Frankfurt Book Fair: An Experience I Cherish
It’s still day on the terrace
Happiness again embraces me:
If I now imagine the evening
I could have scattered gold in each alley,
Taken from my silence.
I am so far away from reality
With its gradual radiance
I beautify my solemn loneliness.
(Collection of Poems: Mir zur Feier/ Celebration to Me: Rainer Maria Rilke)
Translated into English: Sulagna Mukhopadhyay
It was 3:50 in the morning. The Calcutta night sky, with twinkling stars adorning the sky, bid me goodbye. The flight took off. Destination: Frankfurt Book Fair. I was alone, and a faint loneliness interbred with excitement engulfed me. Closing my eyes, I tried to imagine my flat, the building, illuminated with lights and ready to welcome Goddess Durga in another couple of days and my workplace. They were, as if, wishing me success in my new venture. “Madam, what will you have? Veg or non-veg breakfast?” Startled, I looked at the lady. She repeated her query. I replied and tried to gather myself to come back to reality.
In the early morning of the Twelfth of October, I reached Frankfurt. The gloomy sky and rain welcomed me to Germany. My friend Prof. Hans Harder came to receive from Heidelberg. On the fifteenth, I took a bus to the destination: Leonardo Royal Hotels in Frankfurt. Still, I was in a haze.
This year, the Frankfurt International Translators’ Programme, a branch of the Frankfurt Buchmess, invited sixteen translators from America, Brazil, Catalonia, China, Croatia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy(two translators), Korea, Mexico, Slovenia and Sri Lanka to experience the world’s largest book fair. This offer is given to translators every alternate year through translatorforum.de, an umbrella organisation for translators around the globe.
Sixteenth of October, we met at the Guild office of the Frankfurt Book Fair (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels). We were introduced to Karin Herber-Schlapp and Pernille Starck, the key persons behind the Frankfurt International Translators Programme. We introduced ourselves and our country to other participants through PPTs and lectures. After the coffee break, we were introduced to the representative of Suhrkamp Verlag(Publisher), Christoph Hassenzahl. Hassenzahl had the duty to guide us through the latest books they published with a brief insight into the content of each book, both fiction and non-fiction.
Before flying to Frankfurt, I finished my translation of Christa Wolf’s novel on the partition of Germany in 1961: Der geteilte Himmel (দ্বিখন্ডিত আকাশ). Published by Jadavpur University Press, this novel narrates a relationship between a young nineteen-year-old girl, Rita Seidel and her fiancée Manfred Herrfurth, a chemist by profession and ten years older than her. The intense affair comes to an end when tension rises concerning the partition of the country and Manfred flees to Berlin from Haale Saale to have a ‘better’ life. The novel has been translated into different languages, but so far, it is the first time in any Indian language. Christain Hasenthal received the book from me after the interaction with him. That evening, a joint dinner party was organised by the Frankfurt International Translators’ Forum along with the participants of the Fellowship Programme. I was introduced to Ishita Gupta of Yoda Press, Delhi, at that party. The tables at the party were arranged in such a way that participants of both programmes could intermingle and broach dialogues on various topics.
Though the official inauguration was on the following evening, I was thrown into the reality by then. I realised that I am here to grasp knowledge about books and develop further contacts with authors, if possible.
Each morning we met different German publishers and enjoyed the different topics on partition, migration, reunification and its effects on society, migration, political asylum and many such others. The purpose of these interactions was, firstly, to make us aware of the new books being published by different publishers and also to give us books free of cost per our requirements. Jürgen Jakob Becker, the representative of Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, the Centre for German Literature, highlighted the possibilities of funding. Artificial Intelligence and its use in translation was discussed at length by Prof. Josef van Genabith, University of Saarland.
The six-day trip was hectic but exciting. The inauguration took place on 17th October at the massive hall inside the Fairground. The massive area with free bus services inside the fairground, metro and S-Bahn stations that lead you straight inside the fair ground, from information desks on every floor of the six-floored building to coffee shops with scattered tables and chairs for people to rest a while over a cup of coffee and read something- the systematic gigantic arrangements of everything, that reflected the guild’s concern about the visitors, awed me. Slovenia was the Guest of Honour country this year. A get-together followed the inauguration. Over wine and snacks from Slovenia, visitors introduced themselves to representatives from other countries, danced to the tune of the Slovenian violinist or took a walk through the room where books from different countries were on display.
Each day was a new day with new experiences. I visited the Slovenian stall on the second day of the exhibition to meet one of their renowned authors, Evald Flissar, whose books have been translated into Bengali by Santanu Gangopadhyay and Anchita Ghatak and published by Rritobak. Rritobak anchored its presence in the world of translation with two of my books: Isabel Fargo Cole’s Die Grüne Grenze (সবুজ সীমানা) and Swiss-German author Markus Kirchhofer’s Der Stachel (কাঁটা). Flisar recently visited India and Kolkata. Connoisseurs of literature and Theatre experienced the launch of three of his translated books along with two theatrical productions staged on two days by the renowned Bengali Theatre Group Ganakrishti.
The best experience was facing the international publishers at a panel discussion hosted by the European and International Booksellers Federation(EIBF). They invited me from India and my colleague Tiya Hapitiyawati from Indonesia to discuss the topic- Booksellers and Translators: how well do we know each other? John Mutter, editor-in-chief at Shelf Awareness, moderated the discussion.
The programme for translators ended on the twentieth of October with a farewell dinner organised on the previous day. On behalf of the International Translators Programme, Pernille and Karin took us to a beautiful, pretty old restaurant. We gorged on the typical German dish Wienerschnitzel (Viennese Cutlet) and beverages, as we were both hungry and thirsty after a very long day’s work.
