Community and Collaboration in Translation: Translating Jadranka’s First Life, a Poem Cycle about Labor Activism

By acclaimed poet, translator, and painter Andrea Jurjević

Caravaggio, Saint Jerome Writing, 1605.

Saint Jerome, the patron saint of translators and writers

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Hello friends,

With all the turbulence in the world, we might wonder what’s the point of writing and making art. For me, it about bringing people together.

And translation is a good example. We hear a lot about how translation is a conversation between languages and cultures, but my favorite thing about it is working with other artists. Some writers I’ve translated have become mentors and friends, especially Olja Savičević Ivančević. Her collection Mamasafari was the first book I translated (Lavender Ink/Diálogos, 2018), so any time Olja emails me asking if I’d be up for a project, I say yes, even if it means bending backwards to fit the job into my schedule. Last year she reached out asking if I’d be interested in working on a bilingual, illustrated documentary poem cycle about a women’s and workers’ rights activist from Zagreb, Croatia. I worked on it earlier this year, and the book launched last month.

Here’s how the process unfolded: