Geoff Howes with Ruthless and Other Writings by Peter Rosei, which he translated.

Geoff Howes immerses himself in translation of Austrian writer

To translate a writer’s work into another language is a demanding task, requiring skill, great concentration and a bit of art.

But Geoffrey Howes, German, Russian and East Asian languages, says, “For me, translating is a restorative, almost meditative process. It’s very creative. In fact, I think it’s second only to writing it yourself.”

Howes was asked in 1998 by Austrian writer Peter Rosei to translate his work, following Rosei’s first visit as Max Kade Writer in Residence at BGSU. Together, they chose the work and two years later, Howes finished Ruthless and Other Writings, a collection of Rosei’s fiction, poetry and selections from his 1995 novel Persona, and from a philosophical journal written in part while he was in residence at Oberlin College.

The book was published in 2003 by Ariadne Press of Riverside, Calif., and now Howes and the Austrian author are embarking on a promotional tour. This Wednesday (Feb. 11), they will give a reading, in German and English, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, followed by appearances at BGSU, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the Kelly Writers House of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The BGSU reading will take place from 7:30-9 p.m. Feb. 16 in 316 Bowen-Thompson Student Union.

Peter Rosei

One of the most recognized and prolific authors writing in German today, Rosei has published novels, stories, poetry, plays, essays, travel writings and children's literature. He has traveled extensively, most recently to the United States, Japan and Fiji. In addition to his residencies at BGSU and at Oberlin College, he has been a guest author in a summer program at the University of New Mexico at Taos.

“He’s not a best-selling author, but he is very well known among readers of serious literature,” Howes said, describing Rosei as a “writer’s writer.”

His books, written in a spare but precisely detailed style, are often set in historical circumstances. For example, Rosei’s “A Story from the Past, Briefly Told,” follows the life of an Austrian worker from the turn of the century until the beginning of the Nazi era. While not psychological in nature, the work depicts the personal conflicts presented by the historical circumstances, Howes said.

“Rosei presents aspects of the Austrian past, particularly the social and ethical conditions brought about by the end of the Habsburg Empire and the two world wars. The characters, unique but somehow representative, emerge from the landscapes and cityscapes that Rosei describes with vivid precision. The admirable and ugly facets of human existence appear side by side, or even united within the same character or locale,” Howes writes.
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Rosei, born in Vienna in 1946, studied law and has been a freelance writer in Vienna since 1972. The many prizes he has received include the Austrian Cross of Honor and the Anton Wildgans Prize.

While Rosei’s style does not readily lend itself to translation, “translating him helped me understand him,” Howes said.

There are two topmost considerations he follows when translating, Howes said. The first is to make the sentence as believable in English as possible, and the second is to reconstruct its rhythm. Rather than translating word for word, he “conceives the writing sentence by sentence,” he said, and would rather sacrifice a bit of accuracy if necessary to preserve the rhythm and naturalness of the sentence in English.

Howes is well familiar with Austrian culture and its idiom, having lived there for a total of five years during his stints as faculty overseer of the BGSU academic year abroad program in Salzburg, in addition to many other visits. His own area of research includes Austrian literature and culture, and he has been co-editor since 2000 of Modern Austrian Literature.