Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of the English and American Studies
Dana Soukupová
Czech Literature in English Translation
Magisterská diplomová práce
Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Simona Mazáčová
Brno 2006
I declare that I have worked on this final thesis independently using only the sources listed in the works cited and used.
Dana Soukupová
I would like to thank to Mgr. Simona Mazáčová for her pantience, inspiring comments and very helpful materials very much.
Content
1. Introduction 6
1.1 In the Beginning Was the Curiosity 7
1.2 Generally on Translation Literature in English speaking Countries 8
2. Czech – English Translations form Its Beginnings to 1989 11
2.1 The Very Beginnings 11
2.2 Hussite Movement and 16 th Century 11
2.3 Period of the Counter Reformation and after That 12
2.4 The Early Era of the Czech National Revival 13
2.5 The Rest of the 19 th Century and the First Real Translation from Czech into
English 13
2.6 Early 20 th Century 15
2.7 Translation of Máj 15
2.8 Pargeter’s Translations from Czech into English 17
2.9 Translations from the First Half of the 20 th Century 17
2.10 Translations of the Second Half of the 20 th Century 18
2.11 Anthologies 20
3. Situation after 1989 24
3.1 Individual Authors 25
3.2 Anthologies 39
4. Reception 44
5. Translators 53
5.1 About the Translators 53
5.2 Their Motivation 60
6. Who Assigned You the Translation 64
4 7. Publishers 70
7.1 Catbird Press 71
7.2 Twisted Spoon 72
8. Promotion of Literature 73
8.1 Promotion of Czech Literature 73
8.2 Promotion of Irish Literature 76
9. General Translation Problems 78
10. Conclusion 83
Appendix 1 86
Appendix 2 93
Appendix 3 95
Appendix 4 106
List of Works Cited and Used 109
5 1. Introduction
My diploma thesis aims at the Czech literary works translated into English and published in both the English speaking countries, predominately in the United
Kingdom and in the United States, and, partly, in the Czech Republic after 1989. I would like to offer an insight into the matter as comprehensive as possible.
First, I will give a brief summary of the translations form Czech into English because I believe that it is both interesting and generally unknown for most of the people who are not involved in this very field of study. I also assume that there is a strong connection between past and present, especially within the 20 th century.
Second, I will try to describe the situation in the field of translations from
Czech into English after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Third, I will concentrate on the ways Czech literature is promoted in the
English speaking countries, especially in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
I conducted my investigations and collecting the materials over the period
October 2005 to June 2006. My research is based on the responses of several translators from Czech into English that I received from the translators themselves via electronic mail. I also sought the views of the both Czech publishers and publishing houses in the English speaking countries and other agencies who are involved in promotion of Czech culture. Besides, I will use other sources such as various interviews and articles from different kinds of magazines.
6 1.1 In the Beginning Was the Curiosity
The reason I decided to elaborate this topic is really very simple – the curiosity.
I took several courses in translation during my studies. All these courses were aimed at the translation from English into Czech, logically.
In addition, when I go through any bookstore in the Czech Republic, I always find full bookshelves covered with the most diverse translations, from English mostly.
To establish how much foreign fiction was published in the Czech Republic in
2005 I searched the website of Svaz českých knihkupců a nakladatelů which provides the visitors of the website with statistical data about the book production in the Czech
Republic. With regard to the book production, the year 2005 is noted for the stability if compared with the year 2004. In 2005 15 350 titles were published; 3340 works of fiction of the total amount (nearly 22 %).
Books in Czech dominated the book production, almost 88 % (13 493 titles).
Translations from 45 languages constitute about one third (28, 8 %) of the entire book production, which places the Czech Republic to the sovereign world peak. Although the translations from English have slightly decreased, English remains the biggest source language because 2211 translations from English were brought out, which is one half of all translations (2211 translations from English of the total 4423 translations). English is followed by German (980 translations) and French (243 translations) (Císař).
This made me realize how many books are being translated from English into
Czech. That was the way my curiosity has been awaken and a persistent question has been pestering in my mind whether this phenomena works also the other way round, that is, if Czech literature is transferred into English and so the English speaking
7 audience has the opportunity to enjoy Czech novels, short stories, drama and poetry as well.
According to the Polysystem theory formulated by Even Zohar, the translation literature is “a part of the literary polysystem” (Weissbrod). In this respect, the crucial fact is its position in a culture. Generally speaking, “it [translated literature] may be positioned at the center of the polysystem, in its periphery, or in any one of its systems” (Weissbrod). It follows from the above mentioned facts that the translation literature holds a significant place within the Czech culture and, thus, the translated works, especially those from English, take up the central position of the literary polysystem.
1.2 Generally on Translation Literature in English speaking Countries
Is it, thus, possible that an author from a tiny little Central European country such as the Czech Republic manages to make his/ her way with his/ her literary work in the world that has been dominated by the English language for several past decades?
Theoretically – why not? But in reality?
Literary translation from Czech into English is not mentioned or touched upon very often. Even though it sounds a little bit odd, it is not a subject of science fiction and an unrealistic thing and definitely it is not just one of the results of releasing the political conditions in the Czech Republic after the so called Velvet Revolution in
1989. It has been happening for several years and, surprisingly enough, there is so to speak a sort of “tradition” that dates back into the 15 th century although the most radical step was taken in 1832 when the first real translation from Czech into English was done.
8 Before we explore the current situation concerning the contemporary translations from Czech into English, let us have a quick look at the way the circumstances in the translation field look like in general.
In 2001 a literature conference was held in Prague that was “organised by
Mercator Centre and BookWorld Prague 2001 International Book Fair as part of
Literature Across Frontiers, a European programme of literary and translation activities, exchange and policy debate, and attended by 150 participants from 22 countries” (Büchler). Some of the conclusions of the conference cast a light on the contemporary translation problems that every, especially the ‘minor’ ones, culture has to face so that the actual problem with translations of these days can be better understood.
One of the most significant results of the conference concerns the domination of the English language not only in business but also in literary world:
“The position of small language literatures in the international sphere was
commented on from many points of view and the problem of low demand for
translations from non mainstream languages was linked to the economics of
publishing and the media in general, an area dominated by English, both as a
major language of publishing and as the language most translated from but least
translated into ” (Büchler).
Further, not less important item applies to publishers. It can be stated on the whole that the interest in translation literature has been vanishing from the markets of the world publishers:
9 “The growing commercialisation of the book market was seen as one of the
major obstacles to wider dissemination of literature in translation. With the
exception of the occasional bestseller, translations are considered commercially
unviable, and publishers, especially in the English speaking world, avoid taking
them on” (Büchler) .
This trend is also supported by the statistical data that say that in smaller countries such as the Czech Republic the translation literature prevails over the original writings. On contrary, in countries that can be called as literary powers such as
Germany or Great Britain the situation is the complete opposite – in Germany 30% and in Great Britain only 2, 5% are translations on the book market (Mandys). Škvorecký explains this trend with these words:
“Až donedávna se prakticky nic nepřekládalo, kromě klasiků. Oni si stačili
sami. Angličanů je kolik, padesát milionů, Američanů je já nevím dvě stě
padesát milionů, takže si stačili dodávat literaturu. […] To je vlastně jev až po
druhý světový válce a možná posledních třiceti letech, že se začalo ve zvýšený
míře překládat” 1 (Čulík).
According to the Polysytem theory, it is clear that in the English speaking countries the translated literature occupies the periphery of the literary polysystem.
1 “Actually, nothing was translated until recently, apart from the classics. They were self sufficient. How many Englishmen are there – 55 millions and the Americans, I don’t know, 250 millions, so that they managed to supply themselves with their literature. Actually, it is a phenomenon of the period after WWII or maybe of the last thirty years when they started to translate [foreign] literature in greater extent.”
10 2. History of Translation from Czech into English
Before we focus on and explore the current situation in the field of translations from Czech into English within the period of the late 1989 to the present, it might be of great interest to peep into the history and explore the evidence that will reveal how far the process of translating from Czech into English dates back and thus prove that it is a matter of the political development of the recent fifteen years by no means.
2.1 The Very Beginnings
At the beginnings of the process of translations from Czech into English, there are actually no real translations. Bohemia appears in English literature only indirectly
– usually through various references to certain notable and worth mentioning historical figures (e. g. Anne of Bohemia who married Richard II of England) or any significant events of that time.
2.2 Hussite Movement and 16 th Century
One of the first noticeable influences between England and Bohemia dates back to the 15 th century.
The early 15 th century in the Czech lands was marked by the protestant movements under the influence of the teachings of Master Jan Hus. It is well known that Master Jan Hus’ teachings and consequently the Hussite movement were influenced by the ideas and thoughts of the English theologian, philosopher and ecclesiastical reformer John Wycliffe. However, this sort of “cooperation” seems to work just one way; John Wycliffe and the rest of the England are believed to have a lack of interest in Bohemia and its thinkers. One of the reasons that might help to understand the aloof attitude from the English is that, in England, Bohemia was widely
11 accepted because of the religious revolts as a “heretical, disordered and seditious” country (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 329). The English absence of interest in Bohemia still lasted after the collapse of the Hussite movement until the
Reformation in the 17 th century.
However, the very first pieces of the Czech literature appeared in English already in the 15 th and 16 th century. They were not real translations yet but they were rather some kinds of retellings.
John Capgrave’s work is a case in point. He retold in English the legend of
Saint Wenceslas in 1470.
Then, in 1554 John Foxe published his Acts and Monuments . His work contains
“History of Master John Hus”, which is probably the result of Hus’ and Jerome of
Prague’s becoming Protestant martyrs.
Even though they attracted little attention outside Bohemia, there was no attempt to translate their works or any others’ because most of the works of that time were written in Latin so that those works were easily accessible to the scholars from various countries without any need of translation.
2.3 Period of the Counter Reformation and after That
The Counter Reformation that followed the Czech Protestants’ defeat in 1620 helped to weaken the already poor relations between Bohemia and England.
Nevertheless, even at that time the English speaking world got in touch with some other works of Czech origin, though written in Latin, especially via a great
Bohemian educationalist, Jan Ámos Komenský (Comenius) that emerged on the scene in the 17 th century. He spent in England the years 1641 42. During his stay in England lots of his Latin writings were published there.
12 Moreover, during and after the Thirty Years’ War the English learnt about
Bohemia in the occasional travel books and in general histories coming out during the
17 th and 18 th century.
2.4 The Early Era of the Czech National Revival
Another significant era in the Czech history was, without any doubt, the Czech
National Revival that spread over the late 18 th and early 19 th century and which tried to revive Czech language, culture and national identity.
The decades of the Czech National Revival contributed to arouse some interest in the Czech literature abroad. In 1820, a Polish emigrant, Krystyn Lach Szyrma, translated several texts from the Dvůr Králové Manuscript that had been supposed to be a medieval manuscript but later it proved to be a 19 th century fake.
2.5 The Rest of the 19 th Century and the First Real Translation from Czech into
English
Several years later after Krystyn Lach Szyrma published his translations a change took place in the sphere of translating from Czech into English..
The year 1832 was a real breakthrough in translation from Czech into English as the first volume of real translations from Czech into English was produced. The
Benthamite Sir John Bowring published Cheskian Anthology that contained various translations from early Hussite battle hymns to the work of contemporary writers such as Čelakovský, Kollár and Jungmann. In the sense of the translation from Czech into
English it was a pioneer work although Sir John Bowring had worked from German versions of the texts. As regards the quality of these translations it can be said that his translations are “rather free, though occasionally lively” (Partridge, “Literary
13 Translation into Czech”, 330). Unfortunately, the works did meet no success concerning the interest of the English audiences.
Bowring’s successor was the Reverend Albert Henry Wratislaw, a headmaster of Bury St. Edmund’s Grammar School. He published a remarkable work Lyra
Czechoslovanská: Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern in 1849. Wratislaw had greater scholarly knowledge of Czech, but he was not lucky in choosing the texts. Not surprisingly then, the interest of the English readership failed again.
Anyway, Wratislaw was more successful with his versions of the older Czech literary works (e.g. Příhody Václava Vratislava z Mitrovic: The Adventures of Baron
Wencelas of Mitrowitz , c. 1600) (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330) published in 1878 and with his book of lectures The Native Literature in Bohemia in the Fourteenth Century (1878) including several extracts from many of the medieval
Bohemian works including Alexandreis (Alexander Legend) , Tkadleček (The Weaver) and Tomáš Štítný’s prose (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330).
Apart form the already mentioned 19 th century translators there were few others as well – Sir Walter William Strickland, an Englishmen, and Frances Gregor, originally Františka Gregorová, a Czech immigrant living in Chicago.
Sir Walter William Strickland, 9 th Baronet, of Malton, Yorkshire who is said to be “a sort of eccentric […] traveller and a free thinker with a taste for anarchism and
Buddhism” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330) was a significant promoter of the Czech culture even though he stays rather out of wider public notice.
Strickland managed to learn Czech and did translations of some poems and several stories by Vitězslav Hálek, Svatopluk Čech’s poem Hanuman and a play by
Emanuel Bozděch. The quality of his translations was “rather good” (Partridge,
14 “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330). But again these translations did not find their way to the English audience.
Frances Gregor published her English version of Babička ( The Grandmother ) by Božena Němcová in Chicago, a centre of Czech immigrants, in 1892. This book was distributed limitedly only in the United States. Concerning the quality of her translation Partridge believes that apart from “the large number of spelling and grammatical mistakes […] the translation itself is excellent” (Partridge, “ The
Grandmother ”).
2.6 Early 20 th Century
The first successful translation from Czech into English in terms of reader response, however, came to light several years later when Count Francis Lützow released his translation of Komenský’s The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart in 1901.
Lützow had definitely a good relation to the Czech culture because of his origin since he was born into an aristocratic family from Eastern Bohemia. Lützow being probably a sort of a great “patriot” had a great share on presenting Czech history and culture to the British. He also delivered History of Bohemian Literature to the English speaking world .
2.7 Translation of Máj
Since the 19 th century two Czech works have been standing out till the present day. They are a book length Romantic poem Máj (May) by Karel Hynek Mácha and an idyllic story set in the Czech countryside Babička ( Grandmother ) by Božena
15 Němcová. It is no surprise that they did not escape the translators’ attention although they have come into interest of translators only in the 20 th century.
Máj has represented a masterpiece of European subjective Romanticism, whose
“musical richness, the allusiveness and interrelation of language and imagery make it particularly difficult to translate” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330).
The first attempt to translate this long poem was made by Roderick Ginsburg in 1932.
Several years later in 1943, Stephen Spender and Karel Brušák translated just one part of the whole poem – Canto II.
Shortly after the Second World War in 1949, Hugh Hamilton McGoverne published a new re edition of the whole poem. McGoverne transferred May into “a charming but inappropriate late Victorian English” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330).
Another translation of Máj was later done by Edith Pargeter, better known as
Ellis Peters who is famous for her medieval whodunits. Her translation of Máj was released in an edition published by a Prague publisher Artia.
In 1987 the American Bohemist William E. Harkins published “a rather flat version” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330) of Máj in the annual Cross
Currents.
One of the most recent complete translations of the poem has been done by
James Naughton. However, his version of Máj stays still unpublished apart from Canto
III that was published in the Prague magazine Yazzyk (4 (1995)), which is no longer issued . Regarding the quality of Naughton’s translation Partridge is convinced that
Naughton “allows some of Mácha’s ambiguities to remain as such instead of resolving them as the other translators tend to do” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”,
330).
16 It seems that Mácha’s Máj is a sort of a challenge for the translators as quite a lot of translations of Máj have been published during the 20 th century. One of the reasons explaining the popularity of translating Máj is that it is written in iambic metre, which is a common metre of the English verse. I dare to assert that any other
Czech literary work has not been transferred from Czech into English by such a wide range of translators and so many times.
2.8 Pargeter’s Translations from Czech into English
The first 20 th century translation of Němcová’s Babička appeared much later than Mácha’s Máj – in 1962. It was a translation by already named Edith Pargeter.
Partridge mentions the “unfortunate” (“Literary Translation into Czech”, 330) title
Granny that Pargeter chose for her translation but, in general, he believes that
“Pargeter’s translation is one of the finer attempt at turning Czech 19 th century prose into English” (“Literary Translation into Czech”, 330).
However, Pargeter did not decide to translate from Czech into English just
Babička but she turned her “translation” attention to another prominent Czech literary figure of the 19 th century – Jan Neruda. In comparison to her translation of Babička ,
Pargeter was less successful with her earlier translation of Jan Neruda’s The Little
Quarter because “her literary style does not really suit the journalist Neruda’s ironic stories and there are occasional misunderstandings of sense” (Partridge, “Literary
Translation into Czech”, 330).
2. 9 Translations from the First Half of the 20 th Century
Paul Selver, a translator who worked at the Czechoslovak embassy, then introduced to the English speaking readership other Czech writers and their works.
17 Selver was the first who translated Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk and Karel
Čapek’s R. U. R . “which in his translation gave the word robot to the English language” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330).
Čapek’s work then enjoyed a brief popularity in England in the 1920s and
1930s. Within this decade most of his work was translated into English. Nevertheless,
Čapek’s work continues to be regularly translated by many other translators such as
Robert and Mica Weatherall, and Cecil Parrott.
Around the same time F. P. Marchant started to translate work of the 19 th century satirist Karel Havlíček Borovský. Another scholar who devoted his time and energy to Borovský as well was William Harkins. He concentrated on translating Křest sv. Vladimíra (The Baptism of St Vladimír).
Anyway, back to Marchant who does not stick only to Borovský’s writings but he also reveals some of the historical work of the 19 th century novelist Alois Jirásek and brings it closer to the English speaking audience.
One more translation coming out before the Second World War is worth mentioning. It is a translation of Jaroslav Durych’s Bloudění . It is a novel of the
Counter Reformation published as The Descent of the Idol in 1935 .
In 1940s and 1950s some interest in the contemporary novelist Egon Hostovský grew. Some of his work was translated by several translators such as Fern Long, Philip
H. Smith and Ewald Osers.
2.10 Translations of the Second Half of the 20 th Century
Concerning the translation from Czech into English in the second half of the
20 th century, it could be said that, in general, the translation of poetry prevails. One of the Czech poets that attracted the several translators’ attention was Fratišek Halas, one
18 of the most important Czech poets of the first half of the 20 th century. Although Halas
“could have not been well represented in English” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 330), some occasional translations of his poems were published such as
Staré ženy ( Old Women ) by Karel Offer in 1947, which is a collection of poems.
The other compilation of Halas’ poems was then put together by Václav Svěrák in 1981. However, using Partridge’s words “neither book seems to have made any impression” (“Literary Translation into Czech”, 331).
Another Czech poet whose work was introduced to the English speaking world in the second half of the 20 th century was Vítězslav Nezval. In 1971 Ewald Osers did some translations of Vítězslav Nezval’s poems that he published in the Penguin Three
Czech Poets.
Further, Osers also translated some bits of the poetry by Jaroslav Seifert that was published before and after Seifert was rewarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1985. Unfortunately according Partridge “Seifert and the collection were both promptly forgotten” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 331).
Other specialists in translating the Czech poetry into English are, without any doubt, Ian and Jarmila Milner. They did some translations of Vladimír Holan’s poems, whose work ranges from lyrical to long narrative poems. Nevertheless, Partridge sounds rather critical of Milners’ outcome: “The Milners translate Holan’s words often without quite seeming to grasp their meaning” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into
Czech”, 331).
Clayton Eshleman and František Galan can be counted among other translators of Holan. They translated Holan’s long poem A Night with Hamlet but “again without any discernible wider impact” (Partridge, “Literary Translation into Czech”, 331).
19 Another Czech poet that attracts the Czech English translators’ attention and who is probably the best known contemporary Czech poet in the English speaking world is Miroslav Holub. His poetry was presented to the English speaking audience via translations done by Ian and Jarmila Milner, Ewald Osers and George Theiner.
Other Czech authors, either prose writers or dramatists that managed to gain some attention of the English speaking readers before 1989 were, not surprisingly, the dissident writers such as Milan Kundera, Václav Havel and Josef Škvorecký.
Moreover, however in less extent, Ivan Klíma and Ludvík Vaculík were noticed by the English speaking audience at that time. I will return later to the translations of these authors when I am dealing with the individual translators and the state of the Czech English translations in the English speaking countries after 1989.
2.11 Anthologies
Not only individual authors were translated but also several literature anthologies were published in the English speaking countries during the 20 th century.
Some of them were purely aimed at the Czech literature, especially poetry.
However, most of them are compilations of examples of various world poetry works in which also some translations from Czech are included.
The earliest compilation An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature (1929) was published by the first 20 th century translator from Czech into English Paul Selver. This
Selver’s work reached finally any success by the English speaking readership. He incorporated in his Anthology translations of poems by some Czech poets. This anthology includes also a short story by Karel Čapek Chod and several extracts from the medieval authors such as Jan Hus and Petr Chelčický. As concerns the appraisal of the quality of his translations, Partridge states that: “The quality of Selver’s
20 translations is sometimes impressive and sometimes irritatingly bad” (“Literary
Translation into Czech”, 330).
In the same year, 1929, one more collection came out that enabled the English speaking “poems enthusiasts” to investigate some samples of the Czech poetry. It was
An Anthology of Czechoslovak Poetry published by Clarence Manning.
The Soul of a Century is another anthology of poetry. It was translated and collected by R. A. Ginsburg in 1942. It contains English translations of the poetic works of the Czech poets from the first decade of the 19 th century to a corresponding milestone of the 20 th century such as Jan Kollár, Karel Hynek Mácha, Karel Jaromír
Erben, Jan Neruda, Adolf Heyduk, Josef Václav Sládek, Otokar Březina, and František
Gellner. Ginsburg’s collection, according to his own words, represents an un academic collection:
“The collection is by no means exhaustive, critical or even scholarly. The
selections were made primarily on the basis of translatability, and their English
readability was the final criterion of choice” (Ginsburg).
The collected works were not just the privilege of the foreign publishers. In
1960s two anthologies were published by the Prague publisher Artia. However, these publications were not destined for a wider distribution on the British book market.
They were A Handful of Linden Leaves (1960) and The Linden Tree (1962), an anthology of Czech and Slovak poetry and prose from 1890 till 1960.
A Handful of Linden Leaves maps the poetry from the period from the year
1890 till time of František Hrubín.
21 Concerning The Linden Tree, I only managed to find out that many of
Pargeter’s translations were presented in it.
Moreover, in 1969 George Theiner published his anthology of Czech poetry and prose called New Writing in Czechoslovakia by Penguin Books, London, which was a result of a successful publishing of Miroslav Holub’s poetry in 1967. The pieces presented in this anthology were translated by George Theiner and Ian Milner.
In 1970 editor Alan Bold published Penguin Book of Socialist Verse in which readers could find some of Miroslav Holub’s poems as well.
Three years later, in 1973, Alfred French from the Institute of Slavonic Studies,
Michigan University, published Czech Poetry – A Bilingual Anthology . The book contains hymns and sacred songs from the early 14 th century till the lyrics of the 19 th century e. g. pieces of works by Jan Kollár, František Ladislav Čelakovský, Karel
Hynek Mácha, Karel Jaromír Erben, Karel Havlíček Borovský, Jan Neruda, Josef
Sládek, Svatopluk Čech, Jaroslav Vrchlický, Josef Svatopluk Machar, Petr Bezruč,
Antonín Sova, Otokar Březina, Stanislav Kostka Neumann, and Fráňa Šrámek
(Milner).
At the beginnings of the 1980s, C. Ragland published International Portland
Review , in which poetry by Seifert, Skácel and Hanzlík emerged (Milner).
In 1983 Contemporary East European Poetry came out, edited by Emery
George. This anthology contains works in fifteen languages, including Czech works by
Jaroslav Seifert, Vladimír Holan, František Hrubín, Miroslav Holub, Josef Hanzlík and
Antonín Bartušek in translation by Ewald Osers.
Oxford University Press published The Oxford Book of Christmas Poems in
1983. Poems by Hanzlík and Holub can be found there.
22 In 1984, In Love with Life – An Anthology of Contemporary Czech Poetry was brought out by Artia publisher in Prague. However, this book was intended for non commercial distribution. Most of the translations were done by Ewald Osers. Many known but also less known Czech poets can be found in it such as Biebl, Nezval,
Halas, Seifert, Hrubín, Závada, Mikulášek, Urbánková, Pilař, Kainar, Skála, Rybák and others.
Two years later in 1986, A. French published The Poet’s Lamp in Australia.
The book contains mirror organized poems by Czech authors from Borovský till
Hanzlík. The translations were done by French, Harkins, the Milners, Osers and
Theiner.
Concerning the prose, the anthology The Writing on the Wall , published in
1983 is worth mentioning. It was edited by Antonin Liehm and Peter Kussi and it is a collection of short stories and feuilletons written by underground authors such as Jiří
Gruša, Václav Havel, Ivan Klíma, Pavel Kohout and Eva Kriseová. Pieces turning up in this anthology were first published in samizdat in Czechoslovakia by Edice Petlice.
The samples were translated by William E. Harkins, Kaca Polackova, Paul Wilson, Jan
Drabek, Suzanne Rappaport, Peter Kussi, Miroslav Rensky and Vera Blackwell.
23 3. Situation after 1989
The development of translations from Czech into English after 1989 reflects the general situation on the “books in translation” market of the English speaking countries on the whole. As has been already stated in the introductory part, the interest in translation literature in the English speaking countries is rather very low. Loewy comments the situation with the following words: “While in Germany you may see
12.000 new translated titles each year, in the U. S. only about 1.500 translated works appear each year.” As Loewy specializes in poetry, she further develops her comment with regard to the poetry: “Few Americans still read poetry and even fewer read it in translation.”
James Partridge, who can be called as a sort of theorist in translation from
Czech into English as he has published several papers, articles and essays concerning the issue translation from Czech into English, supports Loewy’s and as well the general opinion. Partridge sounds relatively very negative when expressing his judgment about the Czech works translated into English in general:
“I think Czech literature is, on the whole, pretty poorly translated into
English. I'd go further than that and say that I think Czech literature has been
badly served by English translators over the years. Paul Selver set a pretty low
standard back in the 1920s and that standard has stayed low in most (not all)
cases since then. Of course there are exceptions but the overall quality of
translations from Czech is very low (in my opinion, of course).”
However, if we search the websites of various publishers and book distributors such as Amazon, we will learn – maybe surprisingly – that at least one Czech title
24 came out every year within the period 1990 – 2006. I am convinced that already this state can be pronounced a certain kind of success if we take into consideration that the interest in translation literature in the English speaking countries is really of no importance.
Josef Škvorecký sounded optimistic and enthusiastic, too, when he was interviewed by Jan Čulík in 1991. Škovercký expressed his opinion about the position of Czech literature within the bounds of global standards:
“česká literatura má prostě velice dobrý jméno v současný době. Vydává se
nejen ty, který jste jmenoval [Hrabal, Kundera, Škvorecký, Klíma], ale třeba
loni vyšly dva romány Jiřího Weila […] teď tam vyšla Pekárková, to je úplně
současná česká autorka […] Česká literatura má dneska v Americe a v Anglii
jistě taky velice dobrý jméno. Není to samozřejmě literatura, která by mohla
konkurovat americkejm bestsellerům” 2 (Čulík).
And what is the reality in 2006? Let us have a closer look at which Czech writers are still popular in the English speaking countries and which other Czech authors have made an impression either on translators or on publishers so that they decided to publish the pieces of writings of their “favourite” Czech writers in English.
3.1 Individual Authors
Some of the Czech writers found their way to the English speaking audience already before 1989, usually those who, in spite of their political attitudes, were 2 “simply Czech literature has a good reputation nowadays. Not only those authors you named [Hrabal, Kundera, Škvorecký, Klíma] but for instance two novels by Jiří Gruša were published last year […] a novel by Iva Pekárková, who is a contemporary writer, has been published recebtly. […] Czech literature has a good reputation in the United States and in England surely too. Of course, it is not the literature that could compete with the American bestsellers.”
25 banned to publish their works in Czechoslovakia. Most of the works of these authors were thus translated before 1989 and they have been either republished ( The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Škoverecký, translated by Paul Wilson, 1984, 1999) or retranslated ( Tales form Two Pockets by Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver in
1932 and Norma Comrada in 1994) in the period after the Velvet Revolution.
The trend of “republishing” and “retranslating” concerns the Czech authors of the older generation whose works were published and who gained some attention of the English speaking audience because of the political situation already before 1989.
The interest in them was then awaked and increased again after the Velvet
Revolution of 1989 because – as I have already stated – they were known and the readers were probably curious about their writings emerging in the finally free country.
The fact “being known” plays a crucial role in the continuing interest in these authors such as Ivan Klíma, who is supposed to be the most successful contemporary Czech writer in the English speaking countries. Other authors who still draw the attention in the English speaking countries are Vladimír Páral, Karel Čapek, Václav Havel, Milan
Kundera, Bohumil Hrabal, Arnošt Lustig, Jan Neruda and Josef Škovercký.
Václav Havel has made a double impact on the English speaking audience – on the one hand as dramatist, on the other hand as politician. Although this thesis is devoted to the works of fiction, I would like to say a word or two about the translation of Havel’s essays and speeches dealing with various political issues. First, it must be stated that: “Havlovy projevy o stavu světa vyvolávají mnohem větší zájem mimo
Českou republiku” 3 (Mácháček 10). The English voice of Havel’s non fictional pieces
3 “Havel’s speeches on global matters arouse more interest outside the Czech Republic.”
26 is distributed via the translations by Paul Wilson who is responsible for most of
Havel’s speeches essays published in English.
In the post war drama Václav Havel is one of the Czech playwrights who has gained some recognition in the English speaking world that has lasted for several years. However, according to Naughton: “10 years after the 1989 Velvet Revolution and his first election as president, Havel’s plays have slightly sunk from view.
‘Dissident’ literature has lost its Iron Curtain mysthique” (“Czech and Slovak”, 1999).
The most translated play by Havel is called Audience. It has been transferred into English by three translators – Vera Blackwell, the first translator of Havel’s plays and who has translated and adopted six of them, Jan Novák, and George Theiner.
The difficulty of translating this play into English is “obecná čeština” because there is no equal equivalent to it in English. There is no wonder, then, that the quality of each translation defers. Blackwell’s translation (1978) is believed to be
“mostly faithful to the original [although Malters, the character who speaks
“obecná čeština”] sounds too much like an imitation of a “working class”
accent” (Partridge, “Václav Havel”, 625).
Theiner’s version (1976), on contrary, seems to be the least favourable.
According to Partridge, Theiner has produced “a functional but rather flat version”
(“Václav Havel”, 625).
The most recent version of Audience translated by Novák is said to be
“entertaining and [it] follows the text closely, yet it is extremely misleading as it lacks the irony of the original and the subtle humour of the language” (Partridge, “Václav
Havel”, 625). The figure Brewmaster in Novak’s translation, who speaks “obecná
27 čeština as well, “sounds like a Los Angeles pimp rather than a Czech brewer”
(Partridge, “Václav Havel”, 625). Novák’s version was then republished in Three
Vaněk Plays , edited by Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz (1990).
Nevertheless, probably the most suitable and ideal translator of Havel’s plays is
Tom Stoppard. He benefits from the fact that Stoppard himself is playwright so that his translation of Largo desolato (1984) is believed to really successful, which Partridge proves with these words:
“Stoppard manages to reproduce the rhythm of the Czech perhaps as closely as
is possible in English […] the translation is funny as the original – a
considerable achievement in translation from any language” (“Václav Havel”,
625).
His translation reappeared in Selected Plays 1984 87 published in 1994.
Another example of newly republished book represents The Grandmother by
Božena Němcová that was translated by Frances Gregor in 1892. The Gregor’s version was republished in 1999 and it is definitely worth mentioning in more detail as: “the book was only ever distributed in America, and even that distribution was very limited; hence, it is a true rarity” (Partridge, “ The Grandmother ”).
A copy of this English publication of The Grandmother was found by chance in a second hand bookshop. This translation is considered to be “excellent” (Partridge,
“The Grandmother ”). Partridge further highlights the merits of Frances Gregor’s translation:
28 “Gregorova approaches the text soberly and sensibly, resisting the temptation
to give the English any emotional ‘spin’ […] and adjust it to suit her audience.
[…] late 19 th century translators are not renowned for their faithfulness to the
texts” (Partridge, “ The Grandmother ”)
that is why it deserves to be republished.
