German Senior Thesis
Kelly L. Hill
Translation of Stories from Sommerhaus, später
by Judith Hermann:
Red Coral Beads
Sonia
Summerhouse, Later
Sommerhaus, später: My Experience of Translation
I had been searching for a piece of German literature to translate
since last spring semester, and when Dr. Jutta Ittner described the author
of Sommerhaus, später, Judith Hermann, to me, I felt positive about my
prospect: a young German woman whose very first collection of short
stories had garnered popular acclaim and the praise of even Marcel
Reich-Ranicki of the Literarische Quartett. I’d seen Herr Reich-Ranicki at
work in several episodes during GRMN 386 Literature and the Media, so I
had some idea of how seldom he praised pieces. While in Munich this
past summer for The Munich Experience, I bought a copy and began to
read it. I fell in love with Hermann’s lucid, simple prose, the haunting,
sometimes mystical turn of her stories, and the puxxling, determined
isolation of her characters.
After reading the entire collection of stories, the three that stood out
most in my mind were the ones that I chose to translate. I chose
Sommerhaus, später because I felt that the project wouldn’t be complete
without including the story that gives the collection its name. Also, I think
that the voice of the narrator reflects closely Judith Hermann’s own voice,
a young, artistic writer from East Berlin.
Rote Korallen seemed an obvious choice, partially because of its
subject matter and partially because of its positioning. I thought there
must be a reason that it is the first story in the collection—that it would be
the first story that pople would read from Judith Hermann. Also, the theme
of the story intrigued me: wrestling with the past, trying to figure out how
the past defines the present and how to separate the present from the
past. I think this theme is an important symbolism in relation to the human
experience, but also is uniquely important for Germany: how to deal with
the country’s past, as that past gets further and further away. The question
of what relationship the younger gernerations are supposed to have with
their pasts—how do they break free of it, and can they ever? How much
of the past is inevitably part of them, how much, as Judith Hermann puts
it, of their great-grandmothers’ (and great-grandfathers’) stories are also
their stories?
I chose Sonja for its change in perspective. Most of the stories in the
collection are told from the point of view of a young woman or an
omniscient, un-gendered narrator. In Sonja, Hermann takes the
perspective of a young German artist who is male and explores his world
first-hand: the bars, the drinking, a woman, his relationships both to his
artwork and to the woman in his life. She reveals his insecurities, his
impulsive way of living without real regard for consquences. I was very
interested in the story because of that interplay of gender.
Being able to discuss Sommerhaus, später with Dr. Ittner helped me
to come closer to truly understanding these stories and changed my
perspective on the characters. I learned that there can be a huge
difference between reading and working with the words of a story, and
interpreting it! Hermann’s style is so simple, calm, and cool—in describing
a character’s emotional state, she is far more likely to give the reader
details of what the character does instead of saying point-blank what the
character is feeling. Stein smiles when he looks at the narrator of
Sommerhaus, später when they are in the garden, drinking. We interpret
that as an attraction and emotional attachment, although the two were
no longer a “couple” at this point.
The translation work itself required plenty of time and discipline,
especially since it was spread out over the entire semester. I set myself the
goal of turning in 7 pages per week to be critiqued by Dr. Ittner, and I
stuck by that goal fairly faithfully, with only a few catch-up times where I
turned in 14 or more pages at a time. I estimate that I spent between two
and three hours per week translating, revising, and revising again...
depending on the length of the section and the level of difficulty. I found
Sonja to be the easiest to translate, and the technical terms in Red Coral
Beads to be the hardest (I cobbled together as many meanings as I could
in the technical terms, but I am still not sure if they can be directly
translated). My poor Deutsch-Englisch-Englisch-Deutsch dictionary is now
completely kaputt, because I used it so much.
I think my vocabulary has improved as a result of this project, and
over the course of the projects, my reading skills in German have become
more comprehensive and quicker, probably because of all the practice.
Also, I simply had the pleasure of working closely with a series of stories
that I very much enjoyed in both their German and English forms. What
you are getting is a direct translation, as close as I could make it (and also
on Dr. Ittner’s insistence). I may look into publishing these pieces (assuming
there would be no copyright problem with this?) and thoroughly enjoyed
translation them, whether they end up in print or not.
Kelly Hill.