Anna Gustafsson Chen
was @Sweden (2012-10-01 to 2012-10-07)

I’m a sinologist and literary translator from Chinese. I’ve mostly translated prose, by such writers as Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Su Tong, Hong Ying, Han Shaogong, Chen Ran and so on. I’m also a librarian, presently employed at The Swedish Library for Talking Books and Braille, where I’ve worked for one and a half year. Before that, I spent ten years at the International Library in Stockholm and I’m very interested in literature from different countries. In my spare time I work with a small (very small) publishing house called The Thrush (Trasten), which aims to translate and publish books from different parts of the world for children and young adults. There’s definitely a lack of diversity when it comes to books for children in Sweden, and we try to do our part to change that – even if we only publish 2-3 books per year and in very small editions.

Well, that’s about it, I guess. I’ve got two children (20 and 16), a husband from China, and two black cats called Smeagol and Precious. I come from the north of Sweden, and although I live in Stockholm I’m always dreaming of moving back up north again one day.

I usually tweet as @anguche but if you speak Chinese you can follow me on Sina Weibo at @北瑞安娜. I have a blog where I write about Chinese books that I’ve read (it’s in Swedish) and you’ll find the website for The Thrush here.

@Sweden October 7, 2012 12:20

But one thing that Google translate is good for is “translating” simplified Chinese characters into tradidtional ones, and vice versa.

@Sweden October 7, 2012 12:17

Beware that Google trans often misses the negative. If you write that you must NOT do something Google trans may well claim that you should.

@Sweden October 7, 2012 12:16

As a translator, I have a love-hate relationship with Google translate. Love the laughs, hate when people think it’s as good as real transl.

@Sweden October 7, 2012 10:34

–> in English: “a well-built sexually attractive man” or “a large piece of something without definite shape”. Hmm …

@Sweden October 7, 2012 10:32

I wanted to see if there was a good, short definition of the word “hunk” in Swedish. One on-line dictionary gave me these two great defs –>

@Sweden October 5, 2012 12:06

The internet is a godsend for translators. You find information on almost anything. And if you’ve read so many novels about the –>

@Sweden October 5, 2012 08:41

Especially books by writers that are less well known here, and in different genres like, for instance, science fiction.

@Sweden October 5, 2012 08:39

I wish I could be a full-time translator. I love working as a librarian, but there are so many books I’d like to translate .

@Sweden October 4, 2012 12:35

The International Library in Stockholm has books in more than 130 languages (and there are more lang. than that in this world, yes I know).

@Sweden October 4, 2012 12:33

Okay, so those of you who have moved/are moving to Sweden should know that you can get books in almost every language at the local library.

@Sweden October 4, 2012 08:39

And in fact, lots of people already posted pics of cinnamon buns yesterday evening, in preparation for Cinnamon Bun Day.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 23:14

And indeed, three of the poems I had to read for last weeks class were entitled (in English): “Spleen”, “Angst” and “To Putrefaction”.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 23:14

And indeed, three of the poems I had to read for last weeks class were entitled (in English): “Spleen”, “Angst” and “To Putrefaction”.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 18:30

It’s pitch black outside, they never announce where we are and from the back end of the train you can’t see the station.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 18:16

The sausage smoke attack gave me a sore throat so instead of choir practice I’ll go to a meeting for the editors of Karavan (a literary mag)

@Sweden October 3, 2012 18:09

On the other hand every time I take the train to visit my parents it’s for free ’cause the train is always 2hrs late and I get my money back

@Sweden October 3, 2012 11:50

You can write a short story in a tweet in Chinese (ok, a short short story). One character/space and no spaces between words. Efficient!

@Sweden October 3, 2012 11:22

You can translate every single word correctly and still create a really bad text that doesn’t convey any of the original feeling.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 11:21

One of the most difficult things when translating is to capture the mood/style of the text. To give the reader the same feeling as the orig.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 10:45

So generally, the problem isn’t understanding the original but finding the way of expressing it in the target language.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 10:23

Only four syllables to each sentence/line. That’s not really possible in Swedish, unless you seriously manipulate the text.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 10:21

Poetry can be very difficult. This poem, for instance, by the Vietnamese nun Dieu Nhan (1041-1113): 生老病死。自古常然。欲求出離。解縛添纏。迷之求佛。惑之求禪。禪佛不求。枉口無言。

@Sweden October 3, 2012 10:14

Idioms and quotes, allusions to old text, movies and do on, are a problem. You don’t want to have a bunch of footnotes to every page.

@Sweden October 3, 2012 09:36

With European/US texts Swedish readers usually recognize at least most of the context, have a similar frame of reference. Not with Chinese.

@Sweden October 2, 2012 19:56

@HuTangMu 我很早很早以前开始学中文。我不住在中国，从来没长期住过，但去过好几次。我老公有好多年没法回国，现在还是有点麻烦。

@Sweden October 2, 2012 19:14

Sometimes, Smeagol eats our plants and turn into his evil alter ego. “Gollum! Gollum!” he hisses, and then he pukes on the carpet.

@Sweden October 2, 2012 13:11

All these great tools is one reason why we need to help ppl get on the internet and start using the mobile and digital resources available.

@Sweden October 2, 2012 12:06

There’s screen readers, speech synthesizers, Braille keyboards, talking surf tablets. And lots of useful tools for those with dyslexia too.

@Sweden October 2, 2012 12:02

–> that makes it possible to use the Internet, to read and other things even if you have sight impairment or are blind.

@Sweden October 2, 2012 12:00

So I just spent sometime with a colleague of mine who is blind. After more than one year here I’m still amazed by all the great tech –>

@Sweden October 2, 2012 08:44

Oh, no! It’s sausage smoking day! The area I work in is called The Slaughterhouse District. They still process a lot of meat products here.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 22:44

Well, ok. Time to go to bed. Just one more, for those who like to get upset when reading about feminists: Bitter Bitch by Maria Sveland.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 22:32

I would have liked to say Lotta Lotass, but I’m not sure she’s been translated. Probably difficult to translate. I liked The White Earth.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 22:24

August Strindberg, of course. Not the nicest guy but a great writer. But I guess I should concentrate on now living writers.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 17:20

Now off to Stockholm uni for my lit class. I figured after 20 years of working with literature I should learn something about it. Formally.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 14:45

Harry Martinson, who wrote Aniara, was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Soon (next week I guess) we’ll find out who gets it this year.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 14:37

My husband, who is Chinese, is also a writer and translator. He does Swe->Chi. So we have a complete circle of cultural exchange at home.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 10:45

Or download them directly to their computers, smartphones or tablets, using a password that they get from the library.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 10:44

The place where I work is a government agency that produces talking books and Braille books. Users borrow them through their local library.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 10:42

Appr. 6% of the Swedish population suffers from some kind of reading disability – blindness, dyslexia, aphasia, etc.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 10:38

–> materials to libraries all over the country. We hope to make more people aware of dyslexia and of the help you can get at the library.

@Sweden October 1, 2012 10:37

The reason I’m writing all these labels for envelopes is that this week is Dyslexia Awareness Week in Sweden and we’re sending –>

@Sweden October 1, 2012 09:27

This week is not too busy for me (fortunately) but at some point soon I’ll take a break from Twitter to produce address labels for envelopes

@Sweden October 1, 2012 09:21

And for those of you who wonder, the profile image will change (but I actually DO look a little like Jenny, just older).