As was already mentioned, most of the Karel Čapek ’s prosaic and dramatic work was translated in the first half of the 20 th century. Because the overall impression of the quality of the translations of the 1920s and 1930s is rather negative there is no wonder that since 1990 the American publisher Catbird Press was publishing new and revised translations of Čapek’s work.
One of the first Čapek publication of Catbird Press is a collection that presents
Čapek as an universal writer. Peter Kussi offers a nearly exhaustive insight into
Čapek’s work in his Toward the Radical Center. Karel Čapek Reader (1990). Kussi decided to present Čapek as dramatist and Čapek as author of prosaic texts. The reader contains three Čapek’s plays ( R.U.R ., The Macropulos Secret , and From the Life of the
Insects ), some of his short stories that are samples from virtually all his collections, and several examples that introduce Čapek as essayist.
The excerpts in Toward the Radical Center. Karel Čapek Reader were translated by a wide range of translators so that this compilation offers a kind of a complex overview of Čapek’s translations into English as well because it is a mixture of both the old and new versions.
Tatian Firkušný, Yveta Synek Graff, Robert T. Jones, Dora Round, Paul Selver,
Charles E. Townsend, and Maria and Robert Weatherall are some of the Čapek’s
29 translators. Some of the translators can be called as translators specialists on Čapek such as Norma Comrada.
Concerning the quality of some of the individual translations I will use
Partridge’s comments:
“[The Weatherlls’ translation] is readable and accurate and they imitate the
mosaic of different styles convincingly. […] Dora Round is an attentive
translator of Čapek who follows the Czech text closely without allowing her
English to become contrived or unnatural […] her biggest problems follows
from Čapek’s vocabulary. [Norma Comrada’s] version differs from Round’s
inits use of updated language […] her translation does read easily […] She
[Norma Comrada] keeps more closely to the original than Round does”
(Partridge , “Karel Čapek”, 228 29).
The most recent translations of Čapek were done by Norma Comrada ( Tales from Two Pockets, 1994, Apocryphal Tales: With a Selection of Fables and Would be
Tales, 1997, and Cross Roads, 2002). Nowadays, Comrada has been working on retranslation of Čapek’s dog book Dášenka .
The following writer, Bohumil Hrabal , even though his work has not been translated so many times as Čapek’s was, seems to be a sort of challenge for translators because of his style and unique way of writing that makes an impression of spontaneous oral story telling with an endless flow of thoughts, which is reflected in the syntactic structure – common is the use of one paragraph length sentences.
Partridge states that: “The translators are often more successful where Hrabal is
30 syntactically and lexically least Hrabalesque, in his more plainly composed narratives or selections text” (“Bohumil Hrabal”, 668).
Regarding the translations themselves, done by Michael Henry Heim, Edith
Pargeter, and Paul Wilson, the most common and unifying feature of all these translations is that Hrabal’s intricate syntactic structure is not kept but it is simplified and the long sentences are cut shorter. However, the general quality of the produced translations is good. Partridge’s commets on the quality of the translations in more detail:
“Heim’s translation is in most other respects admirable [but] this is a serious
omission [translating “slečno” as ladies, which changes the intended message
of Hrabal] […] Edith Pargeter handles the delicate balance between staying
faithful to the original text and rendering it in a natural and convincing English
[…] James Naughton is the only one translator who exactly reproduces this
[Hrabal’s way of writing a paragraph just in one sentence] typical manner
[…][Wilson’s translation] is highly readable and enjoyable but not always as
faithful to Hrabal” (“Bohumil Hrabal”, 668 69).
Hrabal’s contemporary colleague being involved in the writing business too but who is more famous in the English speaking world partly because he has been living in
Canada since the late 1960s is Josef Škvorecký . He is, perhaps, one of the most successful and well known contemporary Czech writers in English translation. His success lies in his style and language and in the fact that
31 “from the beginning Škvorecký has had a stronger orientation towards Anglo
American culture […] [Škvorecký’s pet subjects are] celebration of American
jazz, culture and film, even though still within a Czech setting” (Partridge,
“Josef Škvorecký”, 1290),
thus, Škvorecký introduces the Czech life and institutions set in the familiar context to the English speaking audience.
However, this typical feature of Škvorecký’s writings presents a sort of stumbling block. There is no equivalent to the English expressions of his writings in
English. Nevertheless, according to Partridge most of the translations of Škvorecký’s works seem to be at the very good level. The most common translators are Jeanne
Němcová, Paul Wilson and Káča Poláčková Henley.
Káča Poláčková Henley is a translator of the most of Škvorecký’s shorter pieces of writings such as The Bass Saxophone (1977) and of one novel, The Bride of
Texas (1995) that seems to be less American than other works by Škvorecký.
On the contrary to Káča Poláčková Henley, Paul Wilson has transferred most of Škvorecký’s novels. Wilson seems to have a sort of personal relationship to
Škvorecký’s writings because as Wilson says: “byl to vlastně první autor [Škvorecký], kterého jsem překládal” 4 (Macháček 11). With regard to his editions, Partridge says that:
“[Wilson’s translation of The Republic of Whores is] to some extent […] a
reworking of the original Czech novel […] Presumably this must have been
4 “Actually, he [Škvorecký] was the first author whose work I have translated.”
32 done with the knowledge and guidance of the author” (“Josef Škvorecký”,
1291).
Because of the needed changes in the Škvorecký’s novels when being translated into
English, Partridge hints that Wilson discussed his work with Škvorecký as the case of
Dvořák in Love :
“The crucial point about Dvořák in Love is that in this case […] changes are
quite justified, given the loose structure of the original. Evidently Wilson and
Škvorecký have worked together on the English text producing, in effect, a
second novel” (“Josef Škvorecký”, 1291),
which Wilson proves: “A stejně jako Škvorecký jsem žil v Torontu, takže jsme mohli hodně konzultovat” 5 (Macháček 11). Other Wilson’s translations are considered to be faithful and readable.
As has been suggested in the previous paragraph, the living writers have the opportunity, or rather the other way round, the contemporary translators are lucky if they translate a work of a living author because they can consult the fuzzy passages.
However, this phenomenon does not have to be necessarily some kind of contribution but it can turn into the very opposite – “the persecution and accusation” of the translators of mishandling with and misinterpreting the work. Milan Kundera and the translations of his novel The Joke are probably the most known example of the
5 “We both, Škvorecký and I, lived in Toronto so that we could discuss a lot.”
33 author’s unsatisfactory feeling of having a bad translation of his work. Although the story dates back to 1969, it was definitely solved not until 1992.
The problem was that the early translators or publishers “took liberties with
Kundera’s style, changing the work’s punctuation, shortening segments, and rearranging the order of its chapters” (Farrant 782), which really disappointed
Kundera.
Another attempt to transfer The Joke into English followed in 1982 when
Michael Henry Heim published his English version of Kundera’s novel. The first impression was good. However, after allowing it to be published, Kundera changed his mind and wrote:
“often the words were remote from what I had written; the syntax differed too;
there was inaccuracy in all the reflective passages; irony had been transformed
to satire […] in good conscience Heim produced the kind of translation that one
might call translation adaptation ” (Farrant 783)
To avoid any other rough handling with his novel Kundera decided to assist
Aaron Asher and together they produced the last and final version of The Joke in
English, which Asher describes as:
“this edition of novel reflects Kundera’s original as closely as any translation
possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also
to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel’s narrators” (Farrant
783).
34 After Kundera checked the publisher’s work too, the novel could come out.
Because of this experience Kundera seems to be a really tough call for the translators as he wants to take control over his other translations, too.
Hopefully, the translators do not have any such problems while translating the new Czech authors into English because not only the works of the established writers are brought out to the English speaking audiences these days. Fortunately, some other,
“unknown older” to the English speaking readership and younger, authors have attracted the attention of some translators so that the English speaking world has a chance to acquaint with a wider spectrum of Czech literature nowadays. It must be stressed that finally the awareness of Czech women writers penetrates into the English speaking world, which is a kind of a completely new phenomenon of the period after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 (except for Němcová’s Babička (The Grandmother ), first published in English in 1892 and Eva Kantůrková’s Přítelkyně z domu smutku
(My Companions in the Bleak House , 1987)). These “unknown older” and younger authors include Daniela Fischerová, Alois Jirásek, Pavel Kohout, Ota Pavel, Karel
Poláček, Iva Pekárková, Jáchym Topol, Michal Viewegh, and Jiří Weil.
Iva Pekárková is probably one of the first Czech women writers that win recognition with her literary work abroad immediately after 1989. She published her first novel, Truck Stop Rainbows , in English already in the early 1990s that met with a lively response of the American audience. No wonder, then, several years later, a
British publisher was interested in Pekárková’s third novel Gimme the Money (2000).
35 Pekárková tells the story of the translation of this novel when interviewing by
Madelaine Hron in 2001:
“The publisher in England wanted to get a grant from the Czech Ministry of
Culture for the translation […] he told me that if my name was on it, he was
never going to get the grant […] So the book says, ‘translated by Raymond
Johnston’ and me. In fact, I translated it [however, her husband helped her very
much] he goes through whatever I have written very carefully and makes sure
that the English is correct” (Hron, “Jumping into Another Life”),
which foreshadows the policy of publishing a book and suggests one of the possibilities one can get his/ her book published abroad.
Other Czech woman writer who can be proud of having some of her works published in English is Daniela Fischerová . Fisherová’s collection of short stories
Prst, který se nikdy nedotkne (translated as Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else by Neil
Bermel) came out in English in 2000. I presume that there was not real and intensive but still a sort of cooperation between the writer and translator because Fischerová mentions: “It completely flabbergasted me when he [Neil Bermel] sent me his translations of one of Master Wu’s poems so that I might evaluate them” (Hron, “The
Enduring Desire to Write”). Further, Fischerová comments on the overall impression of the English translation of her collection of short stories:
“I am extremely satisfied with it and very grateful to Neil Bermel. I know very
well that I am a verbal author, and thus easy prey for poor translators. Mr
36 Bermel was wonderful. He worked very conscientiously” (Hron, “The
Enduring Desire to Write”),
which might be considered as a positive sign regarding the translation when the author is satisfied with it, especially when the author has a his/ her specific style which might be extremely difficult to reproduce in English as the Fischerova’s case is. But as has been already mentioned, the Bermel’s translation is a good one, which Hron’s words prove: “The translator Neil Bermel does an admirable job of translating Fischerová's unique voice into American English, carefully reproducing her animated vitality, yet not deviating from the original in his transposition” (“Reaching Beyond and Clutching the Now”).
Jáchym Topol is perhaps one of the best known writers of the latter generation who made his debut with his novel Sestra into the English speaking world. It turned to be a rather successful one, especially because of the very good and quality translation by Alexander Zucker.
On contrary to the slight cooperation between Daniela Fischerová and Neil
Bermel, it can be said that Jáchym Topol and Alexander Zucker know each other very well. So it is not surprising that Zucker managed to capture Topol’s style in a very exact way. Zucker’s translation of Topol’s novel Sestra (translated as City Sister
Silver ) gained a lot of attention and admiring acclaim. It is supposed to be a perfect one and thus it is no wonder that it gave the Topol’s novel valuable publicity in the
English speaking countries. Caroline Kovtun writes about the Zucker’s translation in her review on Topol’s novel City Sister Silver that:
37 “Zucker’s translation merits praise not only for attempting to convey Sestra in
all its complexity but also for largely succeeding at it. He has managed to
preserve the speed of the narrative and kept the translation faithful to the
original’s eccentricity and modernity. In addition, Zucker provides valuable
endnotes to the text, explaining the historical and linguistic references that
Western eyes would otherwise not detect.”
However, I believe that the reviews do not have to be necessarily good. The reviews of Topol’s novel were not just positive. There were some not really negative but rather not appreciating critiques in which Topol was said to resemble various world writers such as Anthony Burgess and Ginsburg. Alexander Zucker, translator of
Topol’s work into English, expresses his opinion on these particular accusations:
“Jedna recenze ho [Topola] přirovnala ke Gisnburgovi v negativním smyslu.
[…] Proč by Čech, píšící v devadesátých letech, měl být jako Ginsburg? V
Americe jsou pořád lidi, kteří si myslí, že všechno nové musí mít něco
společného s beat generation. [Concerning] Anthony Burgess, to srovnání
pochází asi z toho, že Jáchym používá výraz Bratři moji, což je obrat ze jeho
knihy Clockwork Orange” 6 (Čulík, “Vypisuju se z něčeho
východoevropskýho”).
6 “He [Topol] was negatively compared to Ginsburg in one of the reviews. […] Why should a Czech, writing in the 1990s, be as Ginsburg? There are still people in the United States who believe that everything new must have something common with the Beat Generation. [Concerning] Anthony Burgess, the comparison might spring from the fact that Jáchym uses Bratři moji [O my brothers], which is a phrase from Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange .”
38 Topol’s case thus offers another possibility that can ensure some recognition abroad – the transfer of the book into other language must be superb so that it is talked about a lot and so awakes the curiosity among the potential readers.
3.2 Anthologies
In addition, pieces of the Czech literature, of the most of the named authors as well, are also an essential part of some of the anthologies that are usually aimed at the literature of Eastern and Central Europe. Such anthologies usually offer a wider spectrum of writers so that one comes across some names that would otherwise stay unnoticed.
In 1994 Michael Marches edited a collection Description of a Struggle: The
Vintage Book of Contemporary Eastern European Writing (also published as
Description of a Struggle: The Picador Book of Contemporary East European
Writing ), whose title echoes Kafka’s short story of the same name. The anthology covers all of the Central and East European countries, the Baltic countries, Belarus,
Ukraine, and Russia. Shortly, the compilation presents 43 short stories from sixteen formerly Communist European countries. Each of the Central and East European countries, except for the ex Soviet and ex Yugoslavian states, is represented by more than one short story. The Czech section features Bohumil Hrabal, Eda Kriseová and
Alexandra Berková in translations by James Naughton. It might be of high interest to the Czech reader that the introduction of this collection was written by Ivan Klíma.
James Naughton’s Traveller’s Literary Companion to Eastern and Central
Europe (1995) approaches the English speaking world with another survey of the
39 Eastern and Central European literary works. James Partridge introduces this compendium with these words:
“This particular volume is broken down into eight chapters: Poland, The Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Former Yugoslavia and
Albania. Each chapter is written by an academic specialist in the literature of
the area under discussion, but obviously great care has been taken to make all
the chapters interesting and readable for the general reader; in other words, this
is absolutely not an academic textbook on literature […] The individual
chapters are further broken down into four sections. The first section of each
chapter is both a brief history of the literature and something of a guide for the
literary tourist, highlighting cities or areas of each country that are of literary
interest. […] The second section of each chapter gives a detailed bibliography
of English translations of works from the literature under discussion. […] The
Czech bibliography, for instance, is some 10 pages long and contains entries
ranging from translations of mediaeval prose published in rather obscure
journals to the well known large paperback editions of writers such as Milan
Kundera and Václav Havel.” (Partridge, “ Traveller’s Literary Companion to
Eastern and Central Europe ”).
Other anthologies that are to be named present only Czech writers. In 1994
Barbara Day published a book called Czech Plays that contains four plays by four different Czech playwrights – Václav Havel, Ivan Klíma, Josef Topol and Daniela
Fischerová. The given pieces were translated by Barbara Day, Alice and Gerald
Turner, and George and Christine Voskovec.
40
Another anthology that embodies just Czech fiction is Paul Wilson’s Prague: A
Traveller’s Literary Companion (1995). This compilation is specialized very narrowly.
It presents only the Prague authors and only those stories that deal with Prague exclusively such as Daniela Hodrová’s I See a Great City …, Bells by Jiří Karásek of
Lvovice, Gustav Meyrink’s The First Vision and The Golem, Franz Kafka’s
Description of a Struggle and Jiří Kovtun’s A Prague Eclogue . Most of the presented pieces were translated by the editor himself, Paul Wilson. Anyway, others such as
Mike Mitchell, M. H. Heim, A. G. Brain, Magda Pemberton, Alex Zucker and Norma
Comrada took a share in translating as well.
