A talk with Ruth Spira and Natalie Lantz

Language is more than a vocabulary and a grammatical system, language is Culture. One simple word can often represent an entire universe based on history, traditions and collective identity. Swedish and Hebrew have very different origins, characters and cultures, making the task of translation almost impossible. Meet two translators who are balancing on a tightrope between the two languages. What are the greatest challenges? And is AI posing a threat to translators?

Ruth Spira is an Israeli translator from Swedish to Hebrew, writer and journalist. Born in Finland where she lived until the age of 13 when her family moved to Israel. She has translated dozens of books from Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian into Hebrew. Among the many writers whose works she has translated from Swedish are Lars Gustafsson , Ingmar Bergman , Stieg Larsson , Göran Rosenberg, Astrid Lindgren , Henning Mankell , Klas Östergren, Steve Sem Sandberg and Elisabeth Åsbrink. In 2016 Spirawas was awarded the royal order of the Polar Star. (Photo by: Arne Lapidus)

Natalie Lantz, PhD, is a Swedish scholar in Hebrew Bible and translator from Hebrew to Swedish. Lantz has translated titles by David Grossman , Amos Oz , Sara Shilo and Dan Pagis and is currently working on a volume of selected poems by Yehuda Amichai. In 2017 she received an award from the scholarship fund Albert Bonnier’s 100-year memorial and in 2021 David Grossman was awarded the Berman Literature Prize for her translation Med mig leker livet. (Photo by: Ernst Henry)

The talk will be in English.

Moderator: Anat Safran – Cultural attaché at the Embassy of Israel

Free entrance under registration at this link

22.5.23 18:00-20:00

Embassy of Israel and Studio SN7