Dedicated to my only merry love Claudia Natalie Barbara Erceg

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[i.] Who? [ii.] The Goal [iii.] Steady support, steady care [iv.] Steady? [v.] Where Your Support Goes? [vi.] Pledge [vii.] BUT —wtf?! What's There for Me? [viii.] If Money Is Tight [ix.] Circle of Support [x.] Chamber Music According to James Joyce [xi.] Ulysses [xii.] Final Note

i. Who?

Voki Erceg — writer, translator, performer, film director — while keeping in his daily-writing routine, embarked on translating James Joyce's Ulysses (Gabler's Edition) [1] and Chamber Music According to James Joyce (ed. by Voki Erceg), from English into Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin [2]. So far he has published two books of short stories, translated and commented Joyce's Epiphanies, Pomes Penyeach and Giacomo Joyce. Currently finishing translation of Dubliners.

A translator is like a kiss in a porn film — usually lonely, almost always invisible, but always necessary.

Notes

[1] I met Professor Hans Walter Gabler during one humid Munich day by the end of August—in his apartment, not so many books, and most of them on musicology. A portrait of Bach, mass production reproduction, seemed to have taken the sacred place. And, though this may sound rash, it was during—or it was, perhaps, after—the meeting when I said Yes I said yes I will Yes, I will translate Ulysses.

[2] Also he is drafting An Anthology of Poetry that Influenced Joyce and purely as an amateur musician, composes music for the translated verses of Chamber Music, "hopefully not for my own pleasure. [As for pleasure—I only do it when I am alone. Pun intended.]"

ii. Goal

James Joyce published Ulysses on February 2, 1922, his 40th birthday. The translator, having worked on Chamber Music for over a decade, will dedicate March 23 (translator's 40th birthday), 2026 to the ceremonial start of Ulysses translation—though preparation, research, and immersion in the text are already underway.

The translator, the one in whom every day dies—someone else. The translator, the one who every day dies in—someone else.

— Kolja Mićević

iii. Steady support, steady care

(Why Translators Need Support or The Harriet Shaw Weaver Principle)

"Without Miss Weaver, Joyce would never have been able to write Ulysses."

There would be no Joyce without three women who supported him: Nora (life partner), Sylvia Beach (first publisher of Ulysses), and Harriet Shaw Weaver (benefactor). [1] His circle also included Leopold Popper, Italo Svevo, Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Ezra Pound, Stanislaus Joyce, among many other patrons who helped Joyce financially and otherwise.

Does the translator have the right to translate what he believes should be translated? Is translation—especially poetry translation (Robert Scholes suggested Joyce should be read as a poet [2])—one of the remaining futures of literature? I believe the translator dwells in this possibility.

So yes—the translator, especially here and now, needs your gentle support. It breathes through your care.

Notes

[1] Harriet Shaw Weaver (1876-1961) was Joyce's patron and benefactor, providing financial support that allowed him to write Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Without her support, Joyce might never have completed his major works.

[2] Robert Scholes, American literary critic and Joyce scholar, argued in multiple works that Joyce's prose should be understood through poetic principles—rhythm, sound, and linguistic density rather than novelistic conventions alone.

iv. Steady?

Steady [1] is a membership platform where supporters sustain creative work through monthly contributions. Unlike platforms that lock content behind paywalls, Steady emphasizes community and care—the belief that work of literary and cultural value deserves steady support, not transactional consumption.

This Steady page is not—only—about exclusive content gatekeeping. It's about making space for translation to exist—publicly, freely, sustainably.

By joining, you become part of a circle that believes not only in keeping Joyce alive in new languages, but in the idea that translation is necessary, accessible to all, in the tradition of patronage that also made Joyce himself possible.

Notes

[1] I chose Steady over Patreon as it, somehow, feels more natural, it almost helps me feel, like a prelude to embarking on the translating process, like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

v. Where Your Support Goes?

Translating Joyce is not state-sponsored, not nationally funded, not affiliated with any political program.[1] It happens in the company of those whose support matters—like the PEN Center of Bosnia and Herzegovina—and it happens in the margins between daily necessities.

Your support goes toward securing morning coffee. I guess it is not a luxury, but a necessity. Oats, yogurt, eggs, rice, bread. [2] Some soap would do me good [3]. Shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, tissues. Light bulbs, batteries. Plastic wrap, aluminum foil, ziplock bags. Laundry detergent. Cooking oil, salt, basic spices. Spaghetti and some pizza dough, though. Some tuna. Tea towels, razors, condiments, plastic wrap. A probiotic, vitamin C, occasional basket of fruit. Pillow sheets. Window cleaner. Glass wipes, oven wipes, screen wipes. Candies or chocolates from the checkout line. Avocado slicer, egg separator. Scented candles. Novelty mugs. Socks. Dish sponges and tote-bags. Extension cord. Vases for flowers. Instant noodles or cup soups. I guess endless mustards, ketchups, sauces. Earbuds/headphones. Keychains. Flipflops etc. [5]

Finally, to secure the space for translator's time to translate. [6]

Notes

[1] Independence from state or national cultural programs matters—they come with ideological strings attached. Your support means the work answers to literature, not institutions.

[2] The time, your support buys me the time: Gabler's Synoptic edition requires 48+ hours for one careful pass. Searching Anna's Archive takes time. 

[3] As well as research materials: library memberships (physical or ebooks). Website maintenance, Steady platform maintenance, social media presence (Facebook/Instagram, never Twitter.) No JSTOR or similar. I'd rather go (not saying I will) for an alternative option: Anna's Archive is a shadow library (successor to Library Genesis, Z-Library) providing free access to books, academic articles, and research papers. Technically illegal (copyright infringement), it operates in the tradition of information liberation. JSTOR's model is structurally extractive: it usually monetizes publicly-funded research by charging institutional subscriptions and per-article fees (averaging $19–$43), extracting profit from authors who surrender copyright as a condition of publication and receive no financial return—not from JSTOR, not from publishers, only career capital in a system that requires publication for survival. This creates artificial scarcity around knowledge produced through public investment, effectively privatizing the commons. Academic publishers captured 39% profit margins in 2019 (higher than Apple, Google, Amazon), not by creating value but by controlling distribution infrastructure built on unpaid labor (peer review, editorial boards). JSTOR's model treats knowledge as property rather than public good, erects paywalls that exclude researchers from under-resourced institutions, and perpetuates a regime where access depends on institutional affiliation, not intellectual need. In the end, there is no benefit for the author, perhaps not even for the publisher, but only for the middlemen gatekeepers extracting rent from circulation. While the JSTOR case is clear, Anna's Archive remains an open question—the debate narrows to how we (mis)use it, knowing it also scans books from which authors do receive royalties.

[5] I.e: Ulysses: A Critical and Synoptic Edition by Hans Walter Gabler (3 volumes, €90 + shipping), Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses by Don Gifford (€35), Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses by Sam Slote, Marc A. Mamigonian, and John Turner (€220 hardcover, the most comprehensive with over 12,000 annotations), Ulysses annotated edition by Sam Slote for Alma Classics (€25), 1922 Ulysses in French translation (€40-60), 1922 Ulysses in German translation (€40-60), Allusions in Ulysses: An Annotated List by Weldon Thornton (€50), The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses by Harry Blamires (€30), James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reader's Guide by Stuart Gilbert (€25), Ulysses: The Oxford Reader's Companion by Terence Killeen (€45), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English by Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (€35), Gaelic Glossary for Joyce's Works by Stephen D. Rogers (€60), Word Index to James Joyce's Ulysses by Gabler et al. (€90), A Shorter Finnegans Wake edited by Campbell/Robinson (€20, for Joyce's wordplay techniques), James Joyce (Biography) by Richard Ellmann (€35, the definitive life), Ulysses on the Liffey by Richard Ellmann (€25), The Critical Writings of James Joyce edited by Ellmann/Mason (€20), The Book as World: James Joyce's Ulysses by Marilyn French (€30), James Joyce and the Politics of Identity by James Fairhall (€40), The Joyce Country by W.R. Rodgers (€45, Dublin geography and photographs) and many more needed as the translation progresses. Some of the books from the following list I do indeed own, but there is a Liffey of the books still needed.