Alexandra Büchler has published two anthologies – This Side of Reality:
Modern Czech Writing (1996) and Allskin and Other Tales (1998). This Side of Reality outlines the development of the Czech literature after the World War II. It contains several excerpts by seventeen Czech authors from different periods of the second half of the 20 th century so that both the older (such as Ladislav Fuchs and Arnošt Lustig) and the younger generation (such as Jáchym Topol and Michal Ajvaz) of writers is represented. Büchler explains the impulse for publishing this work as follows:
“After the so called Velvet Revolution I thought this is the time to approach a
publisher with a project of this kind [a publication of Czech literature in
translation]. […] It was published by a publisher who wanted at that time to do
anthologies in translation. […] What I wanted to do in that book, because I
thought it was the opportunity to do something like that, was to chart the
historical development of the country after the Second World War” (Higgins).
41
The other anthology that Büchler has edited is called Allskin and Other Tales .
This collection offers the English speaking readers an insight into the literary work by
Czech women writers. Büchler gives a brief historical outline of writing by Czech women writers and short portrayals of the authors and characterization of their writings in her introduction. How did Büchler hit upon the idea to publish such a book? She says that
“[Concerning the Allskin and Other Tales ], it was really an outcome of doing
This Side of Reality because when I was selecting the writers for This Side of
Reality , I realized that Czech women writers had not been translated at all. […]
I just thought that they [Czech women writers] deserved to be better known”
(Higgins).
A year before the anthology of works by Czech women authors another interesting compilation appeared. It is Daylight in Nightclub Inferno edited by Elena
Lappin. This collection is interesting and progressive in that respect that it focuses on both the younger generation of the Czech writers and younger generation of the North
American translators. The aim of this anthology is thus to introduce both the unknown writers and translators as it is stated in the publisher’s foreword of the book:
“As the only American publisher specializing in Czech literature [Catbird
Press], we consider it our responsibility to introduce both the recent, post
Velvet Revolution work of younger Czech writers and the work of younger
American Czech into English translators” (Lappin, v).
42
However, three examples of the older Czech writers can be found in this book as well.
The reason for it is very simple – works of these authors, Alexander Kliment, Pavel
Grym, and Marta Kadlečíková, have not been published in English before.
To conclude this chapter, I would like to add that I am enclosing a bibliographical list of some of the republished and newly published books after 1989.
Some of the anthologies are not left out as well.
43 4. Reception of Czech Literary Works in English speaking Countries
The following chapters are based on the answers by the translators that is why I would like to comment on my “access to translators”.
My survey of translators focused primarily of those who specialize in literary translation from Czech into English. Even though I managed to identify about thirty translators, I managed to address just seventeen American and British translators.
Finally, I got reply from eight of them.
Actually, I had to “exclude” one of them, James Kirchner, because he is not engaged in literary translation.
I approached the translators with five questions:
what was the motivation for the translation
who assigned the translation of the particular book to you
how did you get to it
how was the response of the audience
what were the most common problems you encountered during the translation
process
The next chapter deals with the reception of the Czech pieces of writing in the
English speaking countries from the point of view of those who create an essential part of the process – the translators. I place the chapter after the development of the translation literature from Czech into English after 1989 because when the translators comment on the issue of the reception of the Czech literary works in the English
44 speaking countries they touches upon not only generally but they also express their views of the contemporary state and, thus, develop further the issue discussed in the previous chapter.
Again, it must be stated that the translation literature, especially from “minor” languages including Czech, does not attract the English speaking readership very much. Partridge supports this trend when he concludes his article on translation from
Czech into English with the following words:
“In general, however, apart from a couple of recent writers at particular times,
Czech literature has not captured the imagination of the English audience as
much as, say, Czech music has, and occasionally Czech film” (331).
Partridge also hints at another important fact that historical and political issues have a certain kind of impact and influence, which the individual translators support in a great extent such as Alexandra Büchler whose answer is more concrete:
“It [To get a publisher interested] has to do with political events. So the first
wave in Czech interest came in the late ‛60s and early ‛70s, and that’s when
there were some publications of Czech literature in translation. And then there
was nothing for a long time” (Higgins).
However, when reading the translators’ answers to the question “How was the response of the audience?” one gets the feeling that the actual situation is not as tragic as it may seem at first sight.
45 Most of the asked translators from Czech into English believe that the political situation before 1989 was more attractive and, thus, more people were interested in the country in which some of the authors were banned to publish their work freely and, consequently, their pieces of writings met with more attention abroad. Alexander
Zucker puts in that: “there was a wave of interest after Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion of 1968, and there was another, smaller wave again after the ‘Velvet
Revolution’ of 1989”.
Paul Wilson supports Zucker’s words and offers another interesting and more elaborate insight into this subject:
“Důležité bylo také to, že v osmdesátých letech byli někteří čeští spisovatelé v
Americe a v Kanadě docela známí. Samozřejmě především Kundera a Havel,
ale také Škvorecký, Hrabal nebo Ivan Klíma“ 7 (Mandys 88).
Concerning the present state, Wilson remarks that: “[Zájem o Škvoreckého,
Klímu a Hrabala] je daleko menší. Také proto, že Česko je teď normální země, kde se takzvaně nic neděje” 8 (Mandys 88). Moreover, in Wilson’s view, some interest in
Václav Havel’s work can be still traced: “Vnímám stálý zájem o Havla” 9 (Mandys 88).
Nevertheless, according to Wilson, it is Ivan Klíma who seems to be one of the most popular Czech writers in the United States.:
7 “It was important that some of the Czech writers were quite known in the U. S. and Canada in 1980s as well. It was, of course, mainly Kundera and Havel. Further also Škvorecký, Hrabal and Ivan Klíma.” 8 “There is not so much interest in Škvorecký, Klíma a Hrabal nowadays. One reason is that the Czech Republic is a normal/ common country in which ‘nothing’ actually happens.” 9 “I perceive/ am aware of a constant interest in Havel.”
46 “Jediný, kdo z pohledu amerických nakladatelů úspěšně překlenul devadesátá
léta, je zatím Ivan Klíma. Odrazem je, že tu pravidelně vycházejí jeho aktuální
knihy, naposledy román Ani svatí, ani andělé v roce 2001” 10 (Mandys,
“Kunderu bych překládat nechtěl”, 88).
And what are the factors that ensure Klíma’s success in English speaking countries?
First, according to Wilson, Klíma is:
“přímočarý a přehledný vypravěč, který měl čtenáře už před rokem 1989 a
mnozí z nich byli zvědavi, jak vidí novou postkomunistickou realitu” 11
(Mandys, “Kunderu bych překládat nechtěl”, 89).
Second, Wilson stresses that Klíma has a support in the Anglo Saxon world. He has been backed by Bill Buford, an ex editor in chief of the publisher Granta Books,
London who has “remained faithful” to Klíma after leaving the post in Granta Books.
Wilson also mentions some of the new and young authors such as Michal
Ajvajz and Jáchym Topol. He tries to make clear why it is difficult for these authors to find their way to the English speaking audience. He believes that their pieces of writings are rather hard accessible to the readers of the English speaking world.
Although Wilson is convinced that the translation of Topol’s Sestra is “bezvadný” 12
(Mandys, “Kunderu bych překládat nechtěl”, 88), he is persuaded that: “v Americe se
10 “The only one who, from the point of view of the American publishers, has successfully bridged over the 1990s is Ivan Klíma. It is reflected in the fact that his current works are being published last his novel No Saints or Angels (2001) .” 11 “a straightforward and clear arranged storyteller who had already his readers before 1989 and most of them have been curious how [Klíma] sees the post communist reality.” 12 “perfect.”
47 ze zahraničí vždycky nejlépe prosadí klasičtí vypravěči” 13 (Mandys, “Kunderu bych překládat nechtěl”, 88), which is a certain kind of an obstacle for authors such as
Ajvajz and Topol.
Even though it has been already said that the translation literature does not belong to the best and most selling books, Mandys does not hesitate to ask Wilson about his personal translation success. Wilson’s answer to this rather precarious question is:
“Kromě Škvoreckého, který se prodává stabilně, měly velký úspěch dvě knihy:
rozhovor Karla Hvížďaly s Václavem Havlem Dálkový výslech ( Disturbing the
Peace ) a […] soubor povídek Praha: Literární průvodce cestovatele” 14 that is
predominately aimed at foreign visitors of the Czech Republic (Mandys,
“Kunderu bych překládat nechtěl”,89).
Jan Čulik ’s experience with his translations regarding the response of audience makes another positive impression. However, Čulík, as Zucker and Wilson, points out that the political situation in Czechoslovak before 1989 played a significant role concerning the attention to Czech literature in the English speaking countries:
“Relativně často se je podařilo uplatnit v Británii pod vlivem Kundery,
Hrabala, Škvoreckého, vládlo v osmdesátých letech mezi intelektuály do určité
13 “only classical storytellers of the foreign writers can usually assert themselves more easily in the U. S.” 14 “Apart from Škvorecký whose books have being sold constantly, there are two books that were successful: an interview between Karel Hvížďala and Václav Havel Disturbing the Peace and […] a collection of short stories called Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion .”
48 míry přesvědčení, že ve středoevropské/ české literatuře se v nepřístupném
jazyce skrývají klenoty prozření.” 15
Unfortunately, Čulík does not comment on the present situation but it seems that he believes that the political situation in Czechoslovakia before 1989 “attracted” more readers.
Another translator from Czech into English, Ewald Osers , is also an advocate and supporter of the opinion that the interest in translation literature is rather negligible in Great Britain and in the United States: “Bohužel zájem pro překladovou literaturu je jak v Anglii tak i v Americe dost slabý”16 . However, his personal experience is, in general, rather an opposite. Osers says about the response to his translations that:
“reakce byla vždy pozitivní, někdy i nadšená” 17 . Osers’ opinion is of great value as he devotes his time to translation of both poetry and prose so that he can judge the response of the poetry and, as well, prose readers.
Concerning the translation of poetry, Osers has transferred from Czech into
English most of Seifert’s poems. He can freely say that he has been successful because:
“moje [Osersovy] překlady Jaroslava Seiferta to mi mistr sám několikrát říkal hrály velkou roli v přisuzovaní Nobelovy ceny Seifertovi” 18 .
Concerning the prose, there is no Czech writer awarded the Nobel Prize, however, Osers seems to be fortunate as well, which his words prove: “Moje překlady
15 “They [Čulik’s translations] often managed to find their way – in Britain – under the influence of Kundera, Hrabal and Škvorecký, a conviction among the intellectuals prevailed to a certain extent that there were treasures of providence hidden in inaccessible languages of the Central European/ Czech literatures.” 16 “Unfortunately, the interest in translation literature is very little in England and in the U.S.” 17 “The response was always positive sometimes enthusiastic as well.” 18 “My [Osers’] translations of Jaroslav Seifert – the master himself told me several times – played an important role in Seifert’s awarding the Nobel Prize.”
49 Jiřího Muchy, Ivana Klímy a (v poslední době) Arnošta Lustiga měly dost velký (a vesměs pozitivní) ohlas” 19 .
Osers’ translation success was crowned on 25 th September 2005 when his only translation of Karel Čapek, War with the Newts , was adopted by BBC. The performance was broadcasted twice and an adaptation for theatre is being prepared.
All in all, Osers seems to be satisfied with his translation work as he concludes his evaluation of the readers’ response with these words: “Víc my překladatelé z
“malého” jazyka, my popelky literárního světa, ani očekávat nemůžeme.” 20
Norma (Bean) Comrada is another representative who has experienced a very positive reaction to her translations from Czech: “Excellent reviews from many different kinds of reviewers, in the U.S., Britain, and even the Prague Post, culminating in “Cross Roads” and the Čapek biography being featured as the cover article in the London Times Literary Supplement”. Comrada points out an important fact that has an enormous share of the success of a book – positive reviews, making the book heard about and talked about. However, she also stresses that reviews themselves are insufficient, an advertisement is needed:
“But for books to be noticed other than by reviewers, they need to be
advertised, and small publishers don’t have money for advertising, or for
sending their authors on book store tours”.
19 “My translations of Jiří Mucha, Ivan Klíma and (latest) Arnošt Lustig met with a generous (and prevailing positive) response.” 20 “We, Cindarellas of the literary world, translators from “minor” languages cannot await more than this.”
50 As a sort of proof of Comrada’s translation success it can be highlighted that her translations of Karel Čapek’s writings are still being sold: “I [Comrada] also have the fun of seeing my books in Prague bookstores, where they’re in the section with
English language translations of Czech literature” (Comrada)
Dana Loewy specializes in translation of poetry. She has also met with good and positive reactions as follows from her words referring to the positive reviews of her translations: “I mostly got very good reviews for my work. Some called it more
‘academic’ and less ‘poetic’ but most of all the response was positive.”
However, she is aware of the widely known fact that the translation literature, especially poetry, is definitely no means for earning a fortune: “As is the case with poetry and especially poetry in translation, the book hasn't exactly been a hot seller”, which supports Comrada’s opinion that reviews themselves cannot ensure books selling success.
Robert Wechsler is the only one who met with rather indifferent reaction to his only book length translation. Wechsler’s translation is, thus, a typical example of how the reviewers influence the success of a literary work. Wechsler explains that:
“since Kliment is unknown and the novel very literary, it received few reviews
and most of the reviewers did not understand or appreciate the book. Therefore,
few people purchased the book”,
which suggests that reviewers are among the first who influence the success or failure on the selling market.
51 To conclude this chapter, I will add one more contribution that refers to the discussed topic but at this time it is taken from the point of view of a writer. Iva
Pekárková gives a very interesting and complex comment on the reception of her first novel Truck Stop Rainbows :
“I think my first book […] was much better received in America than it was
here [the Czech Republic] […] I kind of listed all the things I couldn’t stand
about Communism. And Americans found it informative. The Czech response
to it often was ‘[…] Why is she telling us all this? We know it!’ But it’s funny,
because now in the Czech Republic there is a whole generation of Czech
people who are too young to really remember how things were before the
Velvet Revolution […] And the novel has become popular among this new
generation” (Hron, “Jumping into Another Life”).
It results from Pekárková’s words that the topic is part and parcel of the writing so that when it is captivating then it finds its way to the readers all around the world.
Moreover, the good reviews can ensure some kind of notice of the audience.
52 5. About the Translators
The actual list of people translating from Czech into English would be probably a very long one. I try to offer here a list of translators who create a sort of bridge between the older and younger generation of translators from Czech into English.
Michael Henry Heim, Jeanne Němcová, Vera Blackwell, and William Harkins would be the representatives of the “older generation”. Andreé Collier, Caleb Crain, Julie
Hansen, and Jason Pontius, on the other hand, would stand for the “younger” generation of translators from Czech into English.
However, I will concentrate only on those translators from Czech into English who have published some translations already before 1989 but several translations after 1989, as well. Further, most of the translators do not devote their time just translating but they are also worth mentioning because these people usually take part in promotion of the literature of “minor” languages – such as Czech literature – abroad, especially, in the English speaking countries.
Generally speaking, most of the translators have a certain, usually personal, connection to the Czech lands – either they were born there or have spent some time there.
5.1 Portrayals of Translators
Neil Bermel (b. 1965) grew up in New York. He did his B.A. in Russian and
East European Studies at Yale University. Bermel received his M.A. and Ph.D. in
Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1989 and 1994 from the University of California,
Berkeley. He has been teaching at Sheffield University, England, since 1996.
His main research interests are aimed at language change in contemporary
Czech, the development of grammatical categories (especially aspect) in Slavonic
53 languages, translation studies, and foreign language teaching, particularly as regards
Czech and Russian.
Bermel has translated two novels by Pavel Kohout – I Am Snowing (1994) and
The Widow Killer (1998) – and a collection of short stories by Daniela Fischerová
Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else (2000).
Alexandra Büchler was born in Prague and has lived in Greece, Australia and now the United Kingdom. She studied art and literature. Büchler is a very active translator. She has translated short stories, novels, poetry and plays from Czech,
English and Greek. To put it differently, Büchler has translated over twenty five books, including texts on modern art and architecture.
Further, she has edited six anthologies of contemporary Czech, Australian,
Scottish and Greek short stories.
Büchler is also a director of Literature Across Frontiers, a programme of literary exchange and policy debate, based in Wales. Moreover, she is active as an editor of the European Internet Review of Books and Writing, Transcript .
Carleton Bulkin is from the San Francisco Bay Area. He received an M. A. in
Languages and Literatures from Indiana University.
His translations include Hidden History by Otokar Březina (1998) and False
Dawn by Ilona Lacková (2000).
