A TRANSLATED WORK GAINS AS MUCH AS IT LOSES

FOSSE (IN PIC) DOES NOT MICROMANAGE ANYTHING... THE TRUST HE HAS IN ME IS SOMETHING REALLY I TREASURE.

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

DAMION SEARLS, writer and translator

Damion Searls, a Harvard educated writer and translator, first read a novel by 2023 Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse around 20 years ago. He read the German version of Melancholy as he did not then know Norwegian. Searls found the book brilliant and decided it was time to learn Norwegian. He enlisted help from a Norwegian-born co-translator and translated the book into English.

He has since translated multiple works of Fosse, including Septology, a novel in seven parts, published in three volumes.

Fosse is not the first Nobel laureate he has translated—Searls says Fosse was the eighth. But, Fosse is the one Searls has worked longest and closest with. Searls, who has a PhD in English, is known for his strong grasp of German, Norwegian, French and Dutch. He has written a book on Hermann Rorschach, who created the inkblot test, and has translated many classic modern writers, including Proust, Rilke, Nietzsche, Ingeborg Bachmann, Alfred Döblin and Elfriede Jelinek.

Interestingly, the man who has received writing and translating awards from global institutions and universities, and from the Austrian, Belgian and Dutch governments, went to college to be a physics major. He ended up majoring in philosophy and then went to graduate school for English. Translation was how he pivoted into writing, but it was never something he formally studied.

He has about 10 finished translations coming out soon, including a debutante Swiss novelist (her book is called Overstaying and it is hilarious, he says). Then, the next couple of years will be spent on Fosse’s backlist, he says. These include early novels, children’s books, poetry, and a new trilogy of novels.