The Translator's Choice

Morals According to Medea by Athena Farrokhzad

In her play Morals According to Medea Athena Farrokhzad explores what happens to Medea after “Medea”. By resuming Euripides’ play where it ended, 2500 years ago, Farrokhzad composes a poetic hymn to the conditions of women everywhere – something that is currently being highlighted and discussed in our society. I believe that Farrokhzad’s play can reach and touch a French audience sensitive to this movement. In her play Farrokhzad also examines her own relationship to men, and the anxiety, or the abuse, she has experienced herself, as well as her vision for the power she might be able to wield.

Athena Farrokhzad’s style is powerfully poetic, and challenging in a way that creates a desire to explore the text further. She uses repetitions that have an entrancing effect on the reader and creates a captivating atmosphere, reflecting both Medea’s state of mind and her dilemmas. Farrokhzad’s talent and strength as a writer consists of being able to create a stream of words with a pulse, a rhythm, where thoughts are joined together and which establishes a way of looking at the world around us. The role of the translator is to preserve and explore a perceptive work like this, and to recreate its poetic rhythm, recreate the uncompromising quality that everyone, I hope, will sense.

About the Translator

Gabrielle Rozsaffy

Having a Swedish mother and a French father I have had the chance of growing up both in Stockholm and in Paris, which in turn has given me two homes in two cultures and two languages. Theatre has always been a passion of mine and I have been lucky to act, direct, write, as well as translate for the theatre. Translation has remained a constant theme during all these years, a gymnastics of the soul, a possibility to explore new thoughts, contemporary texts, a style, and ideas. Above all, translation gives the chance to share these two cultures, and keep in touch with both. I live in Paris, but regularly return to Sweden. Included amongst my translation work are texts by Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, Kristina Lugn, and Henning Mankell’s play The Antelopes, which was performed at Théâtre du Rond Point, and is represented by the publishers l'Arche.

Athena Farrokhzad (b. 1983)

Works

• Vitsvit, poetry, 2013
• Trado, poetry, 2016
• Brev till Europa, poetry, 2018

Awards

• Karin Boyes litterära pris 2013
• Årets Mod 2014
• Stora Läsarpriset 2014

The book

Morals According to Medea (Moral enligt Medea), drama, 2021

Publisher 

Colombine Teaterförlag

Rights

Colombine Teaterförlag

Rights sold 

Norway