?