15/01/2015 10:34

Katy

Hello Heike, thanks for the friend request. The thing is, I use Facebook for private purposes and I’m very careful about people I don’t know. I’m a big fan of your book, by the way, I recommended it to a US publisher. He wrote back today and said he can’t imagine it would work in the US because they understand work there so differently than in Europe. I can’t tell because I’ve never been there. If I had more time and money I could maybe translate an excerpt and offer it to journals, but sadly that’s not on the cards right now. It’s a real shame. Anyway, have a lovely day and maybe we’ll meet in real life some time. Best, Katy

 

16/01/2015 10:23

Heike

Dear Katy, thanks for your message. My friend request was mainly the short version of a message I didn’t quite find time for. I wanted to write how much I enjoyed your review, especially because I already like the way you go about (your) work, or seem to go about it. On your attempt to take the book to America: thanks for that as well. My publishers and I talked about it briefly and guessed that the chances of a publication in an American house were pretty unlikely, because working and living conditions really are more drastic there than here. The text wouldn’t hit the nerve it can hit here, presumably. Or it would need a different kind of communication. But I don’t know everything about it either. If you come to Leipzig for the book fair in March we might run into each other, by chance or with a little more planning. I live here, as you know, and I’d really like that. Have a great day, all my love! Heike

 

In the meantime, Heike and Katy do meet up at the Leipzig book fair. Katy is wearing a shirt that Heike tried on the other day but didn’t buy, and they get on very well and Katy says actually, she’d really like to translate an excerpt from the book and Heike’s editor Mathias says he knows someone at n+1 magazine and would submit it there. So Katy translates the first two chapters and sends them to Heike.

 

22/05/2015 15:24

Heike

I’m reading it right now and I have to stop for a while in a minute, but first of all and in the middle this:

Katy

Ah, glad to hear it!

 

n+1 takes the piece and publishes it in two parts in October 2015. Instead of splitting the fee between them, Heike lets Katy have it all.

 

02/06/2016 12:18

Heike

Dear Katy, I’d like to ask you a question, seeing as you’re a native English speaker. I’m working in a team on an exhibition about Warhol’s Screen Tests and I’ve written texts for the exterior walls. Because some of it is based on quotes and for other reasons, the texts are in English. So what I want to say is: ich screenteste mich. Is that I screentest myself or i screen-test myself or I screen test myself? I don’t know why I didn’t ask myself the question earlier, I was working on an audio piece in my mind, but after that the words have to go on the wall and I don’t want to make mistakes. So I’d be really grateful for your help! Best, Heike

Katy

Hi Heike, I’d say: I screentest myself. Heartz, k x

Heike

Wonderful, Katy, that’s exactly the answer I wanted to hear. All my love and hearts of exuberance!

 

Heike gets a residency; Donald Trump is elected president on November 8.

 

09/11/2016 13:36

Heike

Dear Katy, as you know I’m staying at the Villa Massimo right now. Residents have the option of inviting guests of honor. These guests of honor get a very nice studio for a week, might say a few words about their work in front of an audience, and otherwise do whatever they want in Rom, Roma, Rome. You have to pay your own travel costs and transgressions (OK, that slip has to stay in, but what I mean is: provisions). The staying here is the honor, so to speak. I’d really like to invite you/get you invited, if the conditions are alright for you. What do you think? Best from more southerly Europe, Heike

Katy

Oh Heike, that’s so kind! I’m a bit weepy today, it’ll start in again any moment now. Tell me when I’d have to come? How long are you there for?

Heike

I’m here until the end of June 2017. I’m drinking white wine, it’s not the best idea but today’s one of those days.

Katy

So long!

Heike

Yes, and so short!

Katy

How many months are you there for all together? Have you got the whole family with you?

Heike

Yes, we’re all here. I’m staying ten months, we’ve been here since the beginning of September. Rome is beautiful and very interesting, of course.

It’s also a good city for crying, for example.

Katy

Wow! I was there once when I was 14 and my babydaddy just went there on his honeymoon. I’d really like to come again. Let me have a look how much it would cost and when I could make it, OK?

Could I bring the offspring?

(I don’t have to)

Heike

Sure, whatever you want, I’d say, but I’m happy to ask, I think it’s perfectly OK if you come with your child though. I’d really like it if you came.

Katy

The child’s 15, we can share a bed if necessary.

Heike

It’s a double bed anyway and it’s really nice here. You’d sleep in the villa. As a guest of honor, you can (maybe) request a separate four-poster bed for your daughter. Or whatever.

Katy

Are you drunk yet? I’ve got an event tonight, wanted to cancel but the writer wants to do it anyway.

