The Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature is delighted to invite you to a session on 'A World in Translation: The Craft and Challenges of Literary Translation' with Astri Gosh, moderated by Aneeqa Mazhar Wattoo.
February 17, 2025
Time:
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
A-5, Academic Block, LUMS
Translation is not merely the act of carrying words across languages; it is a process of negotiation, reinvention, and sometimes, resistance. A translator stands at the crossroads of cultures, navigating the silences, ambiguities, and untranslatable moments that shape literature. How does one retain the essence of a text while making it accessible to a new readership? What is lost—and what is gained—in translation?
This session will explore the intricate and often invisible labor of literary translation, the ethical dilemmas it entails, and the evolving space it occupies in global literary discourse.
About the Speaker:
Astri Gosh is a writer, actor, and translator. She grew up in Delhi and Mussoorie before moving to Norway to study at the University of Oslo. She has translated 24 books into Hindi, English, and Norwegian, with her translations featured in four anthologies. Some of the authors she has translated include Henrik Ibsen, Jon Fosse, Rui Zink, Qurratulain Hyder, Rabindranath Tagore, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Guru Nanak, Lars Saabye Christensen, and Per Petterson. A former journalist, she also performs poetry and has acted in two films.
About the Moderator:
Aneeqa Wattoo is a writer and translator based in Lahore, Pakistan. She was awarded the Sir Anwar Pervez-University of Oxford Graduate Scholarship to pursue an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Her current research explores the intersection between gender and the politics of spaces in Pakistan. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Meridian, McNeese Review, New Ohio Review, and Southern Humanities Review, among others. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, she is also the Founder of The Creative Room, Pakistan’s first interdisciplinary humanities platform for online learning focused on South Asia.
