The translator – Irene Wainwright

Irene Wainwright

“This translation grew out of a post-graduate course I took a few years ago under the renowned translator and educator, Prof. Michael Heim at UCLA.

His class opened my eyes to a new approach to translation in which the author’s intent is paramount, and translation is to be recognized as an art in its own right. He maintained that it is important to know the language into which you are translating in all its nuances, whereas knowledge of the original language need not be as complete.

During the class I happened to pick up Joubert’s Afrikaans autobiography at the library, and the selections I translated were so well received by the class that I decided it would be a worthy project to translate the entire book. Prof. Heim was most encouraging until he unfortunately passed away last year.

Over the past eight years, I have pursued a completely different academic path from my scientific career which involved research in cellular biology, a PhD in biology from the University of California, Riverside (under a Fullbright Hayes Scholarship) and 15 years in the medical field at UCLA.

My new path led me to undergraduate classes in literature, languages and philosophy and then post-graduate seminars, mainly in comparative literature and Slavic studies. The focus of my work is South African literature and Eastern European literature of the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the effects of apartheid and communism respectively.

Besides scientific papers (my own and those that I have edited in my UCLA job), my writing includes one unpublished book, Inside Romania: Travels with Bogdan and Dacia. It is a travel memoir written in much the same spirit as Elsa Joubert’s travel books, since it looks below the surface to the people and their history, while simultaneously describing the inner journey of the author.

I have personally given lectures on Elsa Joubert’s life and writings in undergraduate classes where students are studying her novel, Poppie Nongena, in translation as part of courses on Afrikaans literature related to apartheid. I have also found sympathetic ears amongst faculty and post-graduate students when I discuss my work. So I can attest to the interest that her autobiography engenders in academic circles in the USA.

Elsa Joubert Souh African author Skrywer Poppie Nongena The Missionary Die missionaries Klaas Steytler British Royal Society of Literature Bonga CNA-prize Hertzogprys Ons wag op die kaptein Die resie van Isobelle ’n Wonderlike geweld

Reisiger A Lion on the Landing Irene Wainwright Winifrid Holtby Order of Ikhamanga Afrikaners French Huguenot Paarl