Heike

No, I’m not drunk but it’s so funny that you asked! I’m going to have one more glass and then I’ll have to stop because today’s a short day at school (they’re all back already). I’m still trying to finish a little piece. You can cancel, yes, or you put everything out in the world. I think we should put everything that would make us cancel out into the world. The world will just have to put up with it at last.

Katy

That’s more or less what the writer says, so I’m going to go ahead with it. Wishing you good working, and I’ll get back to you soon.

Heike

Looking forward to it. No rush. Have a good evening!

Katy

Thank you!

 

Katy puts off making a decision about going to Rome…

 

30/12/2016 17:21

Heike

Dear Katy, we got the news just before Christmas: the guest of honor apartment is fully booked until the end of June, until we all leave. So I’ll have to take back my invitation I’m afraid, which I really regret. What a shame! All my best nonetheless and especially. I always want only the best for you! h

Katy

Oh that’s no problem at all, Heike, because I didn’t manage to find a good time for the trip anyway. My daughter’s dad went to Rome recently on his honeymoon, you see, so I’d have had to bring her along, but the only time she has off school would have been Easter and we didn’t want to be in Rome then, us old heathens.

I was still really thrilled to be invited!

Heike

Oh yes, it’s very dangerous for heathens in Rome. I’ve been into lots of churches and felt certain un-heathen stirrings. But it’s alright again now!

Katy

Heh!

Heike

Yes!

 

Katy’s flat is put on the market and she has to find a new place to live.

 

16 June 09:04

Heike

WANTED from 8.1.2017: new tenant for our 3-room apartment in northern Prenzlauer Berg, 92sqm, bathroom, kitchen, quiet, well refurbished, current rent 917.00€ incl. ancillary costs, please send PM if interested. Please share.

 Katy

 

Katy responds to the post but the poor woman is swamped by requests and doesn’t answer. Katy finds a nice new flat anyway. She and Heike meet up in Berlin when Heike is presenting a book she’s translated, Jonas Mekas’s diaries. The event is packed so they don’t get to talk much. But they’re both excited because there’s a chance that a US publisher will actually commission a translation of Heike’s book!

 

17 July 19:09

Heike

Katy, you’re moving house today, or probably you’ve already moved. Congratulations! I knew you’d manage it in a good way! And I not only wanted to boast about my knowledge, I also wanted to ask whether you and XXYY have actually agreed? Spector has received their contract at any rate, Spector is signing, and I’m so prone to picking at scabs that I’d rather ask you before I get really excited. Happy arrival, lucky bug Katy.

Katy

Hi Heike, you’re right! We’ve come to an agreement and I’m just waiting for the contract. I presume they have to be done in a certain order. It’ll all turn out fine in the end!!!!

Heike

very good, yes, it only arrived at Spector today.

Katy

[Thumbs up]

[Thumbs up]

[Thumbs up]

 

Heike

incredible. most people only have two thumbs.

Katy

Ha

Heike

I’m hungry for berlin, see you soon! Hope the unpacking etc goes well!

Katy

Thank you!

Heike

 

 

Translator’s Note:

Heike Geißler’s Saisonarbeit came out in German at the end of 2014. It’s a book about the perfidious nature of paid labor, more specifically: working as a “seasonal associate” at an Amazon warehouse. Translator Katy Derbyshire wrote a review of the book,  ending with the words “I’d love to translate it.” And then Heike sent Katy a Facebook friend request and a conversation followed.

It’s a conversation with gaps; the two of us met in person on a couple of occasions and also corresponded by email about more businesslike matters. But our friendship began on Facebook and has continued there in the way they sometimes do: Heike posts photos of odd things in places she goes, Katy posts late-night selfies. We follow each other’s lives from a distance but with enthusiasm. We get on so well, perhaps, because we have a lot in common: we’re of similar ages, both of us translate and are mothers and lead slightly precarious freelance lives. But we translate in opposite directions, Heike grew up under Honecker and Katy under Thatcher, Heike likes traveling and Katy likes staying at home.

 

The dialogue reproduced here is copied straight out of Facebook, our entire conversation there up to mid-July 2017. It was originally in German, so Katy translated it for this publication. Since then, Katy has completed a first-draft translation of Heike’s book. It was a challenge and a joy and there are still plenty of open questions. The translation doesn’t have an English title yet, or a publication date, but we can tell you it will be published by semiotext(e) some time in the future.

 

 

Katy Derbyshire is a translator of contemporary German writers and lives in Berlin. She co-hosts a monthly translation lab and the bi-monthly Dead Ladies Show, and occasionally teaches translation. Katy was one of the initiators of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and has translated books by Christa Wolf, Inka Parei, Clemens Meyer, Helene Hegemann, Annett Gröschner, and others.

Original artwork by Wayne Koestenbaum.