The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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JUNE/JULY The Linguist 7 @Linguist_CIOL FEATURES The British Archive for Contemporary Writing at UEA includes 34 letters written by Patricia Crampton while she was working as a translator at the Nuremberg War Trials aged just 21. Reading one of these letters, and listening to an interview she gave in 1997, 1 I discovered a tenacious, lively woman with a fierce intellect, who championed translators' rights and children's literature. She translated over 200 children's books and 50 adult books into English from French, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and Spanish, including Dick Bruna's 'Miffy' series from Dutch and Astrid Lindgren books from Swedish. Born in India in 1925, she spoke Hindi as well as nine European languages, starting French at school aged 5 after her family returned to England. While studying German, French and Russian at Oxford she met a group of Swedish army officers, which led to a trip to Sweden; she fell in love with the language. Translating documents from German into English at Nuremberg was her very first job. It included horrific evidence from survivors, Nazi records, and papers in the Doctors' Trial and trial of IG Farben, a pharmaceutical company. "I had an amazing two years – privileged, shocking, life-changing – spent all my spare time with a very special group of friends, and returned in 1949 to my own beloved country where everyone, including my own parents, preferred not to ask, not to think, not to know anything at all about the death camps and everything that preceded them," she wrote. 2 Before becoming a literary translator in the 1960s, Crampton worked for two international companies and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as well as starting a family with her husband, the sculptor Sean Crampton. For her translation work and service to children's literature, she was awarded several honours, including the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Marsh Award and Eleanor Farjeon Award. A successful campaigner for translators' rights, she worked on the 'Recommendation on the Legal Protection of Translators and Translations and the Practical Means to Improve the Status of Translators', adopted by Unesco in 1976. She represented translators in a campaign for public lending rights, which led to authors and translators receiving payment when their books are borrowed from public libraries; and advocated for the Translators' Model Contract as Chair of the Translators' Association, ensuring it was kept up to date and in line with legal requirements. In a new series looking at linguists through the ages, Josephine Murray celebrates literary translator and "forger of the future" Patricia Crampton The trailblazers She was involved with the International Board on Books for Young People, travelling all over the world to speak about the importance of children's books. This non- profit organisation aims to promote international understanding through children's books and give children everywhere access to books with high literary and artistic standards. After her death on 1 December 2016, Crampton's obituary from the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs described her as "a superlative translator… a freedom fighter, risk-taker and forger of the future". Notes 1 IWM Patricia Crampton Oral History; cutt.ly/IWM_Crampton 2 Crampton, P (2008) 'Round the World in Sixty Years'. In Swedish Book Review, Norvik Press Josephine Murray MCIL is studying for an MA in Literary Translation at UEA. She has written more about Patricia Crampton at cutt.ly/PCrampton FREEDOM FIGHTER Patricia Crampton ice-skating in Nuremberg, 1948 (left); and Miffy, who she translated