Israeli culture has a lot of Eastern European influences
in it, and also a lot of Middle Eastern and Mediterra-
nean aspects—though those don’t show up as much in
Levin’s work. But that’s the challenge of any translation
when you’re going from one culture to another—getting
across things that people don’t even know exist.
Weizman: Can you give an example or two of instances
where you had to deliberate?
Fallenberg: Sometimes when we encounter something
very subtle, something with hidden meanings—we have
to be careful. We’re translating someone whom many
consider to be the greatest Israeli playwright of all time.
That’s a big deliberation right there. As soon as you start
you think, What if I get something wrong? Everyone is
going to be looking at this and everyone is going to be
critical. There are people who knew him, people who
directed his plays and acted in them. Who are we? Both
of us have felt from the beginning that we’re very grate-
ful to have each other to do this with. There are so many
little pitfalls, nuances of language, nuances of meaning,
little inside jokes or references that we may not be com-
pletely aware of.
In Walkers in the Dark, for example, one of the char-
acters is a French student, and she’s supposed to repre-
sent Paris and Parisian culture, and in particular, what
Israelis of the 1970s would have thought about the haute
culture that didn’t exist here and for which some Israelis
were pining. You have to know those things, and it can
be daunting. They give cause for reticence and respect.
Both of us, in our translating careers, have had the privi-
lege of working with really fine writers who know what
they’re doing and are worth spending time with, but this
is maybe a special case. Sometimes it has to go slower.
As part of our process we initially met with the aim of
checking whether this co-translating thing was going to
work. We spent a day or two translating test passages, to
feel out how we would work together. And Jessica said
to me, you know, I could do this so much faster on my
own, but I actually like the results that are coming out
of it because we can discuss so many things that arise.
Of course you normally have these little dialogues with
yourself as you translate—they’re so brief and immedi-
ate that you don’t even notice you’re having them. But
when you have to voice them and you have to convince
someone else, or be convinced by someone else, and you
come to see that your opinion was not the best option,
or recognize a new level that you didn’t realize was there,
it adds a new richness to the quality of the play.
Cohen: There are things that we found in almost every
play. We would be translating a line of dialogue, and
Evan would instinctively use one specific word and I
would instinctively use a different word. Now we’re
aware of each other’s preferences, but to begin with—Fallenberg: Or to start with—that’s one of them.Cohen: (laughs) Right. It never would have occurred
to me to say anything other than He starts to walk, but
now I know that Evan wants the character to begin to
walk. There are things that seem very minor. When I’m
translating with myself in my own mind and there’s no
one else interfering, I don’t stop to think, Could there
be a different way to say this? It’s just obvious to me that
this is how you say it. But when Evan and I work on a
translation together, it’s like there’s constantly another
brain challenging your instinctive choices.Weizman: Translating is difficult enough alone, but
you’ve had to find a way to approach this challenge
together. How did you go about it?Cohen: I was initially approached to do these transla-
tions, but I felt that I didn’t have enough affinity with
theater to take them on. I felt that Evan would be better
at it, and I asked if he wanted to do it, and he came back
with, Let’s do it together. At first I rejected the idea.
There’s a reason that I’m a translator; I sit alone all day
with my computer and that’s how I like it. But somehow
Evan convinced me to try it. I was pretty skeptical about
how it was going to work. I thought we’ll either manage
to do this, but we won’t like each other anymore, or the
translation won’t work well. But I was completely wrong
on all counts. I think we argue well. It’s not that we don’t
argue sometimes, but we disagree in a productive way.
I’ve never come away thinking I gave in to him on some
particular point.Fallenberg: I tell my translating students that the very
best of literary translators are writers themselves. That’s
why I insist that they also study creative writing. I’veWhen Evan and I work on a translation
together, it’s like there’s constantly another
brain challenging your instinctive choices.Evan Fallenberg’s
most recent translation
is a new Israeli
opera, The Sleeping
Thousand. His third
novel, The Parting
Gift, was published by
Other Press in 2018.
He teaches at Bar-
Ilan University and is
faculty co-director of
the International MFA
in Creative Writing &
Literary Translation
at Vermont College of
Fine Arts.WORLDLIT.ORG 45