[6] If David Albahari once claimed: Yes, translating, as well as editing, can be a significant experience in the process of forming oneself as a writer. To translate someone means to translate oneself. One needs to search for the smallest number of words to express the intention of the writer you are translating, but on the other hand, to stay faithful to the requirements of their poetics. For example, if you would translate the works of Saul Bellow, you must become Saul Bellow, i.e., the town you live in must turn into his Chicago. If you do not go through such a transformation, your efforts to translate a given text would not be fruitful. Then is the translator obliged, while walking through imaginary Dublin and the reality of the text, to visit, as Joyce did, brothels? (Pun, indeed, intended).

rest says dark nurse in this dear darkness

Also, your support doesn't only buy time for translation. It sustains the manufacture: daily writing—fiction, essays (and yes, sometimes, poetry—and that balance makes translation possible, makes writing possible. Joyceana keeps the entire machine breathing.

vi. Pledge

(Public Domain Commitment)

All translations—Ulysses and Chamber Music—will be public domain (CC0).

Free to copy, share, perform, translate further. Accessible to everyone. No restrictions.

Small independent publishers are welcome. Corporate exploitation is noted. [1]

Physical editions—signed, numbered, or specially designed—remain © Kolja & Voki Erceg. Not for profit, only as gratitude to those who make the work possible.

The translations belong to everyone. The editions belong to those who care enough to help them exist.

Notes

[1] Corporate publishers profiting from this work inherit labor funded by individuals, not institutions. The provenance matters.

vii. BUT [—wtf?!] What's There for Me?

The first 33 subscribers receive the 1907 Elkin Mathews Chamber Music reprint edition made by Joyceana team as a thank-you for early belief in the project.

Depending on tier level:

⌶ Special illustrated edition of Chamber Music According to James Joyce (ed. Voki Erceg)—an attempt not to produce "yet another Chamber Music" but a noteworthy version offering something genuinely different, with contributions from aspiring and recognized illustrators.

⌶ Acknowledged in translations: Prominently featured in both Ulysses and Chamber Music According to James Joyce ⌶ Featured @ Vojaer.me: As part of Joyceana's founding circle ⌶ Full access: All benefits from Coffee Anon + One Coffee and a Bun tiers

Merch included in tiers (designed to be immediately available and sustainable):

· Print or posters · Postcards · Mugs · Totebags · Optional physical books (Ex Libris editions may be offered later as opt-in perks)

Important note: Shipping is covered by the patron. Patrons cover shipping costs for physical items (merch, books) to keep tier prices accessible—international shipping can vary significantly and would otherwise inflate monthly support requirements.

viii. If Money Is Tight

All support is absolutely welcome.

If you are short on cash. Changing or chasing jobs. A student. A fellow translator or writer. If you live in one of the former Yugoslavia countries where even €3.33/month is substantial. If you simply think it's too much—there is a hidden Friends & Family tier (€3.33/month) available via direct link. Contact me for access (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

Non-financial support:

· Join the Joyceana Newsletter (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and spread the word · Illustrators: Come aboard—Chamber Music needs visual contributors · Editors, readers, proofreaders: There's always a way to help Joyceana grow · Journalists: Let's talk · Translators: Yes, please, yes, let's talk · Anyone with a voice: Share the project

ix. Circle of Support

Grateful for tools and platforms that make this work possible:

Current sponsors:

Salient (ThemeNectar) | TasteWP | Literature and Latte | InspireWriter | Readwise & Readwise Reader | ZorinOS

x. Chamber Music According to Chames Joyce

Jim should have stuck to music instead of bothering with writing. (Nora Barnacle)

James Joyce's suite of XXXVI songs, Chamber Music, initially titled "A Book of Thirty Songs for Lovers," was released by Elkin Mathews in London in May 1907. Joyce let Stanislaus, his younger brother, arrange the sequence and give the title—revealing Joyce's ambiguity toward these singable poems written for music. (Maria T. Russell suggests this collection should be read aloud.)

