The Czech Literary Translators’ Guild (OP) celebrated International Translation Day at its annual award ceremony on 6 October by its Hall of Fame to Miroslav Jindra, a State Prize winner and a renowned translator from English.
(http://www NULL.ceatl NULL.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/czech NULL.awards NULL.Miroslav-Jindra NULL.oct15 NULL.jpg)Miroslav Jindra
Fostering poetry translation, OP regularly grants the Hana Žantovská Scholarship, this time to the State Prize laureate Jiří Pelán translating selected baroque poetry to be published by Opus, a small publishing house praised by OP for its abiding devotion to quality literature and poetry in this year’s Cramerius Laudation.
Another personality lauded for her lifelong contribution to literary translation was the editor, translator from German and long-lasting member of the Josef Jungmann Jury, Božena Koseková.
Monitoring the work of debut translators, OP awarded the Tomáš Hrách Premium to Petr Eliáš for his rendition of Carnival by Rawi Hage.
The Jury, dealing with 63 translations from 15 languages, decided to bestow two Creative Prizes, on Viktor Janiš for his resourceful translation of The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, and on Martin Pokorný for his playful rendering of At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien.
(http://www NULL.ceatl NULL.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/czech NULL.awards NULL.Jiří-Našinec NULL.oct15 NULL.jpg)Jiří Našinec
The 2015 Josef Jungmann Prize has been awarded to Jiří Našinec for his translation of Venea din timpul diez (Coming from an Off-Key Time) by the Romanian author Bogdan Suceavă, who chronicles the forming of a nationalist-mystical sect in the madness after the fall of the Ceauşescu regime. The discreetly colourful and philosophically ingenious Borgesian display of eccentrics presents a challenge and Našinec’s proficient and mature embrace captures all discrepancies in minute semantic intervals, conveys the fine sting of the novel without injecting too much venom into its irony. The winner was interviewed in the evening Culture News on one of the main Czech TV programmes as well as in the Morning Culture Mosaik on the radio.