Cora Lindsey, a Lower Sixth A-level French student, recently entered a translation competition run by the University of Oxford and was awarded a commendation. The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is run by The Queen's College at the University of Oxford and aims to promote language learning across the UL and inspire creativity in the classroom. Over 22,000 students took part and nearly 5,000 entries were judged by professional literary translators and Modern Languages students at the University of Oxford.
The task was to translate into English an extract from the novel 'L'Incendie' (The Fire) written in 1954 by the Algerian novelist Mohammed Dib. It is a semi-autobiographical novel set in the Algerian countryside and depicts the difficulties of rural poverty in the face of the indifference of the colonists. Cora put a lot of effort into this and created a translation that captured the style and figurative language of the original - a fantastic achievement!
Cora reflected on her achievement - 'I am honoured to have been commended for this prestigious prize. Though it was difficult, without assistance and I did many redrafts, I persevered. It was a joy to be able to discover more about francophone literature and taking part inspired me to start reading books in French. This commendation reaffirmed my drive to continue with French at university as part of my studies'.
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