A Moscow Expert Told ASU Students about the Art and Craft of Translation

The ASU Territory of Writing & Thinking hosted a meeting of Olga Varshaver, a translator of English prose, poetry and drama, with future linguists. The guest spoke about the role of translation in our life and works of well-known masters of literary arts.

Varshaver is mostly known as a translator of plays and children's literature. She is a member of the guild «Masters of Literary Translation» and has won the international poetic award «Silver Archer» twice. She has published more than 40 books and has a lot of flash fiction and journalistic works published in collected papers and journals.

The guest told the students about the ins and outs of translation, its most interesting and difficult aspects and the qualities a real master should have.

Addressing the translators-to-be, Olga Varshaver touched upon peculiarities of the profession they’ve chosen. She explained how people become linguists and why someone chooses literary translation in all the diversity of linguistic areas.