Craig Cravens lives in Austin, Texas. He acquired his knowledge in Czech at the end of the Cold War when he was in a military training camp in California
54 preparing for a career of an American spy in the Eastern Bloc. After the collapse of the
Berliner Wall, Cravens became – instead of a spy – a teacher.
He is a great admirer of Jaroslav Hašek.
He spent just four months in the Czech Republic.
Cravens is a professor of Slavic languages at the University of Texas. His courses include Robots and Beer Pubs: Czech Culture from 863 to 1945, Crime and
Punishment Czech Style, and Jára Cimrman.
He has translated Lovers and Murders by Vladimír Páral (2002).
Norma Comrada is a writer and translator who has been living in Eugene,
Oregon.
She received a certificate in Czech at a Summer Programme in Slavic Studies at Charles University in 1982 and an M. S. in Higher Education Administration at the
University of Oregon.
Her translation activities specialize in Karel Čapek. Comrada has translated a wide range of works by this author.
Comrada has done also some independent research on Karel Čapek – in Charles
University Library; State Literary Archives; Czech Academy of Sciences; Institute of
Czech Literature; private collections, Prague, further, British Library; Colindale
Newspaper Library, London. She has published articles and given talks on Čapek’s life and work.
Some of her published translations are Karel Čapek: Life and Work by Ivan
Klíma (2002), Apocryphal Tales by Karel Čapek (1997) and Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek (1994). Comrada has been working on retranslation of Čapek’s
Dášenka.
55
Mark Corner is a s enior lecturer in British Cultural Studies at the Department of British and American Studies at Charles University, Prague. His research interests include religion and film studies.
Corner translates 20 th century Czech fiction: Saturnin (2003), Summer of the
Caprice (2006); he is currently working on the translation of Bylo nás pět .
Jan Čulík (b. 1952) was born in Prague. He studied English and Czech at
Charles University. In 1978 he left Czechoslovakia for Glasgow, the United Kingdom.
He taught Czech literature, history and East European Studies at the Universities of
Glasgow and Lancaster.
He and his wife have translated a wide range of shorter Czech literary pieces of prose, e. g. by Arnošt Lustig and Jaroslav Hutka that were published in various British literary magazines.
He has been working for media of all kinds. Since 1996 he has been publishing an on line journal Britské listy .
Since 1995 he has been a lecturer in Czech studies at the Slavonic Studies at the University of Glasgow. His areas of interest include literature, history, journalism and film studies.
Michael Henry Heim is a Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the
University of California, Los Angeles.
He has translated a number of Czech authors including Bohumil Hrabal’s The
Death of Mr. Baltisberger (1975) and Too Loud a Solitude (1991), Milan Kundera’s
56 The Joke (1982) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1995), and Jan Neruda’s
Prague Tales (1993).
Heim also translates from Russian and Hungarian.
Peter Kussi has translated a variety of classical and contemporary Czech authors.
He has also edited several anthologies, including a Karel Čapek reader Toward the Radical Center (1990) .
Kussi taught at Columbia University in New York. Now he enjoys his retirement.
Dana Loewy ’s (b. 1960) native language is Czech. In 1969 her family left
Czechoslovakia for Germany.
She received her Ph.D. in English at the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles. Loewy has been a translator since she was 17 and a professional translator since 1984. First she translated from Czech into German.
Loewy has been translating films for DVD, mainly into German, now and she has been also teaching business writing at California State University, Fullerton. Her major areas of concentration are 20 th century American literature, modern novel, modern poetry, contemporary short story translation theory and practice, and business writing. She translates from Czech and German.
Loewy published her book length translation The Early Poetry of Jaroslav
Seifert in 1997 and a bilingual edition of TSF by Jaroslav Seifert in 2004.
57 James Naughton (b. 1950) was born in Edinburgh. He studied Czech and
Russian at Cambridge. Naughton is a lecturer in Czech and Slovak at Oxford. His main research interests are in modern and early modern Czech and Slovak language and literature.
He is an author of textbooks Colloquial Slovak (1997), Colloquial Czech (1999) and Czech: An Essential Grammar (2005).
Naughton has also translated a number of works of Czech and Slovak fiction and poetry such as Bohumil Hrabal’s The Little Time Where Time Stood Still (1993) and Miroslav Holub’s The Jingle Bell Principle (1992).
Ewald Osers (b.1917) was born into a German speaking Jewish family in
Prague. He studied chemistry at the German University and German Technical
University, Prague. In 1938 Osers left Czechoslovakia for England where he has been living since then. In London, he enrolled in University College London but he never finished his studies.
In 1939, Osers started to work for BBC as a translator of German broadcasts.
He spent 38 years with the BBC.
Osers is a very active translator whose work covers over 140 translations of novels and books of poems. He has translated works by Jiří Mucha ( Living and Partly
Living , 1968), Egon Hostovský ( Missing , 1952), Miroslav Holub ( On the Contrary and
Other Poems by Miroslav Holub , 1984), Karel Čapek ( War with the Newts , 1991),
Zdeněk Svěrák ( Kolya, 1997) and Jaroslav Seifert ( An Umbrella from Piccadilly:
Poems by Jaroslav Seifert , 1983).
58 David Powelstock (b. 1964) is Assistant Professor of Russian, Brandeis
University. His main research interests are modern Russian and Czech literatures, literary ethics, cultural semiotics, history and theory of Russian poetry, and translation.
He has translated several works from Russian and Czech into English e. g. novels by Iva Pekárková Truck Stop Rainbows (1992) and The World Is Round (1994).
Paul Wilson is a freelance writer, editor, radio producer and translator.
He was born in Ontario and studied at the University of Toronto and at King’s
College, University of London.
He spent ten years in Czechoslovakia (1967 – 77) where he taught English, learnt Czech and was a member of The Plastic People of the Universe .
After he returned to Canada, he devoted his time to promotion and translation of Czech literature, contributed to various newspapers and magazines such as The New
Yorker , The New York Review of Books and The Toronto Star .
He has translated the work of leading Czech authors such as Václav Havel
(Letters to Olga , 1991), Josef Škvorecký ( The Engineer of Human Souls , 1999), Ivan
Klíma ( My Golden Trades , 1993) and Bohumil Hrabal ( I Served the King of England ,
1990).
Further, Wilson translated the screenplay for the Anglo/Czech film Dark Blue
World (1999), written and directed by Jan and Zdeněk Svěrák. Moreover, Wilson is responsible for most of the translations of Havel’s non dramatic work. He, in fact, has become the English voice of Havel’s speeches: “A když se stal Havel prezidentem, posílal mi projevy pro anglicky mluvící svět k překladu, aby bylo možno udržet ten jednotný hlas” 21 (Macháček 10).
21 “When Havel was elected president, he used to send me his speeches aimed at the English speaking world to translate in order to maintain the homogenous voice.”
59 He is currently working on translation of an early play by Václav Havel The
Memorandum and a translation of Havel's latest book, a memoir of his experiences as president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.
Alexander Zucker (b. 1964) is a freelance editor in New York City. He worked as a translator and editor for Czechoslovak News Agency and as a copy editor for a Prague English language weekly Prognosis .
He did a very good translation of Jáchym Topol’s novel Sestra ( City Sister
Silver, 1994). Then, Zucker has also translated short stories by Jiří Stránský and excerpts by Michal Viewegh’s Sightseers .
5.2 Motivation
Although the situation concerning the success of published translations by the
English speaking audience looks rather dark and not very positive, there is still number of people who devote their time to translation of fiction even though they cannot earn their living by that. Why do they do it? What is their motivation to spend time when it seems ridiculous and a waste of time? I have asked some of them the question: “What was the motivation for the translation?” Here are answers of some of them.
Ewald Osers was born in Prague. He spent his childhood there but in 1938 he left Czechoslovakia for England so his motivation for translating from Czech is in his words:
“Prostě láska k české literatuře. Jako středoškolák na německém gymplu v
Praze jsem se zamiloval do soudobé české lyriky a začal jsem ji (tehdy do
60 němčiny) překládat. Osobně jsem se znal s Josefem Horou a Františkem
Halasem, také s Františkem Nechvátalem, Ondrou Lysohorským a jinými. […]
Tato láska k české poezii trvala i po mé emigraci do Anglie (1938). Moje první
antologie moderní české lyriky ( Modern Czech Poetry ) pořízená ve spolupráci
s anglickým básníkem J. K. Montgomerym, vyšla v roce 1945.” 22
Jan Čulík is another translator who was born in Czechoslovakia but who left his home country for the United Kingdom. He explains his motivation to translating with these words: “Motivací pro překlady byla snaha zprostředkovat středoevropskou zkušenost a středoevropské myšlení a literaturu anglosaskému publiku.” 23
Dana Loewy ’s native language is Czech as well. She explains her motivation for translation with the following words:
“My goal was always to acquaint other nations with the works produced in the
Czech lands that had the misfortune of a language few people want to learn or
ever master fully. Bridging the divide caused by language barriers, I suppose,
was the motto. I also love the challenges that arise when we try to create a new
work of art in its own right in another language while not violating the original
and remaining true to its spirit and message.”
22 “Simply – love to the Czech literature. I fell in love with the contemporary Czech lyric poetry when I was a grammar school pupil and I started to translate it (into German at that time). I was acquainted with Josef Hora, František Halas, František Nechválek, Ondřej Lysohorský and others. […] The love to the Czech poetry lasted after I emigrated to England in 1938. My first anthology of the modern Czech poetry ( Modern Czech poetry ) was published in cooperation with the English poet J. K. Montgomery in 1945.” 23 “My motivation for translating was an attempt to mediate the Central European experience and Central European thinking and literature to the Anglo Saxon audience.”
61 Alexandra Büchler , another native of Czechoslovakia, can stand for an example of a person who really loves her native language. She connects her motivation with the loss of her home country when Büchler was detached from her mother tongue.
To express her impulse to start to translate she uses these words:
“There was a time in my life when I didn’t speak much Czech and I had to
rediscover the language. I think this is really what translation was to me to
some extent – a kind of means to rediscover the language again” (Higgins).
I managed to get a response to the question about the motivation from two not
Czech born translators as well. It is Robert Wechsler and Norma Comrada. Robert
Wechsler, the owner of the publishing house Catbird Press, has translated from Czech into English just one novel Alexander Kliment’s Nuda v Čechách ( Living Parallel ,
2002). His story sounds little bit funny as Wechsler’s motto was not just labour of love but as certain kind of a must, too. He explains that:
“I did my only book length translation, of Alexander Kliment’s novel Nuda v
Čechách, for my own publishing house, Catbird Press, which has published
many works of Czech literature in English translation. I had originally agreed
with a translator to work on this translation, but then he told me he did not have
the time, and since I loved the novel and it was so literarily that my lack of
fluency in Czech would not be so great obstacle, I decided to translate it myself.
My motivation was the same as choosing to publish the novel: my love of
Kliment’s use of language. It is more poetry than fiction.”
62 Norma Comrada is another American translator who has spent some time in the Czech Republic. She came there to learn Czech. At the end of the course Comrada did her first translation of Čapek, which had a double impact on her later work –
Comrada became fond of both the translating process and Karel Čapek. She explains her motivation with these words:
“When taking a night school class in the Czech language many years ago, the
instructor suggested, towards the end of the year, that I try translating the first
chapter in Anglické listy . It was difficult (the result must have been horrible),
but it was also enthralling: I was captivated by the process and also by the
author, whose work was not well or widely known here. […] In later years,
when working at the University of Oregon, I became involved in a minor way
with Slavic Studies program. Since no one in the Slavic field either there or
elsewhere seemed to be emphasizing Čapek, I began to give the occasional
academic paper and then to organize Čapek panels, first for the American
Slavic Studies organization, and then for the international one.”
To conclude, as one cannot live just from translating, generally speaking, the most common reason is, thus, the simplest one – “it’s entirely a labor of love” (Loewy); just love to either Czech or Czech literature as most of the translators have a certain connection to the Czech Republic, either they were born there but had to leave their home country or have spent some time there.
63 6. “Who Assigned You the Translation?”
The crucial question concerning the translation literature is its purpose. The main point of the fictional works is to entertain. But the other not less pivotal question in regard to translations is who decides which authors or which titles are to be transferred into another language? I asked the very same question some of the translators. Here are their answers which are really enormously interesting because every translator has his/ her story, none of them is the very same.
Generally speaking there is a kind of a rule that is crucial in getting one’s translation published. It is very simple – the publisher must have some interest in the work or the writer. Usually the political events are a very reliable source of a guarantee of capturing the interest, which Alexandra Büchler proves when commenting on the issue of publishing a book:
“So the first step when you want to promote writing […] you have to get a
publisher interested. What happens often is that the interest is based on a kind
of a political interest” (Higgins),
which, by the way, was already stated in chapter 4.
Concerning the policy of publishing a book, there is a slightly difference between getting published a book of poetry and a prosaic work. As poetry does not seem to be a very attractive subject for publishers, it is usually the translator who is supposed to find the publisher for his/ her translations by him / herself. This trend can be traced in the answers of those who are involved in translating poetry such as Dana
Loewy and Ewald Osers.
64 Osers comments on the situation very simply: “S básnickými překlady jsem se na nakladatelství obracel já. Což nebylo vždy lehké, ale měl jsem celkem štěstí.” 24
Loewy , in contrast, gives a more general statement about the subject. But because she is a poetry translator, I believe that her words could be applied especially on publishing a poetry work in translation:
“No one assigned the book to me. I chose it. That’s the way it is in the U. S. by
the way. […] So if you want to get published as a translator, you pick an author
and a work, do a test sample and then you write proposals to various publishers
who may be interested Sometimes they are, most of the time they aren’t.”
Evidently, concerning the situation of publishing the prose in translation it seems that the publishing houses are “keener” on it. Most of the addressed translators have the experience of being approached by a publisher with a concrete suggestion for translation, which Osers supports: “Normálně byla iniciativa pro překlad prózy ze strany nakladatelství“ 25 .
Norma Comrada is another translator, who was directly asked by a publisher whether she was interested in conducing to Čapek’s compilation. Comrada describes her experience with these words:
“In the late 1980s, Capek’s work went into the public domain, and an American
publisher called Catbird Press planned to bring out new translations […] The 24 “Concerning the poetry translations, I approached the publishers, which was not always easy, but I was lucky.” 25 “Concerning publishing the prosaic works, the initiative was usually taken by publishers.”
65 publisher evidently had heard of my work and interest, and he contacted me to
see if I’d like to contribute to a Capek anthology he was compiling. I
contributed “The Mother” and several short stories and some journalism”.
Comrada was then really lucky because the publisher was satisfied with her work so when the task was finished she was given, by the same publisher, another opportunity to translate other Čapek’s stories:
“When the project was completed, the publisher asked if I’d like to translate the
Pocket Tales, and then “Kniha apocryfu”, and then “Bozi muka” and “Trapne
povidky” […] and then Ivan Klima’s biography of Capek.”
The publisher Comrada talks about is Robert Wechsler . He transferred the only book, Alexandr Kliment’s Nuda v Čechách , from Czech into English. Wechsler, being an owner of a publishing house, was spared the troubles with searching for a publisher. Anyway, he tells an interesting and quite unbelievable story about the publication of Kliment’s novel Nuda v Čechách . The problem was that he had actually a publisher but he had nobody who would translate the book:
“I had originally agreed with a translator to work on this translation, but then he
told me he did not have the time, and since I loved the novel and it way so
literarily difficult that my lack of fluency in Czech would not be so great
obstacle, I decided to translate it myself.”
66 Jan Čulík , then, describes his experience with publishing his translations of short stories by different banned Czech writers he had before 1989. He chose the pieces, did the translations and asked different magazines whether they were interested in publishing Čulík’s translations:
“Šlo většinou o překlady povídek zakázaných autorů (Lustig, Hutka, Pecka
atd.) […] Texty jsem si vybíral k překladům sám a nabízel jsem je malým
literárním časopisům. […] Relativně často se je podařilo uplatnit pod vlivem
Kundery, Hrabala, Škvoreckého.” 26
Regarding publishing an anthology, it is Alexandra Büchler who has edited several compilations aimed either at Central and Eastern Europe or at the individual national collections so that she talks about publishing some of these anthologies.
Concerning the publishing of This Side of Reality I have quoted Büchler already in the section “Situation after 1989 – Anthologies”.
