Elly Petrides for the past thirty-five years has been living and working in Greece as a translator, mostly in Greek cinema.
She shares stories with Theo Angelopoulos, this unique profession of a translator and more.
When and how you first met Theo
Angelopoulos? How this relationship evolved over the years?
My association with Theo Angelopoulos began
in 1984, a
little after I began working as a translator in Greek films, when I was called
upon to do the English subtitles of his film “Voyage to Cythera”.
In the years that followed our
collaboration grew to include not only the subtitles to his films but the
original scripts that preceded them, interviews both oral and written, letters,
acceptance speeches for honorary distinctions and I think it’s fair to say
almost any important thing he wanted to express in English. He had absolute faith in the accuracy of my
translations and I should add that he had enough English to be able to
understand the language. I think he was
also comfortable with the fact that I really was his “English” voice in that I
conveyed that which he wanted to convey – in other words pure
Angelopoulos.
How was as a character, what traits of him
you admired?
I remember years ago when I was given a
synopsis for “Eternity and a Day”, as always a superlative piece of writing
that soared. I was so carried away by
the prose that I must have added a few of my own embellishments in the
translation. When I sent it to him for
approval I remember he returned it to me with the comment “That’s Elly, not
Angelopoulos”. I learnt my lesson. You
don’t mess with the master!
But my work as his interpreter was also
rewarding. Angelopoulos spoke the way he
filmed – with the right pauses (some of them as long as his takes!), the right
words. No wonder he has been called the
Poet of Greek Cinema. From television
studios, to film festivals to one-on-one interviews, from Los
Angeles, to Berlin, to London, to Cannes,
I look back on the experience of having known him and worked with him with such
great affection. He was a perfectionist
and I labored right alongside with him.
I can recall you mentioned you translated
his latest script over 100 times…?
Yes, indeed, we did 100 rewrites of “The
Other Sea”, the film he was working on when he was killed. I really do believe that if he were to have
chosen the way he would “cross the other sea” that’s how he would have done it
- while making a film. I feel privileged
that he considered me his friend and I shall always cherish my “Angelopoulos
years”.
How it feels to work as translator, how
easy or difficult is to dive into a person’s story/idea/concept and change it
into a different language? What are the difficulties?
The ease or difficulty of working as a
translator depends on the source material. I think it is fair to say that some
writing flows so effortlessly that it almost translates itself and does not
sound like a translation at all. Languages
are never totally equivalent and it is obvious that every language is bound to
a particular culture with its own specific concepts which are revealed in the
linguistic ways of expressing things.
So what do you do with something that is
“culture specific”. Should you
“naturalize it?”
Sometimes you have to otherwise it doesn’t
make sense to the reader. Information
loss or the necessity of adding information is a well-known problem of
translations and not just literary ones but it is something that is I think
particularly acute when doing subtitles.
The viewer has to see the film not just read subtitles. You have to convey the content and meaning
of the dialogue with an economy of words that are not necessarily your first
choice. Of course there are some
directors who want you to include every single thing that is said and trying to
convince them otherwise is an uphill battle.
When working with directors the feedback
you get is often very productive and in talking you get fresh insight into characters
and situations. Also, in the case of
slang, especially in films by young directors, you are faced with the eternal
problem of whether to use British or American slang. American English is more familiar to
non-native English speakers – probably because of the widespread influence of
American cinema and television. Another
problem in translating slang is the fact that slang easily becomes dated. That’s why I try to use what I call
“classical” slang, i.e. words that have stood the test of time – slang we used
when I was growing up in the sixties and that is still used today. I also think there is a fine line between
representing informal register and getting too cute!
In other words I believe subtitles should
convey the dialogue as closely as possible to the source language as regards
dialect, tone, etc. without drawing attention to itself. The best compliment I ever received was from
someone who said after seeing a film that I had subtitled that she forgot she
had been reading subtitles!
The translator is also faced with another
important issue: literality versus free translation – a crucial and
controversial point. On the one hand
stand the advocates of literal translation who believe that translation should
cover up the original as little as possible.
On the other hand stand proponents of free translation who aim to make
the result more fluent and thus more accessible to readers than a literal
translation could ever be. It is a
challenge to view translation not only as the translation from one language to
another but also as mediation between cultures.
The translator then becomes a cultural and linguistic mediator who needs
to know specific cultural concepts reflected in both languages: the source and
the target language of the translation.
I believe you have worked with almost all
Greek directors. Who are they? What you kept from your relationship with them?
Theo Angelopoulos, Michael Cacoyannis,
Pantelis Voulgaris, Nikos Nikolaidis, Costas Ferris, Nikos Panayotopoulos,
Alexis Damianos, Nikos Koundouros, Tonia Marketaki, Frieda Liappa… to name but
a few. So many memories, so many magical
moments. Translating, interpreting,
being at their side in festivals, retrospectives, tributes. Doing the simultaneous translation for the
Greek Films at the Thessaloniki Film Festival or for representatives of major
film festivals in Athens
to see the latest Greek films, in the days before electronic subtitles and
videocassettes.
Based on your reply about the directors,
have you ever considered to write a book/diary writing about your experiences
with all these people?
Perhaps one day I will sit down and write a
book about my experiences. At the moment
I revel in the fact that I can sit on my balcony with my two dogs and just do
nothing. After a lifetime of deadlines
and stress – which I have to admit is often very invigorating and gets the
creative juices flowing – I can finally take it easy. My retirement has opened a new chapter in my
life. I can now pick and choose the stories
I want to translate and do so at my own pace, well, more or less!
Interview by Alexandra Belegrati
Photos: Elly Petrides and Elly Petrides with Theo Angelopoulos, Venice Film Festival
* ELLY PETRIDES was born in Alexandria,
Egypt of Greek-Scottish parents and spent her early childhood in Egypt. She was educated at English schools in
Alexandria and later on in England where she also studied photography. The family moved to the United States in the
early sixties and she worked in advertising and television in New York
City. She has translated many scripts
by leading Greek filmmakers and scriptwriters, thirty of which were approved
for support by the European Script Fund, EURIMAGES and other initiatives of the
EU’s Media Programme.
She has also done the subtitles for
hundreds of films by such luminaries of the Greek cinema as Theo Angelopoulos,
Pantelis Voulgaris and others, many of which have won awards at major
international film festivals. She was
Yannis Ritsos’ interpreter on the BBC programme “Bookmark” marking the poet’s
eightieth birthday and also for Theo Angelopoulos on the Channel Four
documentary on the director. In 2001 she
was entrusted by the office of the Prime Minister to do the translation of the
book entitled “Maximos Mansion”, a history of the building that houses the
prime ministerial offices.
She has also translated the following
books:
“Churches in the islands of the Aegean”,
photographs by Emmanuela de Nora, text by Leonidas Ermilios, Tria Phylla,
Athens, 1989
“The Old Curiosity Shop” by Costoula
Mitropoulou, Kedros Pub., Athens, 1996
“Photographs for ever” by Katia Mitropoulou, Govostis Pub., Athens
“Moving Landscapes: Film images of the
Greek environment” by Chrysanthe Sotiropoulou.
Metechmio Pub. 2001
