Franz Fühmann was not only an important author, but also translated poetry from Hungarian, making a name for himself as a (re-)poet. Thanks to Fühmann and Paul Kárpáti, with whose help he “translated” Hungarian-language poems by Endre Ady, Attila József, Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Miklós Radnóti, and Milán Füst (among others) into German via interlinear translations, Hungarian poetry widely circulated in the German-language world during the GDR era.
In the event initiated by the Collegium Hungaricum on Fühmann’s vocation as a (re-)poet from Hungarian, Orsolya Kalász, Monika Rinck, Christian Filips, and Theresia Prammer will reflect on various procedures of (re-)poetry and collective poetry translation.
With: Orsolya Kalász (Berlin), Monika Rinck (Berlin), Christian Filips (Berlin), and Theresia Prammer (Berlin); Moderation: Gregor Dotzauer (Berlin)

“Multilingualism is the oxygen of culture,” says Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who writes in Kikuyu and often speaks out against hegemonic Eurocentric language regimes. What is the state of translation cultures on the African continent, a center of multilingualism? What relationships of exchange have been established among African languages, and what hurdles must be overcome for further interconnections? Professor of African Literatures Rémi Tchokothe will speak about this with author and translation scholar Wangui wa Goro, who translates into and from Swahili, Kikuyu, Italian, French, and English.
With: Rémi Armand Tchokothe (Vienna, AT) and Wangui wa Goro (Abidjan, CI).

Like the country itself, Indonesia’s literary landscape is tremendously diverse. Publishers reflect this diversity with their publications, promoting cross-border literary exchange with translations. In addition to their linguistic expertise, translators also bring their knowledge of international literatures and cultures to Indonesia. Tiya Hapitiawati, German-language literary translator, and Eka Kurniawan, award-winning author and founder of the publishing house Moooi Pustaka, are two such bridge builders. Together with Sabine Müller, translator from Indonesian, they will shed light on their work in this many-islanded country.
With: Tiya Hapitiawati (Bogor, ID) and Eka Kurniawan (Jakarta, ID); Moderation: Sabine Müller (Cologne)

“A profoundly depressing experience” is what the recently deceased linguist Harald Weinrich called encounters with people we cannot understand because they speak a different language. Our culture has construed linguistic difference as a profound misfortune and punishment from God. In his festival speech, which will be followed by a conversation, Jürgen Trabant will outline how the European spirit might disabuse itself from this notion, allowing everyone to experience languages as happiness. He suspects that translators are happy people: They plunge into the dark abysses of foreign languages, clamoring their way up to perceive the light of their target languages. What a triumph it is when they are successful. We can only appreciate this now that we know what languages are.
With: Jürgen Trabant (Berlin)
Moderation: Dorota Stroińska and Asmus Trautsch

Nonfiction translators are not only faced with the task of rendering an information-rich text easily readable, but must often familiarize themselves with the subject matter—conducting research, writing footnotes, and creating glossaries. While Andrea Hemminger is best known for translating Michel Foucault, Eva Bonné has focused on English-language authors such as Rachel Cusk. Recently, they have each published two very different nonfiction translations: In Abundance and Freedom, philosopher Pierre Charbonnier considers the ecological crisis an opportunity to think anew and act responsibly. In Frei – Erwachsenwerden am Ende der Geschichte (Free: Coming of Age at the End of History), the political scientist Lea Ypi reflects on notions of freedom and truth in times of societal upheaval, starting with memories of her childhood in communist Albania.
With: Andrea Hemminger (Gagnac-sur-Cère, FR) and Eva Bonné (Berlin); Moderation: Nora Bierich (Berlin)

The work of Brazilian poet and translator Simone Homem de Mellohat makes immediately apparent a certain pleasure in both foreign languages and in the estranged language of literature—a pleasure which is, in turn, a principal motivation for translation. In conversation with translator Luis Ruby, she will speak about her relationship with the German language and with modern and contemporary poets such as Thomas Kling, Peter Handke, and Paul Celan, to whom she dedicates herself in translation and research. What traditions of Brazilian poetry translation have influenced her? What theoretical considerations underlie her own translational writing? In this portrait event, Simone Homem de Mello will also speak about her institutional experiences as director of a center for literary translation in São Paulo.
With: With Simone Homem de Mello (São Paulo, BR), and Luis Ruby (Munich)

