Crowdsourcing the Translation of a Diary from Lithuanian into English

• In Event: Issues in Literary Translation

Abstract

In this presentation I will discuss my goal of translating and publishing all three volumes of Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė's 1104-page World War I diaries (“Karo Meto Dienoraštis”) into English by 2020, the 100th anniversary of her chairing the first meeting of the Lithuanian Parliament in 1920. Although the most efficient way to accomplish this might be to hire a professional translator, I argue that a more effective way is to crowd-source it, thus achieving three goals: 1)attracting the attention of English-speaking Lithuanians around the world to this extraordinary woman and writer--a conglomerate Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriet Tubman, 2)enlisting those same people to help with the translation of the diaries as a gift to Lithuania on this important anniversary, and 3)providing the world with a brand new primary source for scholarship about World War I.

Short Bio

Diana Vidutis has a B.A. in English from Xavier University in Cincinnati and an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from indiana University. She lives and works in Washington, DC.

Author

• Diana Vidutis, Lithuanian-American Community, Inc.