Guido Golüke, born in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, in 1949. Translation Studies at Instituut voor Vertaalkunde, Amsterdam. Translator in Amsterdam.
Translator-in-Residence (1 September 2012 – 31 January 2013)
TRANSLATING THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE BY JOHN CHEEVER
As a Translator-in-Residence at NIAS, I had a clear, well defined project: to finish my translation of The Wapshot Chronicle by the American novelist and writer of short stories John Cheever. I came to NIAS with a rough first draught or, in other words, a Dutch version of the novel in which content was present and form was dormant. I started again at page 1 to do the final work on this version that would make it into a proper story, a book that would read as a Dutch book without losing its American qualities. This process is a daily routine of weighing and choosing words, setting the tone, chiseling and kneading, researching meaning, all the while holding on to a voice, a style that will do justice to the original book that John Cheever created. Surrounded by interested and imaginative fellows, by wonderfully helpful members of staff, and by trees magnificent and subtly changing their colour and form, I have been able to transform The Wapshot Chronicle into Kroniek van de familie Wapshot.