David Connolly

David Connolly has lived and worked in Greece for over twenty years.

He was formerly Head of Translation at the British Council in Athens and lecturer in literary translation at the Ionian University. At present he is teaching on the post-graduate programme in translation at the University of Athens.

He has published numerous translations of leading Greek poets and novelists, including Nikiforos Vrettakos, Odysseas Elytis, Kiki Dimoula, Nikos Engonopoulos etc, and his translations have won awards in Greece, the USA and the UK.

In 1998, Connolly acquired Greek citizenship.

Q & A

Why did you decide to move to Greece?
How my love affair with Greece began still remains a mystery to me. Perhaps I was smitten during several holidays in my childhood and adolescence. This early contact with the country, together with an adolescent reading of well-known travel books by Lawrence Durrell and Patrick Leigh-Fermor and of whatever Greek literature was available in English translation then (which wasn't much), prompted me to study Ancient Greek at university. Numerous visits during my university years - when I literally left no ancient stone unturned - increased my interest in modern Greece. So I followed my first degree with a second degree in Medieval and Modern Greek Literature. After graduating in 1979, my mind was already made up to live in Greece permanently.

How does the fact that you are both a writer and translator affect your work as a translator?
I do not claim to be an original writer, though as a translator of creative literature, I do claim to be a creative writer. I do not believe that in order to translate poetry one has to be a poet, but the translator of poetry does require many of the skills required by a poet; and, in fact, other skills too. Of course, some poets are also accomplished translators, some not so accomplished. Poet-translators often allow their own poetic voice to smother that of the poet being translated. Personally, I endeavour to put my poetic sensitivity in the service of the poet I am translating. I see myself as a translator-poet rather than a poet-translator.

How effective do you feel translating poetry from its original language into another can be? What are the specific problems with translating from Greek into English?
This depends on a number of factors, not least of which is the skill of the translator. I do not subscribe to the much-vaunted opinion that poetry is what gets lost in translation - though I admit that, in most cases, poetry translation does entail some degree of loss. The translator's task is to minimise that loss.
As to the second part of your question, I'll restrict myself to two specific problems. The first has to do with the nature of the two languages. Huge problems arise when translating from an inflected language like Greek into an analytical language like English. The far greater flexibility in word order in Greek allows the Greek writer a much greater range of creative possibilities, a fact that immediately puts the translator into English at a disadvantage.
Secondly, the Greek language exhibits an historical unity not to be found in English. For example, a Greek writer can play in a range of linguistic keys taken from Homer, classical texts, the koine Greek of the Bible, Byzantine hymnography, medieval literature, folk song, and from both the purist ( "katharevousa" ) and popular ( "demotiki" ) language. This range is not available to the translator into English, which does not permit similar combinations taken from different periods in its historical evolution.

How has Greek cultural policy concerning the translation and promotion of Greek literature changed over the years? Do the extra funds now available mean that both the quantity and quality of translations have improved?
There has been a marked change in Greek cultural policy with regard to translation in recent years. This perhaps reflects a growing awareness of the role and importance of translation for countries like Greece with languages of lesser diffusion. Numerous symposia and conferences have been organised by both the Ministry of Culture and the National Book Centre of Greece, most of which I've been heavily involved in.
What has come of these endeavours is another matter. A great deal of funding has gone to translations of a questionable quality and to translations published by Greek publishers, which is a misguided policy in my view. Literary translation has always been best served by individual initiative and I do not see this changing.