Kari Dickson - Active Listening - Music and Translation

This online research seminar took place on 24th April 2024.

During this talk, BCLT Translator in Residence Kari Dickson shares her journey so far in using music and improvisation to better understand rhythm and mood in language and translation. Kari says, “Musing on the question of why we always talk about the rhythm of a text and translation, I was inspired to think about the possibility of running a workshop where we use live improvisation to explore the coincidence and variance of rhythm in an original text and translation – to play what we hear when we read. As this would by necessity mean reading out loud, it has led me to consider the shape of language, how we acquire it, how we listen, why we listen, and communication. And the search for material and a methodology to underpin my musings.”

Kari Dickson is a translator who specialises in translating works of Norwegian literature into English. She has a BA in Scandinavian Studies from UCL and an MA in Translation from the University of Surrey. Her portfolio includes literary fiction, crime, non-fiction, and plays, especially the work of Rune Christiansen, Thomas Enger, Erika Fatland, Karin Fossum and Gunnhild Øyehaug. Her translation of Roslund & Hellström’s Three Seconds won the CWA International Dagger in 2011, and her translation of the children’s book Brown by Øvreås & Torseter won the American Library Association’s Mildred L. Batchelder Award in 2020. Kari teaches Norwegian language, literature and translation in the Scandinavian Studies department at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently Translator in Residence at BCLT and former workshop leader at the BCLT Summer School.