A look back at the Institut français' Focus Traduction event

The Translation Focus hosted a delegation of 20 French-to-foreign language translators in Paris and Gif-sur-Yvette, identified by the French cultural network abroad in 10 countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States. The group was made up of pairs (2 participants per country), bringing together an experienced translator and a more junior translator, in order to encourage the development of sustainable mentoring practices, beyond the time of the Focus.

The first day of the Focus was held at the Centre national du livre, in partnership with the Bureau international de l'édition française. It featured a programme of round tables on the status of the translator and the major trends in French literature, bringing together translators, publishers and representatives of translators' associations, among others.

As well as institutional speeches reaffirming the essential role of translation in the international export of French-language books, the Focus also featured a number of informal discussions designed to bring together the guest translators and French book industry professionals. 

The translators were welcomed by French publishing houses that were particularly keen to promote their catalogue of French literature internationally, and to exchange views with Focus participants on publishing production in their own countries. Denoël and Julliard publishing houses welcomed part of the delegation. 

A day was devoted to exchanges between peers and work in workshop format: hosted at the École de traduction littéraire, under the aegis of Asfored, for a day supervised by translator Olivier Mannoni, translators were able to discuss their translation practices in a multilingual workshop. 

At the Maison de la Poésie in Paris, the delegation was able to meet 4 French translators who are particularly committed to the status of the translators and the defence of literary translation as an act of creation: Margot Nguyen Béraud (translator from Spanish), Charles Recoursé (translator from English), Lise Caillat (translator from Italian) and Lucie Taïeb (translator from German) were able to exchange views with the 20 translators in the delegation. 

The final days of Focus were held in Gif-sur-Yvette, as part of the 11th edition of the Vo-Vf festival, Traduire le monde (Translating the World). The opening evening featured this year's guest of honour, Leonardo Padura, in a dialogue with one of his French translators, Elena Zayas. 

Participants from the Focus delegation were able to attend and take part in the festival's programme. This was particularly the case with the work of Éric Vuillard: 4 of his translators took part in a round-table discussion with the author and were able to discuss his writing and the specific aspects of translation that this entails. 

The Vo-Vf festival aims to give a voice to translators and to enable the general public to meet them. The trad'dating session gave festival-goers an opportunity to discuss their translation practices with the Focus participants.