How does translation affect meaning?
Little Brother, adapted and translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker, is a story that encounters many different languages.
Does a translation ever truly capture the essence of the original text, or is it always a new work of art in its own right?
Does a translation ever truly capture the essence of the original text, or is it always a new work of art in its own right?
Dr Ida Hadjivayanis is an academic at SOAS University of London where she lectures on Swahili studies and translation. She has translated Dhulma (2025) and Peponi (2022), Swahili translations of Nobel laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft (2025) and Paradise (1994) into Swahili. Her translations are the only works by Gurnah in an African language, they are published by Mkuki na Nyota.
Elhum Shakerifar is a writer and translator, currently translating Parinaz Fahimi's poetry and part of the 24/25 Southbank New Poets cohort. Elhum is also a BAFTA-nominated producer, most recently Executive Producer of Clear Night, Helene Kazan’s multi-sensory investigative homage to Asmahan for the 2025 Sharjah Biennial.
Antonia Lloyd-Jones has translated works by many of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and reportage authors, as well as classics, biographies, essays, crime fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International prize.