Another Büchler’s book of collected pieces of writings by different authors is
Allskin and Other Tales , which is a compilation of Czech women writers and that was an outcome of editing This Side of Reality . In this respect Büchler touches another issue concerning publishing a book – its length. I am not sure whether the length plays any significant role in the case of getting a novel published nowadays, but clearly it is one of the criteria when bringing out an anthology. –
“I can’t put them all [Czech women writers] in this anthology [This Side of
Reality ], because I was told by the publisher that it [ This Side of Reality ] 26 “Those were usually translations of short stories by the forbidden authors such as Lustig, Hutka and Pecka. […] I chose the texts for translations and then I was offering them to small literary magazines. […] Relatively often I was successful in it because of the influence of Kundera, Hrabal and Škvorecký.”
67 couldn’t be more than about 260 pages. So I’ll thought, I’ll find somebody who
will publish an anthology of Czech women’s writing” (Higgins),
which she managed.
Büchler is also a co editor of another anthology that introduces 20 young poets from Eastern and Central Europe to the English speaking world– A Fine Line: New
Poetry from Eastern and Central Europe . In the case of this anthology, Büchler took advantage of the political change, the new wave of the EU integration, in Europe in
2004:
“I actually approached a poetry publisher [Arc Publications], who published
poetry in translation, and they agreed to do an anthology of young poetry from
the new EU member states, with the entry of these countries into the EU, there
would be more interest – which there definitely was – in the cultures of these
new neighbours […] Generally, there has been interest, […] so we thought,
let’s do an anthology, let’s actually launch it for May 1 st last year [2004], which
we did” (Higgins).
This collection contains pieces of poetry by two young Czech poets – Petr Borkovec and Kateřina Rudčenková.
In conclusion, I would like to refer to the case Paul Wilson , the translator of
Václav Havel’s non literary essays and political speeches. How did it come that Paul
Wilson became a “translator laureate” of Václav Havel?
68 When living in Czechoslovakia he met with Havel just once in the 1970s but he was already aware of Havel’s essays in which Havel expressed his stanza to the current events.
Then in the late 1970s, Wilson was forced to leave Czechoslovakia and when he came back to Canada he started to translate Havel’s essays. Moreover, Wilson was asked by a publisher if he was interested in translating Havel’s Dopisy Olze , which was the very first book by Havel Wilson transferred into English.
However, Wilson believes that it was not Havel who decided that Wilson would translate Havel’s pieces of writings into English:
“Myslím, že Havel do toho nikdy nemluvil. Bylo to rozhodnutí jeho agentů a
vydavatelů. Tehdy byla spousta lidí, kteří chtěli překládat Havla. […] A můj
vydavatel hledal někoho, kdo dá Havlovi jednotící jazyk” 27 (Macháček 10).
He got this opportunity because at that time Wilson had already a good reputation as translator that he gained by translating some works by Škvorecký that got very good reviews.
All in all, the policy works in the United Kingdom and in the United States in a similar way. There are two ways how to get published your versions of translations.
Either the publisher, having a concrete idea of what he/ she wants to launch on the book market, approaches the translator asking whether he/ she is interested in doing a translation of the particular work by the particular author, or it works exactly the other way round – the translator having his/ her favourites and wants their translated works to get published he/ she themselves must approach then the publisher. 27 “I think that Havel was never involved in it. It was the decision made by his agents and publishers. At that time there were many people who wanted to translate Havel […] But my publisher was searching for someone who would ensure Havel the homogenous voice.”
69 7. Publishers
Czech books in English translation have been published by various publishing houses. On the whole, there is no publisher that specializes just in bringing out Czech literary works in translation. There are the great publishing houses such as Penguin
Books, Granta Books, Picador, Faber and Faber, Bloodaxe Books, and Farrar, Straus &
Giroux that are responsible in bringing out some Czech titles in English.
Moreover, there are small publishing houses whose publishing activities are narrowly defined such as Catbird Press and Twisted Spoon.
Nevertheless, there are not just the foreign presses that publish Czech literary works in English. There are some of the Czech publishing houses such as Ikar and
Vitalis that have distributed several Czech works in English.
I contacted both the publishers from the English speaking countries (12 British and American publishers) and the Czech publishing houses (2). Sadly, I regret to say that I have received no answer from any publishing house from the English speaking countries. So I, at least, will quote Alexandra Büchler who describes the matter of publishing houses from the English speaking countries in a general way:
“There are publishers who actually specialize in translation. There is a handful
of them. Then there are the large publishers like Penguin and Faber that publish
some translations, but the small independent publishers that specialize in
translations are the one that one has to approach with a proposal” (Higgins).
Catbird Press and Twisted Spoon are the examples of the small independent publishers. Because they both focus either purely on the Czech literature in English
70 translation or on the literary works from Central and Eastern Europe in general, I will deal with them in detail later in this chapter.
Touching the Czech publishers, I was more fortunate because I got reply from two of the three publishers, Ikar and Vitalis, I had written to. On the whole, it can be said that the books brought out in English by these publishing houses are aimed at the
Czech book market in respect to foreign visitors to the Czech Republic. Gabriela
Salfenllner from Vitalis, then, writes more about the policy of the publisher Vitalis in her reply:
“O tom, které tituly uvedeme na trh, rozhodujeme sami a podle toho zadáváme
překladatelům, co mají přeložit. V některých případech používáme i historické
překlady děl. Například během měsíce vyjde Babička od Boženy Němcové v
překladu z 19. století.” 28
I assume that the policy is similar in other, both Czech and foreign, publishing houses.
7.1 Catbird Press
I guess that Catbird Press can be called as the greatest publisher concentrating on bringing out Czech literature in English translation. Unfortunately, because of the lack of interest in the Czech literature it was put out of business in 2004. However, I believe that it deserves to be mentioned in more detail anyway.
Catbird Press was run by the already mentioned Robert Wechsler. It was founded in 1987 and its main purpose was to publish Czech literature in English and
28 “We decide which titles are to be launched on the market. According to it, we assign the concrete works for translating to the translators. We use historical translations as well. For instance, Babička by Božena Němcová in the translation form the 19 th century will be brought out during the following month.”
71 “sophisticated prose humor in the classic American tradition” (Catbird Press).
Probably because of the small interest in the Czech titles in the Anglo Saxon world
Wechsler decided to enlarge the offer of his publishing house by adding American and
British fiction.
Catbird Press used to publish the Czech books such as works by Karel Čapek,
Daniela Fischerová, Alexandr Kliment, Vladimír Páral, Karel Poláček, Jaroslav
Seifert, and Jáchym Topol under the Garrigue Books imprint, which was done in honour of Charlotte Garrigue, who was born in the United States and married the first
Czechoslovakian president, Tomáš Masaryk.
7.2 Twisted Spoon
Twisted Spoon, in contrast to Catbird Press, is still in business. It was founded by an American, Howard Sidenberg, in 1992. It is based in Prague and it focuses on translating works by various authors from Central and Eastern Europe.
Its list includes both the international recognized writers and those who are having their work published in English for the first time. One of its main intentions is to introduce contemporary writers such as Pavel Brycz, Eva Švankmajerová, and
Václav Kahuda and the works form earlier periods such Otokar Březina, Franz Kafka, and Egon Hostovský as well to the English speaking world.
All in all, there is a relatively great number of publishers, both Czech and of the
English speaking countries, who publish the translation literature. However, none of them purely specializes in bringing out the Czech literature in translation.
72 8. Promotion of Literature
Once having a book translated into English and published it is necessary that it finds its readers. The question is: what to do or how to attract the readerships in a foreign country if they have not got the slightest idea who the author is and whether his/ her piece of writing is worth reading. Thus, it is clear that the book must be promoted so it can be brought to the notice of its potential readers. What kinds of promotion are at hand, then?
8.1 Promotion of Czech Literature
The most common and the most traditional way is to capture the translators and bohemists in foreign countries. To be more concrete, in the English speaking countries
Czech literature has gripped the interest of several university teachers such as James
Naughton, Oxford University, Michael Henry Heim, University of California, Los
Angeles, and Neil Bermel, University of Sheffield.
These people are important not just because they translate from Czech into
English but they take part in promotion as well for example by writing reviews on newly published books translated from Czech into English that are then printed in various prestigious magazines such as New York Time Review of Books.
Nevertheless, there are other people besides the university teachers who are interested in the culture of Central and Eastern Europe too. Literature across Frontiers is an appropriate example of such an organization. It is based at the Mercator Centre,
University of Wales Aberystwyth. It is run by Ned Thomas, Alexandra Büchler,
Sioned Puw Rowlands, and Heidi Kivekäs. Its main aims are to promote literatures written in “minor” European languages, to encourage the greater diversity of published
73 literature in translation, and to help create opportunities for sharing of experience and resources amongst cultural operators active in this field.
This organization publishes a bi monthly on line magazine Transcript . It offers reviews of books and writings from around Europe in order to promote quality literature from the “smaller” languages. The articles are written in three world languages – English, French and German – so that they are accessible to a wider circle of readers.
The issue of Transcript 6 was devoted to Czech literature. It was edited by
Alexandra Büchler and Magdaléna Platzová and it was supported by the Ministry of
Culture of the Czech Republic. It discussed contemporary young Czech both poets and prose writers such as Petr Borkovec, Anna Zonová, Petra Hulová, Hana Androniková, and others.
Another source of promotion of cultures from Central and Eastern Europe is
Central European Review . It is purely an on line magazine and it tries to offer new perspectives on Central and Eastern European politics, society and culture. Various reviews, commentaries on the cultural aspects of Central and Eastern Europe and interviews with writers from these countries have been published on their websites.
These are, thus, some of the examples of promotion of Czech literature initiated from abroad.
However, the initiative in promoting the Czech literary works is taken by some
Czech institutions too. First, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic has been awarding grants to foreign publishers, that is those which are registered outside the
Czech Republic, in order to encourage the translation and publication of the Czech literature abroad since 1998. The priority is the support of contemporary writing. The grant covers just either solely or partly the cost of the translation which must be
74 published within one year since the grant was awarded. Those who are interested can apply for the grant only once in a year (on 15 th November). There is a committee of the
Department of Arts and Libraries consisting of writers, translators, publishers, academics and civil servants that decides on awarding the grant. Topol’s Sestra ,
Viewegh’s Výchova dívek v Čechách and Pekárková’s Dej mi ty prachy are some of the examples of the Czech literary works that were published in English supported by the grant of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Further, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic supports the promotion of Czech writers abroad by means of readings and other programmes in which the authors take part such as international book fairs. With regard to the mentioned events, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic cooperates with Svět knihy, s. r. o.
Last, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic administers the webpage
“Portál české literatury” which is intended to inform the publicity abroad about the current news about Czech literature.
Czech Centres are another Czech institution that is involved in promotion of
Czech culture abroad. They are sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs of the
Czech Republic. Their aim is to represent the Czech Republic especially in the field of culture, trade and tourism. Currently, 20 Czech Centres act abroad in 17 countries all over the world.
Concerning the promotion of the Czech literature, the Jazz Section of the Czech centres organize a project called Non stop reading which is transmitted on line. In
2001 the event became international for the first time, when it was organized in cooperation with the Czech Centre in Bratislava.
Each year the Non stop reading is determined thematically e. g. devoted to
Josef Škvorecký and Zdena Salivarová (2000). The reading itself is carried out by
75 governmental ministers, senators, members of parliament, artists, students, as well as a number of others. In short, the readers are people who are interested in the Czech culture and the Czech language and so that anyone who is interested can take part in it.
The chosen texts are read either in readers’ native or foreign language.
8. 2 Promotion of Irish Literature
I would like to compare the promotion of Czech literature with the promotion of Irish literature. I found that there are three main institutions that take part in it. They are Ireland Literature Exchange, Department of Foreign Affairs, and The Arts Council.
I will briefly comment on the activities of Ireland Literature Exchange and The Arts
Council.
Ireland Literature Exchange (ILE) is the national organization for the international promotion of Irish literature. It was established in 1994 and it is supported by the Cultural Relations Committee, which is a section of the Department of Foreign Affairs. ILE offers translation grants to international publishers, moreover, it runs residential bursary programmes for literary translators, and it organizes translator and author events at international festivals and book fairs.
Concerning the translation grants, any international publisher who is searching for support for translations into foreign languages and any Irish publisher seeking support for translations into English or Irish can apply. There are five deadlines for submitting their applications throughout the year.
The Arts Council is an autonomous body to stimulate public interest in and promote the knowledge of the Irish arts of all kinds – architecture, dance, drama, film, literature, music, opera and visual arts. It was founded in 1951 and it is financed partly by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and by the National
76 Lottery funds. The Council provides bursaries, annual grants and project funding to individuals and organizations engaged in the promotion of arts
Nevertheless, the question is in what depth the promotion has its effects on the wider readership of the English speaking countries. I am sorry to say that even though it appears that there are quite a lot of sources of promotion and a number of institutions and individuals involved in it the overall effects are insufficient. Alexandra Büchler openly states:
“In Britain especially Czech literature is simply not known at all. When you ask
somebody to name a Czech writer they usually come up with Milan Kundera,
and possibly, if they are in the know, maybe Hrabal, but that’s it” (Higgins).
It seems, thus, that the awareness of Czech literature abroad is still a sort of privilege of a small circle of people. I believe that this trend corresponds with the general situation in this field because when I asked ten people from my neighbourhood (not
English scholars) about the Irish writers only six of them came up with James Joyce or
Oscar Wilde. I think it is because most of the promoting activities stay out of the attention of the wider audience.
77 9. General Translation Problems
Literary translators can be characterized as:
“Artists in their own right, they face twin daunting challenges: interpreting
Slavic sentence structure, culture and sensibility into English and channelling
the voice and soul of the original author to re create the experience of reading
each book or poem in its original form” (Powell)
so that it is clear that translating a book is rather a tough call. Every translator from any language into any other language has to usually face various translation problems.
Each language has its specifics that make the language stand out but that are typically stumbling block when it comes to the translation.
So it is the case of the translators from Czech into English who come across some translation trickiness believing that it is impossible to transfer a thing from one language into another. Each translator has to cope with individual problems usually concerning the particular author and his/ her personal ways of expression. However, there are some that are repeatedly pointed out and that intensify the difference between
Czech and English.
Word order occupies the first place. It is well known that the word order in
English is fixed because of the fact that English does not dispose of any declination.
Czech, on contrary, is an inflected language, which means that cases are distinguished by the endings of words. Wechsler elucidates the problem of word order in his preface of Kliment’s Living Parallel :
78 “Czech word order is much flexible than English because […] it is an inflected
language, with gender and numerous cases that allow words to relate to one
another in almost any order” (x).
Wechsler also clarifies how he deals with the problem, i.e. solving the problem with
FSP because the rheme lies at the very end of a Czech sentence:
“To force the English sentence a little here and there […] where a sentence
ends with a particularly important word or phrase […] I did what I could to end
the sentence with an equivalent word or phrase” (x xi).
However, the question of FSP seems to be rather an issue concerning poetry.
Further, one of the most illustrative characteristics of Czech is “obecná čeština”
(common Czech), a super dialectic form of the standard Czech that is used by the most of Czech speakers in common situations. This variety of the Czech language cannot be naturally transferred into every other language identically. English is a case in point.
Parrott elucidates the essence of common Czech to the English speaking readers in his introduction to The Good Soldier Švejk :
“The use of common Czech in Bohemia and Moravia is by no means confined
to the uneducated. […] This cannot be adequately rendered in English, since
the only thinkable equivalent would be dialect or bad English. Either would be
false and out of place in this context” (xx).
79 Alexander Zucker suggests his version of the way of coping with the struggle of transferring the “colloquial register of Czech”. Kovtun explains that:
“Zucker has countered this by transliterating English colloquial speech. For
example, ‘and’ becomes ‘an’ and ‘all of you’ is ‘alla ya’. This technique is no
doubt the best for translating colloquialisms”.
Further, Parrott draws readers’ attention to bad language. He suggests that
Czech has at its disposal a wider spectrum of words that can be used as various insult words or phrases:
“Czech can boast a wide range of words of abuse in all shades of intensity […]
Czech words of abuse generally involve domestic animals, excrement or the
parts of the body connected with it” (Parrott xxi).
