This fourth and final instalment of the Wild Translation Workshop series encouraged participants to view their translation practice through the lens of political activism. Participants discussed the idea of activist translation and the genre of the manifesto in translation, before having a go at penning activist translation manifestos of their own.
By Loc-An Thi Nguyen
What does it mean to look at translation through the lens of political activism? That was the subject of the final instalment in Nielsine Nielsen’s series of “Wild Translation” workshops, where we discussed issues such as how a translator can make activist choices when translating a text and how even the act of viewing translation as a legitimate art form can be an act of activism.
This fourth workshop, “Activist Practices”, took place in Aarhus in Vogn 1 of Godsbanen: home to Skrivekunstskolen, and the city’s cultural hub for all things writing. We met at 5 pm on 24 November – a cold, wet and dark evening. This was quickly remedied with snacks and a glass of gløgg from Godsbanen’s restaurant.
We opened with a brief introduction to the “Wild Translation” workshops as a whole, before jumping straight in to translation activism. Nielsine introduced us to Emily Wilson, the first woman to publish an English translation of Homer’s Odyssey. We talked about how her translation is widely regarded as a feminist text due to her linguistic choices, even though these activist practices also stem inherently from the under-representation of women translators within the field of classicism. Nielsine showed us other examples of activism in translations of classical texts and of the various ways translators can make choices that are considered activist.
From there, we branched out into the genre of the manifesto. We read an extract of “Say Translation is Art” by Nawako Nakayushi, before doing a fun exercise where we had to write our own manifesto. Seeing as we were a small, hygge group, we all gathered around the whiteboard where Nielsine first wrote down our suggestions for a collective manifesto on Danish to English translation. After that, we set about writing our own manifestos. Our texts dealt with everything from how to translate Danish compounds such as “skilsmissebarn” into English, to the role of AI translations. I centred my own manifesto on translation as a human practice, while considering how AI cannot undertake the same processes that prompt a translator to make their own linguistic choices in a translation.
After sharing our manifestos, our conversation naturally turned towards how to view translation as an art form in itself. Participants shared their own experiences of the creative processes of literary translation, creative freedom and taking liberties while translating.
Since we were a small group and I was a new member, the workshop ended with a wider conversation about literary translation, with everyone sharing their own journeys within the industry in Denmark. At the end, I re-emerged into the November darkness with a belly full of gløgg, a new (wild) way of viewing translation and a helpful mental guide on everything that goes on behind the scenes in the industry!
Recommended reading:
Gould, Rebecca & Tahmasebian, Kayvan (eds.) (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Translation Activism.
Nakayasu, Sawako (2020) Say Translation is Art, New York: Ugly Duckling Press.
Skovbo Moser, Kira (2025) ‘Luderen, akademikeren og manifestet: En retorisk analyse af genreeksperimenter og talepositioner i to nyere danske manifester’ in Kvinder, Køn og Forskning, 37 (2).
Wilson, Emily (2017) ’Found in translation: how women are making the classics their own’ in The Guardian (July 7, 2017).
Bhanot, Kavita & Tiang, Jeremy (eds.) (2022) Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation.
