Croatian translation legends receive top literary prizes

The Iso Velikanović Lifetime Achievement Award and Annual Award, the highest recognition for literary translation, were presented at the Croatian State Archives to academician Mislav Ježić and translator Lea Kovács.

Ježić is this year's recipient of the Iso Velikanović Lifetime Achievement Award, while the Annual Award was given to Lea Kovács for her translation from French of the novel "Les Bienveillantes" (The Kindly Ones), CE Report quotes HINA.

Ježić is an Indologist and philosopher who has translated some of the most significant religious and philosophical works of humanity into Croatian, from Ancient Greek, Old Persian, Middle Indo-Aryan (Prakrit), and Sanskrit.

Lea Kovács specialises in written, audiovisual, and oral translation. As an independent artist, she translates Hungarian and French literature into Croatian and occasionally Croatian literature into foreign languages.

The awards were presented to the recipients by Minister of Culture and Media Obuljen Koržinek.