On contrary, English seems to have a rather limited possibility of words that are used to offend someone. Parrott explains that:
“in Britain, where – no doubt under the influence of Puritanism – the bulk of
our terms of abuse are too mild and our strong expressions are limited to one or
two hackneyed obscenities […] The English relate mainly to sexual functions
or perversions, although there is in this respect a narrow area of common
ground between the two languages” (xxi).
80 Bermel stresses another translation problem that is worth mentioning. Czech is a language that distinguishes between the informal and formal way of addressing people. It is the use of “ty” and “vy”. Bermel explains his attitude to this problem in his translation of Daniela Fischerová’s collection of short stories Fingers Pointing
Somewhere Else :
“In the […] case [we never stopped saying vy to each other], I translated it as
we never dropped the formalities […] as for the rest of the ty vy relationships in
this book, interesting or no, they go unremarked and unmentioned in the
translation” (xi).
Bermel also touches upon a universally known aspect that every translator comes across. It is the cultural context and hints on diverse cultural and national events and habits. Some word phrases are simply literally translated even though they sound little bit weird in English and cannot be fully understood because they lack the cultural aspect. Bermel mentions an October grave in this respect which he clarifies in the preface of his translation of Fischerová’s Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else .
To give a sort of summary concerning the translation problem, I will use
Partridge’s remarks that point out, in my opinion, the most common translation problems from Czech into English: First, the Czech prosody dispose of the word stress that lies invariably on the first syllable. This has a different impact of the verse metres such as iambic and trochaic when compared with English.
Second, the vowel length has no influence on the word stress, which proves to be problematic especially while translating poetry.
Third, the absence of definite and indefinite articles plays a significant role.
81 Fourth, because Czech is an inflective language, inflection of nouns gives
“much greater rhyme resources” (Partridge 329). Moreover, the inflection enables a free word order.
Fifth, the verb system is aspectual.
Sixth, the Czech has a great number of prefixes and affixes at its disposal in general.
And seventh, the Czech is rich at a complex system of diminutives that help to form the stylistic level of Czech.
82 10. Conclusion
My motivation for composing this diploma thesis was to find out whether
Czech literature is translated and published in English translation. When I learnt that it is not a subject of “science fiction”, I wanted to get more information about the issue.
The topic is, thus, not narrowly specified but it is rather taken from a broader point of view because I believe that this matter is not very known within the Czech context. I tried to suggest that there is a link between the two notions – Czech literary works and the English speaking countries as there has been a sort of a tradition of retelling the Czech stories and legends and translating from Czech into English that dates back to the 15 th century. According to my research, I believe that this tradition is about to be carried on in future as there is still a number of people who are interested in maintaining it.
First, I discovered that the interest in the translation literature in the English speaking countries is enormously low, which has a direct consequences on the Czech literary works in English. Even though the first impression might be rather pessimistic,
I managed to chase up that since 1989 at least one Czech book appeared in English translation, which I consider a relative success.
Second, I dealt with the matter of reception of the Czech literary writings in the
English speaking countries. The overall feeling is again rather positive as the translated books received positive reviews. At the same time it is necessary to stress that the general awareness of Czech literature in the English speaking countries is really very limited.
Third, concerning the translators, the Czech literature has got very good chances that it will be translated into English in future because along with the new
83 young Czech authors the new generation of young translators has entered the process of transferring pieces of writings from Czech into English, too.
Fourth, with regard to publishers, both the Czech publishers and publishing houses from the English speaking countries bring out the Czech literary works in
English. The most important criterion is that the publisher must have an interest in the published works or authors. Political events either of the individual countries or within the bounds of a greater whole, e. g. entry of new countries in the European Union, are the best source for taking publisher’s notice.
Fifth, if a translated book is to find its readers, it must be promoted. There are several institutions both of Czech and foreign origin that are involved in the promotion of Czech culture abroad. They are the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic,
Czech Centres, various departments of Slavic studies and languages at universities in the United Kingdom and in the United States, and several internet based projects such as Literature across Frontiers and Central Europe Review .
And what criteria are needed to make the author sure that he/ she has a certain chance to gain a sort of recognition abroad? Universally, there are such three main criteria. First, the quality takes up the leading place without any doubt.
Second, typical regional life and institutions can ensure the interest of the foreign audience, which can be explained by the Polysystem Theory: “A source text may be based on an existing model in the repertoire of the source system […] the stronger demand for acceptability, the greater chance that the translated text will be adjusted to a model which already exists in the repertoire of the target system and is familiar to both the translator and target audience” (Weissbrod) because, especially in the United States, regional writings and works about various “minor” American communities have been very popular.
84 Third, the young authors and their potential prospects are another example of criteria that can impress and draw the attention of a foreign publisher.
To conclude, despite the modest size of their home country and the harsh conditions of competition in the book market, some of the Czech writers have enjoyed an acclaim on the international literary scene in the past few decades.
85 Appendix 1
Here are the e mails that I received from the translators answering my questions. I do not include the answer from James Kirchner who does not translate fiction.
The answer from Norma Comrada , 21.10.2005:
“Dear Ms. Soukupova, Thank you for asking me to assist with your thesis on “Czech Literature in English Translation.” I’m happy to do so. Motivation: When taking a night school class in the Czech language many years ago, the instructor suggested, towards the end of the year, that I try translating the first chapter in “Anglicke listy.” It was difficult (the result must have been horrible), but it was also enthralling: I was captivated by the process and also by the author, whose work was not well or widely known here (except for “R.U.R” in an unfortunate translation and “War with the Newts”). The instructor lived near by; he and I continued to meet occasionally to argue over translations I did from Capek’s short stories and journalism. I translated things sporadically over the years, pretty much on my own, as a sort of intellectual hobby. Working, raising a family, and a busy life in general didn’t allow for deep study or continuity of thought, but I kept it up to some extent. In later years, when working at the University of Oregon, I became involved in a minor way with Slavic Studies program. Since no one in the Slavic field either there or elsewhere seemed to be emphasizing Capek, I began to give the occasional academic paper and then to organize Capek panels, first for the American Slavic Studies organization, and then for the international one. Book assignments: In the late 1980s, Capek’s work went into the public domain, and an American publisher called Catbird Press planned to bring out new translations (and some of the better older ones). The publisher evidently had heard of my work and interest, and he contacted me to see if I’d like to contribute to a Capek anthology he was compiling. I contributed “The Mother” and several short stories and some journalism (the “plurality” of the contents). When that project was completed, the publisher asked if I’d like to translate the Pocket Tales, and then “Kniha apocryfu,” and then “Bozi muka” and “Trapne povidky” (which came out as a single volume, “Cross Roads”), and then Ivan Klima’s biography of Capek. But Catbird Press is no longer in business, as is the case with far too many small publishers and independent book stores in this country. But some wonderful friendships came out of our Capek project, including with Peter Kussi, who did an enviable job of looking over my translations. (He would be another likely source for you, as he’s translated Kundera, Grusa, etc.) And the Catbird publisher recently received, most deservedly, the Karel Capek Prize. Audience response: Excellent reviews from many different kinds of reviewers, in the U.S., Britain, and even the Prague Post, culminating in “Cross Roads” and the Capek biography being featured as the cover article in the London Times Literary Supplement. I would send you a blurb sheet, but I don’t know your address. But for books to be noticed other than by reviewers, they need to be advertised, and small publishers don’t have money for advertising, or for sending their authors on book store tours. Consequently, the company garnered splendid reviews but not enough in sales to stay in business. (Other books in Catbird’s Capek series, by the way, are “War with the Newts,” “Talks with T.G. Masaryk,” and the trilogy the latter in an older British English translation that really does need re doing.) Any of the books can be ordered from the publisher or distributor; I also have the fun of seeing my books in Prague bookstores, where they’re in the section with English language translations of Czech literature. Most common problems: Many, for me. To begin with, Czech is neither my native tongue nor my native culture. I
86 admire both and have studied and continue to study both, but I can never be anything other than an American (although it’s hard to be a proud one, given the current U.S. administration). Working with Capek in particular means 1) scrutinizing the language on several levels, of course, and 2) developing as deep as sense as possible of life and times in the First Republic and the historical factors leading to the country’s emergence. I find that the obvious disadvantage of not being a native speaker must be countered by being alert to those words or phrases that Capek is using in a new, or historic, or a dual way. At that point I talk the word or phrase over with someone who is well educated and widely read, and has Czech as a first language. Other translators I admire do the same thing. It may happen only very seldom in a work, but one needs to maintain that alertness. There is an advantage to being a native speaker of American English, however, because one thing I do know well is my own language. I’ve read and winced at too many translations from Czech into English by non native English speakers; you can always, always tell. In Capek’s case, the translation generally is either pedestrian or painful, and he deserves far better than that. I don’t know what else to say. If you have other questions, you’re most welcome to ask. Sincerely, Bean Comrada (I only use Norma, my real name, for taxes and publishing)”
The answer from Neil Bermel , 18. 10. 2005:
“Dear Dana, Thanks for your enquiry. I'm afraid it would take me several hours torespond to all these questions in detail, but I can refer you to somethingI've written that might help. In my translation of Daniela Fischerová's short story collection Prst, který se nikdy nedotkne (translated as Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else), there is an introduction in which the publisher asked me to comment on specific problems and issues facing the translator, in a way that could be understood by the general public. You can find some of the same issues addressed by me and other people in a series of interviews in the Prague Post: http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2003/Art/1009/featu2.php . I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your thesis. Best regards, Neil Bermel”
The answer from Ewald Osers , 13. 11. 2005:
“Vazena Dano Soukupova, dekuji Vam za Vas email a omlouvam se, ze odpovidam bez diakritik (muj email server je neumi). K Vasim otazkam: What was the motivation for the translation? Proste laska k ceske literature. Jako stredoskolak na nemeckem gymplu v Praze jsem se zamiloval do soudobe ceske lyriky a zacal jsem ji (tehdy do nemciny) prekladat. Osobne jsem se znal s Josefem Horou a Frantiskem Halas (casto jsem chodival do jejich redakci), take s Frantiskem Nechvatalem, Ondrou Lysohorskym a jinymi. Byl jsem (nejmladsi) clen skupiny BLOK. Tato laska k ceske poezii trvala i po me emigraci do Anglie (1938). Moje prvni antologie moderni ceske lyriky ("Modern Czech Poetry") porizena v spolupraci s (trebaze ne prvotridnim) anglickym basnikem J.K.Montgomery, vysla v roce 1945.
87 Who assigned the translation ... to you? Normalne byla inciativa pro preklad prozy z e strany nakladatelstvi, zatimco s basnickymi preklady jsem se na nakladatelstvi obracel ja. Coz nebylo vzdy lehke, ale mel jsem celkem stesti. To snad zodpovi i Vasi dalsi otazku. How was the response of the audience? Nerad bych se vytahoval ale reakce byla vzdy pozitivni, nekdy i nadsena. Bohuzel zajem pro prekladovou literaturu je jak v Anglii tak i v Americe dost slaby. Na druhe strane je vsak pravdou, ze moje preklady Jaroslava Seiferta to mi mistr sam nekolikrat rikal hraly velkou roli v prisuzovani Nobelovy ceny Seifertovi. Moje preklady Jiriho Muchy, Ivana Klimy a (v posledni dobe) Arnosta Lustiga mely dost velky (a vesmes pozitivni) ohlas. Muj jediny preklad Karla Capka, "Valka s mloky" byl nedavno adaptovan pro britsky rozhlas (odvysilan dvakrat) a pripravuje se adaptace pro divadelni predstaveni. Vic my prekladatele z "maleho" jazyka, my popelky literarniho sveta, ani ocekavat nemuzeme. Nevim jak odpovidat na Vasi posledni otazku ohledne "most common problems". Neuvedomuji si, ze jsem nejake zvlastnmi problemy mel. Aspon ne vedome. Tak tady to je. Moc doufam, ze Vam to k necemu je. S pozdravem Ewald Osers”
The answer from James Partridge , 1. 6. 2006:
“Hi Dana I have come across your review of "The Grandmother" translated by Frances Gregor published in 1999. As I have been studying English Philology at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic and have been working on my final thesis (diploma thesis) that is aimed at "Czech Literature in English Translation" published especially after 1989 I will quote some of the passages from your review that concern the quality of the translation. Of course you're very welcome to quote them. I wrote that review some time ago but I don't think my views have changed all that much. If you want to tell me exactly which bits you're quoting I'm happy to tell you whether I still think they're accurate or not. Incidentally, I studied at Masaryk University too, albeit in a different department (Russian & Czech languages). You're quite right. I actually ended up writing most of the articles on Czech literature for that Encyclopedia. As you say, I did the general overivews of English translations of both Czech and Slovak literature, and I also wrote individual articles on Čapek, Hašek, Havel, Hrabal, Holub and Škvorecký. Again, it was a few years ago now although last time I looked at those articles they still seemed ok. I would like to ask whether you have any information about the present situation concerning translations from Czech into English. Further, I would like to ask if you have some personal experience with translating from Czech. Well, as to the second part of your question, yes. My main work is actually on Vladimír Holan and I've translated all of his Příběhy as well as a few other bits and pieces. You can find a review I wrote of the English translations of Noc s Hamletem here: http:// users.ox.ac.uk/~sedm0324/nocshamletem.html (sorry, I don't really maintain those web pages any more so please forgive the fact that they don't look all that good). I've done various other translations over the years but not much is published because to be honest I've never had the time to work on the translations to get them into what I consider to be sufficiently good shape
88 to publish. I also used to work as a translator and interpreter from Czech, but I should add that most of that work was commercial, not literary, so probably not what you're interested in for your thesis. The first part of your question is more difficult to answer. As you can tell if you've read my various articles and reviews I think Czech literature is, on the whole, pretty poorly translated into English. I'd go further than that and say that I think Czech literature has been badly served by English translators over the years. Paul Selver set a pretty low standard back in the 1920s and that standard has stayed low in most (not all) cases since then. Of course there are exceptions but the overall quality of translations from Czech is very low (in my opinion, of course). As I said, my work is primarily on Holan these days so I don't read much contemporary Czech literature, but I do still work quite closely with Dr James Naughton (who as I'm sure you know translated Hrabal, amongst others, into English) and between us we try and keep an eye on new English translations, but I think it's fairly safe to say that we haven't come across anything of particular interest for a long time. I'm sorry to sound so negative about it and I'm more than happy to discuss it further if you would like to. I'd just add one more thing for now. I think that one of the problems with English translations is that even the more competent translators have tended to overlook some of the really challenging and interesting works of Czech literature and concentrate on the populist stuff. There are a number of reasons why I think that's the case, but that's a longer discussion. As I say, if you'd like to discuss this more please feel free to write. I hope some of this is helpful anyway. All the best James”
