By Lily Goodman
Although founded only a little more than a year ago, the Translate Iowa Project is achieving great success. One of the university’s newest student organizations, the group was formed with the intention of being a culturally and linguistically inclusive creative platform dedicated to the undergraduate translation in literature.
Now, the club’s student-pioneers are eager to present their first publication, an anthology titled Boundless, scheduled for release April 30 at Shambaugh House.
“This collective work presents a shared effort to create a common space for people who come from various places, cultures, and languages,” said Zhiyun Ma, a senior from China majoring in English and creative writing and the vice president of Translate Iowa.
“It may seem like the works in English have occupied most of the pages; however, the arrangement of the pieces really emphasizes that English is serving as a middle ground — a bridge — that brings all the different languages together and helps us become ready to approach a new language, a new culture, and eventually embrace a brave new world,” said the Beijing native.
Perhaps it’s only natural that a university known for its writing programs and rich abundance of literature would advocate for the focus on translating the rest of the world’s great written works.
Claire Jacobson, a junior majoring in translation, French, and Arabic who is the translation coordinator for the organization, highlighted the importance of translation in literature.
“Studying or writing in a language is never about just the language,” she said. “It’s not simply words, and syntax, and verb conjugations, and punctuation conventions. A language carries with it an entirely different way of looking at the world, which means that when we only speak one language or only know literature from that literary tradition, then we find ourselves limited.”
And limitations, particularly in terms of experiencing different cultures, have never proved to be a good thing. Literature has always given people, specifically populations of those who find themselves gravely misrepresented, a way of sharing their voice. Given the current state of affairs between the United States and the rest of the world, foreign literature seems to have found an even greater function.
“Now more than ever, I think it’s important to not only understand what is happening around the world, but it’s also important to understand how we take part in it,” said Bryan Flavin, a senior studying linguistics, French, Arabic, and translation at the university and a former president of Translate Iowa. “From this arises a ‘global literature’ — a literature that speaks of our nuances, as well as our universalities.
“This is what initially led me to be a cofounder and president of the organization. We found that it wasn’t only an opportunity for mis/underrepresented voices to have an outlet and to have access to resources, but it was also a platform [on which] people of all backgrounds could meet and exchange through translation — regardless of language, culture, and any other marker of identity.”
Thus, all the hard work those such as Flavin and the other members of the Translate Iowa Project have put into creating a supportive and inclusive community centered on foreign literature is finally paying off. They invite anyone interested in immersing themselves in translation and the vast array of the world’s writing to join them April 30 for their début of Boundless.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Jacobson said. “But I’m hoping this is just the first in a long line to come in Translate Iowa’s future.”