Wordkeys Phrasebook from a translation game (photo: courtesy of the artist)

‘Wordkeys was designed as a way to broaden the way people think about translation - for me its appeal lies in how it gets me away from my desk and sparks conversations between strangers about language, connection, culture and cooperation.’

— Rosalind Harvey

Rosalind Harvey

Rosalind Harvey is a literary translator and writer based in Coventry. Her translations include Juan Pablo Villalobos’ Down the Rabbit Hole (shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize), Enrique Vila-Matas’ Dublinesque (with Anne McLean; shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and longlisted for the IMPAC Award), and Herralde Prize-winner Guadalupe Nettel’s After the Winter. She is a 2018 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a 2016 Arts Foundation Fellow, and a founding member of the Emerging Translators Network, a lively online community for early-career literary translators. 

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EXHIBITION EVENT

Kalila wa Dimna on a multi-languages Treasure Hunt!

Part of Kalila wa Dimna public programme, Rosalind will organise two rounds of translation games events. The games consist of an interactive linguistic treasure hunt and explore the ways translation and languages connect people and cultures around the world! 

The free translation game will take place on the streets around King’s Cross and begins and ends at the P21 Gallery, allowing the participants to view the Kalila wa Dimna: Ancient Tales in Troubled Times exhibition, before or afterwards. 

During the game two teams compete to uncover and translate clues written in foreign languages hidden on the streets of London using a phrasebook prepared by Harvey and inspired by the linguistic journeys of Kalila wa Dimna – from Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hebrew to Spanish, Italian, French, German, and English. At the end, the teams are brought together in a shared activity that focuses on the idea of working together to overcome adversity.

Original game designed by Coney, represented by David Finnigan.

  • The translation games are funded by UCML, The University Council of Modern Languages