16:00-17:30: Short lectures on narratives about Central and Eastern Europe.
“Ukraine is divided into a European-aligned West and a Russia-aligned East.” “We need to be careful with Russia because of its tremendous sacrifices in World War II.” Such statements about Central and Eastern Europe often inform arguments of Western public intellectuals, which in turn form the basis for actual political and cultural action. They result from powerful, ingrained narratives about this geopolitical space, ones that have become established in complicated processes of communication and that are again and again reproduced. This panel will highlight and discuss the mechanisms by which these narratives about and in Central and Eastern Europe emerged, as well as their impact.
Topic 1: Narratives
Speaker: Jurko Prochasko (Lviv, UA)
Narratives emerge from repeated stories about historical events and developments, formed by certain communities’ shared and repeated experiences.
How does one tell one’s own story in Ukraine? Who gets to tell it? Why do certain features disappear, or are told differently over the years, under new historical conditions, associated with new meanings? What rituals pass on narratives, anchoring them in collective memory?
Topic 2: Suppression
Speaker: Lothar Quinkenstein (Berlin)
Historical events and developments spur the formation of narratives. Why are certain details of events concealed and repressed in narration? What traces do concealment and repression leave in a community’s memory culture?
Topic 3: Understanding
Speaker: Alida Bremer (Münster)
Narratives emerge in certain communicative communities. In an entangled, entwined Europe, these communities are not closed, but interact with each other. What happens when narratives begin to circulate? How are they understood, interpreted, changed, and adapted by other communities to their own worlds of experience? What is the role of translation and translators?
This will be followed by a conversation between the speakers.
With: Alida Bremer, Jurko Prochasko, Lothar Quinkenstein; Moderation: Claudia Dathe (Jena)
17:45-19:00: What is missing where? Translation performance and reflection on the lack of circulation of literature
In an experimental performance, translators from Belarus, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine will point at gaps in literary circulation and contemplate the reasons for such gaps. In doing so, they scrutinize processes of cultural mediation between more- and less-intensively perceived literatures.
With: Iryna Herasimovich (Zurich, CH/Minsk, BY), Nelia Vakhovska (Kyiv, UA), Martina Lisa (Leipzig); Moderation: Kateryna Mishchenko (Berlin/Kyiv, UA)
Guest curator: Claudia Dathe

Yiddish is a European language par excellence. A product of emigration and the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora, it has transcended physical as well as cultural borders, linking Amsterdam with Lublin, Basel with Prague, Frankfurt with Kaunas, Odessa with Berlin … Its local dialects and translocal literary styles have for centuries created communities that Nazism sought to destroy all across the continent. Today, Yiddish continues to exist in Europe, though smaller and more marginal than ever before. In it, this continent’s past and present resonate. Modern Yiddish literature emerged in subversive opposition to the modern European nation-state’s literary cultures. Its contemporary translations into European languages hold a mirror to what Europe has forgotten and what it can still become.
We will experience Yiddish’s vivacity and sensuousness in the concert that follows. The Detroit-born bard Daniel Kahn will perform an exciting program of new and old songs, smuggled across borders of Yiddish, English, Russian, German, across those of the past—and the future. A contemporary collection of brittle ballads, windswept klezmer, prison lamentos, revolutionary anthems, and apocalyptic blues. The program will be accompanied by projected images and subtitles by video artist and translator Yeva Lapsker.
20:00 Lecture: Yiddish, a European language in translation
With: Tal Hever-Chybowski (Paris, FR)
21:00 Panel discussion: From Yiddish into Polish, German, and French
With: Karolina Szymaniak (Warsaw, PL) and Efrat Gal-Ed (Cologne); moderated by Tal Hever-Chybowski
22:00 Concert: Translation as word smuggling
With: Daniel Kahn (Hamburg) and Yeva Lapsker (Hamburg)
Guest curator: Tal Hever-Chybowski

Comic translators read twice: not only the text, but also the image demands their full attention. Jean-Baptiste Coursaud and Lilian Pithan work on the same languages, but from different directions. Jean-Baptiste translates Uli Oesterle, Mikaël Ross, and Hannah Brinkmann, among others, into French. Lilian gives a German voice to Luz, Camille Jourdy, and Hervé Tanquerelle. In conversation, they will demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of comic book translation. Using concrete textual examples, they will discuss their work and invite the audience to find solutions for particularly difficult word-image games.
With: Jean-Baptiste Coursaud (Berlin) and Lilian Pithan (Berlin)

In 2021 and 2022, TOLEDO traveled to Budapest with the Cities of Translators series. With videos, interviews, essays, an interactive map, photos, and podcast episodes, TOLEDO, alongside curators Lídia Nádori, Orsolya Kalász, and Kata Veress, explored cafés and workrooms of Hungarian translators to uncover why translation plays such a prominent role in Hungarian culture. Today, two renowned Hungarian personalities whose lives and work (for all their differences) share much in common, will join in conversation. They experience, research, and describe isolation in language and culture.
With: Gábor Csordás (Arles, FR) and Melinda Rézműves (Budapest, HU); Moderation: Lídia Nádori (Budapest, HU)
Music: János Bujdosó (Budapest, HU)

At the 2022 Leipzig Book Fair, three books were awarded prizes, all three of which involve the art of translation: Tomer Gardi’s novel Eine runde Sache, partly written in German and partly translated from Hebrew; Anne Weber’s translation of Cécile Wajsbrot’s novel Nevermore; and Uljana Wolf’s essay Etymologischer Gossip, in which she attempts to render productive all of translation’s differences and vagaries. The three prizewinners will read from their books and speak about the poetry of translation, about the untranslatable and the juggling-between words, about foreign speech, mistakes, false friends, about sabotage and national languages.
In cooperation with the Berlin Gorki Theater
With: Tomer Gardi (Berlin), Anne Weber (Paris, FR), and Uljana Wolf (Berlin); Moderation: Marie Luise Knott (Berlin)