The Josef Jungmann prize for the best translation was won by Michal Ctibor, who translated the epic Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil into Czech. German translator Michaela Jacobsen was inducted into the Hall of Fame. The award for outstanding achievement under the age of 34 goes to Zdeněk Polívka for his work on Chris Panatier’s sci-fi novel called The Lacemakers.
The organizers from Translators’ Village presented the award on Tuesday evening at the Goethe Institute in Prague.
The Aeneid in a new version by Michal Ctibor was published by the Argo publishing house last year. “Undertaking the translation of nearly ten thousand Latin verses requires courage, it requires perseverance to complete it, and the success of such an undertaking requires understanding, philological determination and talent “Since Michal Ctibor has the aforementioned prerequisites, we can read the Aeneid in modern Czech, in which flight meets grandeur and eloquence,” said the jury. According to her, the resulting translation is easy to read, understandable, at the same time rhythmically fluid and free-sounding, while it does not depart from the original in terms of content.
Michaela Jacobsenová, seventy-seven, who received an award from the city in 2003 and 2013, translates fiction and poetry. For example, she translated into Czech the works of Ingeborg Bachmannová, Ilse Aichingerová, Günter Eich, Arno Schmidt, and older authors Karl Kraus and Max Brod.
According to the jury, Zdeněk Polívka, winner of the prize for extraordinary achievements under the age of 34, made full use of the Czech language of today’s youth when he translated the novel Šůraři to redefine the original expression of the main character of the work “panic”. . “He then reinforced his translation skills by brilliantly inventing new words for Panatier’s interplanetary facts and by meticulously looking for the real names of dozens of strange animals and their strange body movements, ” said the town. Šnůrara was published by the publishing house Host.
Miroslav Tomek takes home the amazing creative award for his translation of the novel Depeche Mode by Ukrainian writer Serhiy Žadan. The creative award was given to Michal Brabec, Jana Van Luxemburg, Alena Machoninová, Miloš Řezník and Ladislav Šenkyřík. The organizers awarded the Krameriův vinš award to Monica Loderová from the program department of the Goethe Institute for her long-term cooperation with the city and support for translated literature.
A community of translators brings together translators of good literature as well as theorists, critics and historians dealing with this field. Its mission is to protect the rights, promote the professional interests of the members and take care of the level and reputation of translation in Czech literature. Josef Jungmann Award has been implementing since 1991.
