Who is Karen Whittle, the translator who whittles words?

Hailing from the flat, green countryside of the Fylde in the North of England, I swapped rain and plain (the highest point, other than Blackpool Tower, was all of 24 metres above sea level, an incline that struck fear into all us kids pedalling away on our BMXs) for the sun and gently rolling hills of the countryside of Florence in Tuscany (needless to say that when I left the city of Florence, my bike got left behind too).  Brought up on cricket (my first job was scoring for the local cricket team) and meat and two veg, but no lover of tea or beer, I made landfall in the place famed for its good coffee and wine, and its heavenly food. An avid reader from a very young age, every week the mobile library would whisk me away to far-off places along with my play companion, the old French dictionary I’d found tucked away on a bookshelf at home. 

My love of languages continued at school, where I studied French and German, and accompanied me on the first leg of my journey south, to the University of Exeter in Devon.  There I got a degree in German and Italian, and for the first time I discovered hills – beautiful to look at, tiring to walk up (luckily my halls of residence weren’t at the foot of the notorious “Cardiac Hill”) – but I still hadn’t managed to shake off the rain.

My journey in search of the sun brought me to Florence, in Tuscany, where I moved in 1997. As for Florence, what did I find there? Art, beauty, knowledge. The first thing I did in Italy was put my CELTA certificate for teaching English to adults to use: it was a learning experience for me too, both in human terms and giving me the chance to know my own mother tongue better. Then, I slowly achieved my dream of becoming a translator, the dream I’d had ever since I opened that old French dictionary as a child.

I’ve been translating – and learning from what I translate – for over twenty years now. Since 2013, when I entered AITI (Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters) as a qualified literary translator of non-fiction, I’ve also been learning thanks to my colleagues, my work in the association and everything that the association has to offer. The texts that I translate and revise, and learn from as I gaze out at the sun and the gently rolling hills, range from philosophy to art and cinema and from tourism to sociology and history.