This joyceful, untranslatable book of songs is particularly challenging in BCMS languages due to prosodic differences between English and Slavic verse structures. While it doesn't pose the editorial challenge of Ulysses, this translation differs from others in its aim: to give back to Joyce what belongs to Joyce, starting with restoring the sequence's original order—and after that, with every new reading, everything changes. [1]

Notes

[1] Joyce structured Chamber Music as a "double ladder": Poems I-XIII ascend through innocent courtship, XIV ("My dove, my beautiful one") serves as climax and consummation, then XV-XXXIV descend through disillusionment and betrayal, concluding with two desolate tailpieces (XXXV-XXXVI: "I hear an army charging upon the land"). The sequence transforms thirty-six lyrics into a formal musical suite—love's trajectory from hope to ruin. Joyce himself described this in 1909: XIV as "central song," the movement "all downwards until XXXIV which is vitally the end of the book," with the final two as coda. This translation honors that explicit musical intention.

xi. Ulysses.

Why?

"I do not believe that a truly adequate translation is possible. And I fail to understand why writers and critics—and the reading public, too—argue so much about the idea of an absolutely faithful translation." —Zoran Gorjan, translator of Joyce's Ulysses, 1971 [1]

In the region of former Yugoslavia, where Serbo-Croatian used to be spoken and written, there are already three translations: Gorjan's, Paljetak's, Paunović's—all deserving respect, even admiration. Paljetak acknowledged his debt to Gorjan; Paunović seems to translate from scratch, but all new translations happen in correlation with the previous. Though we claim our translations are not congenial, they always are.

As Kolja Mićević noted: one should not embark on translating already-translated work simply because one can do it differently, but because one can do it better.

I start, resonating with the previous translations, with an utterly simple, almost banal question, the point from which everything spreads: How to avoid flatness?

Why Gabler's Edition?

In the Preface to his translation of Ulysses, Zoran Paunović advocates for the 1922 edition instead of Bodley's or Gabler's[3]—though not mentioning either edition explicitly. I am afraid (and somehow I would like to be wrong) that behind his words, the publisher's interests lay: the copyright law in Serbia was about to change. Instead of the 50-year rule, a new 70-year expiry rule was about to begin.

When I met Professor Hans Walter Gabler[4] and after introductory discussions with all the curiosities that happen among well-meaning strangers, when I explained my intentions, he almost immediately and with surprise said that he had never thought his edition might be of use as a source for a translator.

Why Gabler's Edition is the core source: his method is well known, but let's simplify things. We sat close to each other reading:

Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that badly.

Then Gabler pointed out his editorial choice: Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that [really] badly.

Where the word really was struck through by Joyce, leaving the word badly for final inclusion. But this doesn't oblige, it does not bind the translator—it actually opens a vast space of possibility.

The real question would be: what to do with the (non-)existing telegram: Nother dying. Come home. Father. (?!)

And, for the end: I strongly believe that, in essence, translation does not exist—it is always an illusion of the original.

Translation is also a political act and a fight against false purity. Translation: Toward polyphony of our voices. (Kiš) Translation is a Protean spell.

Notes

[1] Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. From this starting point, James Joyce constructs a novel of extraordinary imaginative richness and depth. Unique in the history of literature, Ulysses is one of the most important and enjoyable works of the twentieth century.

[2] While Uliks would be absolutely correct for a Latin text, translating Ulysses—a text written in English—as Uliks seems like a petty crime.

[3] Almost as soon as Ulysses first appeared, in Paris in 1922, James Joyce began to compile a list of errata, and publishers have continued the process ever since, often inadvertently adding to the list. In 1974, an international team of scholars headed by Professor Hans Walter Gabler began to study manuscript evidence, typescripts, and proofs in order to produce as accurate and complete a new edition as possible. First published in 1984, the Gabler edition was hailed as a monumental achievement, one that makes this great and complex novel more accessible and enjoyable than ever before.

[4] Many people may think that Hans Walter Gabler's library is immense and Borgesian/Ecoian-alike, but what actually stands out in this Joycean-temple-humble-like apartment is a huge reproduction of Johann Sebastian Bach. That was the first name mentioned in our conversation. Mr. Gabler went to the kitchen to prepare us tea and serve us snacks, while I was checking out his library. Yes, I saw what most people would see, but there are more books on music, more musicology books, and biographies of composers, than books on literature!

xii. Final Note

Pisanje, kao ni prevođenje, nije zajebancija.

Ok, who made it this far—endless thanks.

I look forward to all the things we set in motion together, through the support you share with me.

Literature, shared and sustained.

Schreiben und Übersetzen ist keine Scheiß-Spielerei.