The answer from Jan Čulík , 12. 12. 2005:
“Dobrý den, velmi stručně: motivací pro překlady byla snaha zprostředkovat středoevropskou zkušenost a středoevropské myšlení a literaturu anglosaskému publiku, podobně jako Britské listy to nyní dělají obráceně. Šlo většinou o překlady povídek zakázaných autorů (Lustig, Hutka, Pecka, atd.). Dělal jsem také pravidelné přehledy v angličtině o tom, co je nového v české nezávislé literatuře, pro oxfordský East European Publishing Project a v posledních letech před pádem komunismu jsem překládal a redigoval anglickou verzi Infochu (Informace o Chartě 77) pro Palach Press Jana Kavana pod názvem Uncensored Czechoslovakia. Motivace stejná. Texty jsem si vybíral k překladům sám a nabízel jsem je malým literárním časopisům (jiné v Británii nejsou:) Relativně často se je podařilo uplatnit v Británii pod vlivem Kundery, Hrabala, Škvoreckého, vládlo v osmdesátých letech mezi intelektuály do určité míry přesvědčení, že ve středoevropské/české literatuře se v nepřístupném jazyce skrývají klenoty prozření. Nejsem si vědom žádných problémů. Jako nerodilý mluvčí bych si nedovolil překládat prózu, dělal jsem to s britskou manželkou. Samozřejmě to všechno bylo zadarmo. Za překlady Uncensored Czechoslovakia (cca 60? stran textu měsíčně) jsem dostával 30 liber (cca 1300 Kč) měsíčně. Kavan víc neměl. JČ”
89
The answer from Dana Loewy , 12. 12. 2005:
“Vazena pani Soukupova: 12.12.2005 It's always a pleasure to hear from someone interested in literature and translation in particular. To answer your questions, some of which require lengthier answers than I can write in an e mail, we would need to talk, but I will try to reply as best I can by e mail. I will be in Prague over New Year's, so perhaps we could talk then, if you like, by telephone. I only have a mobile phone, however, and if you like, you could give me a call between the first of the year and the 10th of January. Let me know and I will send you my number. Okay, here goes, your first question about motivation: I've been a translator since I turned 17. After my family fled Czechoslovakia in 1969, I was growing up in Germany. First I translated into German, from Czech, my native language. (By the way, we CAN speak Czech, too.) My goal was always to acquaint other nations with the works produced in the Czech lands that had the misfortune of a language few people want to learn or ever master fully. Bridging the divide caused by language barriers, I suppose, was the motto. I also love the challenges that arise when we try to create a new work of art in its own right in another language while not violating the original and remaining true to its spirit and message, etc. I've been a professional translator since 1984 and really got into it, although still on the side, in 1995, after I finished my PhD at the University of Southern California. I've been translating films for DVD, mainly into German now, however. As for Seifert and why I chose him, when he was awarded the Nobel in 1984, very few decent translations existed anywhere! In Germany there was a small rather wooden volume of poetry, Im Spiegel hat sie das Dunkel or something like that. Nothing else. Then I came across Na vlnach TSF in a German facsimile edition, published by the Austrian Hora Verlag. I was thrilled with the whole idea of providing a facsimile edition in another language. In the U.S. there were some pretty bad Seifert translations. I always loved poetry and when I studied American and English literature in the U.S., after finishing my Master's degree in Bonn, Germany, I dabbled in translation of poetry again. This time at the University of Southern California, there was a superb translation summer course held by Dr. Moshe Lazar, a great mentor of mine, that got me started. He and my dissertation adviser, Jay Martin, encouraged me to attempt to translate the early Seifert. The first four volumes of Seifert were published by Hydra Press (Northwestern UP). Then, just last year, my dream of a facsimile edition of TSF in English came true: It was published in a tiny edition in Prague by Akropolis. It's a bilingual edition, which is what I've always wanted. I answered 2), as well. No one assigned the book to me. I chose it. That's the way it is in the U.S. by the way. No one can live off translating. There may be one guy, perhaps. John Woods or who knows. Most of my fellow literary translators do it for the love of the art and they are usually literature professors. Moreover, usually, they get no recognition of promotions for doing translations. You see, it's entirely a labor of love. While in Germany you may see 12000 new translated titles each year, in the U.S. only about 1500 translated works appear each year. Few Americans still read poetry and even fewer read it in translation. So if you want to get published as a translator, you pick an author and a work, do a test sample and then you write proposals to various publishers who may be interested. Sometimes they are, most of the time they aren't. How I got to it? I'm not sure I understand the question. I was a graduate student and just decided to do it. The texts were relatively easy to obtain from the National Library in Prague,
90 where I spent 4 weeks in the summer of 1994 doing research. I was also in touch with Seifert's daughter Jana Seifertova Plichtova. She graciously gave me permission to publish my translations. You see, there are some very poor translations of Seifert in the U.S. I've written about this in my dissertation and in an article in Translation Review. The work of Grady/Jagasich is awful and has done a lot of damage to Seifert's reputation. My motivation was also to improve that perception. I mostly got very good reviews for my work. Some called it more "academic" and less "poetic" but most of all the response was positive. As is the case with poetry and especially poetry in translation, the book hasn't exactly been a hot seller. To illustrate, for three years of labor I received $800 from the publisher. $300 was for the introduction that I wrote. As a translator of subtitles, I can make $800 on a good day or two, if I'm lucky. This shows you where the priorities of the market are and why I'm not translating poetry at the moment although that's what I'd rather be doing. At the moment, I am a professor of business communication at Cal State Fullerton here in Southern California. As for the most common problems, oh dear, a whole chapter in the dissertation and my article "The Translator as Traitor" in Translation Review are all about that. Mainly the paronomastic means, obviously, because they don't translate seamlessly. Seifert was having fun with TSF, specifically. There's a lot of word play, music, casual rhyme. I tried to retain the playfulness and worked with assonance whenever I could. The point was to approximate the effect, but not slavishly so. I certainly don't believe in form over substance. De la music avant toutes les choses! I think Verlaine said that. I hope this will be helpful to you. Let me know if I can assist you in any other way. And, yes, we can speak/write Czech although mine is a bit rusty since I don't have much opportunity to practice it. Best regards, Dana Loewy”
The answer from Robert Wechsler , 20. 12. 2005:
“ Dear Mrs Robert Wechsler, what was the motivation for the translation who assigned the translation of the particular book to you I can answer these questions together, because I did my only book length translation, of Alexandr Kliment's novel Nuda v Cechach, for my own publishing house, Catbird Press, which has published many works of Czech literature in English translation. I had originally agreed with a translator to work on this translation, but then he told me he did not have the time, and since I loved the novel and it was so literarily difficult that my lack of fluency in Czech would not be so great an obstacle, I decided to translate it myself. My motivation was the same as choosing to publish the novel: my love of Kliment's use of language. It is more poetry than fiction. > how was the response of the audience Since Kliment is unknown and the novel very literary, it received few reviews and most of the reviewers did not understand or appreciate the book. Therefore, few people purchased the book. > what were the most common problems you encountered during the translation process. I found many sentences in the book difficult to understand and even more difficult to unravel and put into equally beautiful, difficult English sentences. This is also true of Skvorecky and Hrabal, for instance. These writers use the resources of the Czech language (especially cases) in ways that English cannot follow. Often the translator must suggest complexities of phrasing
91 rather than completely recreate them. In Kliment's novel, which I called Living Parallel in English (Boredom in Bohemia, although it sounds good, both misses the true meaning of nuda and ignores the fact that much of the novel takes place in Moravia), there are a great deal of repeated words and phrases, often in different forms, throughout the novel. Some depend on words that take on a range of meanings in Czech so that no English word can capture them. This means that with each repetition, the translator must decide how important it is to preserve the exact word or phrase (and which word or phrase to choose in English to capture the most meanings), and sometimes it is necessary to break a word or phrase into two English words or phrases that are used in different contexts. This is a problem with many Czech writers, including Kundera and Paral. It is also a problem about which Kundera, in his essays, shows no understanding. For more of my thoughts on translating into English see my translator's foreword to Living Parallel and my book Performing Without a Stage: The Art of Literary Translation (Catbird, 1998). Yours sincerely, Robert Wechsler”
92 Appendix 2
Here are the answers from the both Czech Publishers, Vitalis and Ikar, and the Czech
Centres, Praha and London.
The answer from the Czech Centre, Prague , 17. 3. 2006:
“Vazena slecno Soukupova, dekuji za Vas zajimavy dotaz. V priloze zasilam brozuru, ktera se k Nonstop cteni vydavala v roce 2002, najdete tam informace o historii a zameru Nonstop cteni, dale prikladam odkaz na nas web, kde najdete informace o poslednim rocniku Nonstop cteni. Ve zkratce: kazdy ucastnik si vybiral svou ukazku a cetl ve svem jazyce, podminkou tedy bylo, ze existuje preklad ceskeho autora v dannem jazyce. Kazde CC si pripravilo Nonstop cteni trosku jinak, nekde cetli pouze vybrani ctenari, nekdo mohl cist kdokoliv z prichozich. Pokud Vas zajima konkretni prubeh a reakce v londynskem CC prosim kontaktujte primo [email protected]. Letosni rocnik bude jen v omezene mire, nebudou se ucastnit vsechna CC, organizace celeho festivalu je totiz pro mensi CC velmi narocna. CC se na vydavani ceskych knih nepodili, max. se spolupodili na vydavani vystavnich katalogu. Pokud mate jakekoliv dalsi dotazy napiste mi. Zaroven bych Vas rada pozadala, pokud se Vam podari nejaky material konkretne o CC a Nonstop cteni shromazdit, zda mi ho muzete poslat, budete i pro nas zajimave k cemu jste dosla. Dekuji a preji hezky den Judita Matyasova”
The answer from the Czech Centre, London , 21. 3. 2006:
“Vazena pani Soukupova, Projekt Non stop reading je projektem Ceskych center, ktery probiha kazdym rokem na jednotlivych zastoupenich. Jednotlive rocniky jsou vetsinou tematicky motivovane, z toho tedy vychazela volba cetby.Vzhledem k tomu, ze u nas cetli vetsinou Anglicane, texty skutecne byly anglicke a jednalo se o jiz existujici preklady. Pouze v jednom pripade slo o cetbu autorkou prelozenych versu Kytice. Ctenari byli lide, jez se zajimaji o ceskou kulturu, jazyk atd. Hodne ruznorodi. Vzhledem k tomu, ze je minimalni zajem z rad brit. nakladatelstvi o prekladovou literaturu, zadne konzultace neprobihaji. Jen ojedinele dochazi k vydani knihy, vetsinou antologie, jez by zahrnovala ceskou literaturu. V tom pripade nakladatel jiz dopredu vi, koho potrebuje. S pozdravem Renata Clarkova Ceske centrum Londyn”
93 The answer from the publishing house Ikar , 7. 4. 2006:
“Milá paní Soukupová, naše nakladatelství vydalo v anglickém jazyce pouze několik titulů, které byly určeny pro český trh. Jednalo se o publikace o Praze, České republice, dalším byl titul Evy Hudečkové Bratříček Golem. Tyto knihy byly vydány původně v češtině, pak jsme s ohledem na turistický ruch připravili i anglické vydání. Pokud by Vás zajímaly i další jazyky, prodali jsme licenci k několika svým titulům, které pak vyšly v Polsku, Španělsku, na Slovensku a ve Francii. Když budete ještě něco potřebovat, ozvěte se mi. Přeji hezký víkend, Lenka Hajerová zástupkyně programové ředitelky Euromedia Group k.s.” The answer from the publishing house Vitalis, 6. 4. 2006:
„Vážená paní Soukupová, níže jsou uvedeny odpovědi na Vaše dotazy : 1. Zajímalo by mě, zda se Vaše nakladatelství samo rozhoduje, jaké autory a díla budou přeložena či spíše přijímá nabídku od překladatelů. O tom, jaké tituly uvedeme na trh, rozhodujeme sami a podle toho zadáváme překladatelům, co mají přeložit. V některých případech používáme i historické překlady děl. Například během měsíce vyjde Babička od Boženy Němcové v překladu z 19. století. 2. Ještě by mě také zajímalo, zda knihy přeložené do anglického jazyka jsou určeny jen pro domácí, tedy český, nebo také pro zahraniční trh. Knihy, které jsme vydali v anglickém jazyce jsou určeny pro český trh. Našimi zákazníky jsou však z 95% cizince, kteří Českou republiku navštíví. Občas si naše knihy zakoupí i čeští zákazníci. Většinou jako dárky pro své zahraniční známé. Jinak je tomu i titulů, které vydáváme v německém jazyce. Tam je většina nákladu určena pro export do Německa, Rakouska a Švýcarska. Doufám, že jsem mám mohla být trochu nápomocna. Přeji hodně úspěchů s diplomovou prací. S pozdravem z Prahy Gabriela Salfellner”
94 Appendix 3
List of Some of Newly Published and Republished Works after 1989
Brycz, Pavel. I, City . Joshua Cohen, Markéta Hofmeisterová (tr.). Praha: Twisted
Spoon Press, expected Nov 2006.
Březina, Otokar. Hidden History. Carleton Bulkin (tr.). Praha: Twisted Spoon Press,
1997.
Čapek, Karel. Cross Roads . Norma Comrada (tr.). North Haven: Catbird Press, 2002.
Letters from England . Geoffrey Newsome (tr.). London: Claridge Press, 2001.
Four Plays: R. U. R., The Insect Play, The Makropulos Case, The White
Plague . Peter Majer and Cathy Porter (tr.). London: Methuen, 1999.
Apocryphal Tales. Norma Comrada (tr.). North Haven: Catbird Press, 1997.
Talks with T. G. Masaryk. Michael Henry Heim, Dora Round (tr.). North
Haven: Catbird Press, 1995.
Tales from Two Pockets. Norma Comrada (tr.). North Haven: Catbird Press,
1990.
Three Novels: Hordubal, Meteor, and Ordinary Life. M. & R. Weatherall (tr.).
New York: Catbird Press, 1990.
Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Čapek Reader. Peter Kussi; Arthur Miller
(ed.). Highland Park, NJ: Catbird Press, 1990.
War with the Newts. Ewald Osers (tr.). North Haven: Catbird Press, 1990.
Čapek, Karel a Josef. The Birds Tale and Two Tales on Top. Lucie Doležalová (tr.).
Praha: Albatros, 1999.
A Doggy Tale and Two Tales on Top. Norah Hronková (tr.). Praha: Albatros,
1997.
95 A Long Cat Tale. Milena Jandová (tr.). Praha: Albatros, 1996.
Nine Fairy Tales by Karel Čapek and One More Thrown in for Good Measure.
Dagmar Herrmann (tr.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1996.
Fischerová, Daniela. Fingers Pointing Elsewhere . Neil Bermel (tr.). North Haven:
Catbird Press, 2000.
Fischerová, Sylva. The Tremor of Racehorses . Jarmila and Ian Milner (tr.). Newcastle
upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1990.
Fuchs, Ladislav. Mr. Theodore Mundstock . New York: Four Walls Eight Windows,
1991.
Gruša, Jiří. The Questinnaire: Or Prayer for a Town and a Friend . Peter Kussi (tr.).
Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2000.
Hanzlík, Josef. Selected Poems. Ewald Osers, Jarmila and Ian Milner, Martin Graham
(tr.). Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1993.
Hašek, Jaroslav. The Bachura Scandal and other stories and sketches. Alan
Menhennet (tr.). London: Angel Books, 1991.
The Good Soldier Švejk and His Fortunes in the World War . Cecil Parrot (tr.).
London: Everyman, 1993.
Havel, Václav. The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice: Speeches
and Writings. Paul Wilson (tr.). New York: Fromm, 1998.
A Word about Words. John Jay Iselin, Jiří Šetlík, John Heyduk, Jiří Kolár (tr.).
New York: The Cooper Union, 1997
Toward a Civil Society: Selected speeches and writings 1990 1994. Rostislav
Vaněk, Paul Wilson (tr.). Praha: NLN, [1995].
Selected Plays 1984 – 1987 . James Saunders, Tom Stoppard, George Theiner
(tr.). London: Faber and Faber, 1994.
96 Selected Plays . Vera Blackwell, George Theiner, Jan Novák (tr.). London:
Faber and Faber, 1992.
Summer Meditations. Paul Wilson (tr.). New York: Knopf, 1992.
Letters to Olga . Paul Wilson (tr.). London: Faber and Faber, 1991.
Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965 – 1990 . Paul Wilson (tr.). New York: A.
Knopf, 1991.
Disturbing the Pace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala . Paul Wilson (tr.).
London: Faber and Faber, 1990.
Three Vaněk Plays : Audience, Protest, Unveiling. J. Novák, V. Blackwell (tr.).
London: Faber and Faber, 1990.
Redevelopment or Slum Clearance . James Saunders, Marie Winn (tr.). London:
Faber and Faber, 1990.
Living in Truth: Twenty two Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of
the Erasmus Prize to Václav Havel . Jan Vladislav, A. G. Brain (tr.). London:
Faber and Faber, 1989.
Hiršal, Josef. A Bohemian Youth (Writings from an Unbound Europe). Michael Henry
Heim (tr.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1997.
Holan, Vladimír. A Night with Hamlet. Jarmila and Ian Milner (tr.). Praha: Academia,
1999.
Holub, Miroslav. The Rampage . David Young, Dana Hábová, Rebekah Bloyd (tr.).
London: Faber and Faber, 1997.
Supposed to Fly . Ewald Osers (tr.). Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books,
1996.
The Jingle Bell Principle. James Naughton (tr.). Newcastle upon Tyne:
Bloodaxe Books, 1992.
97 Poems Before and After . Jarmila and Ian Milner, Ewald Osers, George
Theiner, Friebert, Dana Hábová, David Young (tr.). Newcastle upon Tyne:
Bloodaxe Books, 1990.
Vanishing Lung Syndrome . David Young and Dana Hábová (tr.). London:
Faber and Faber, 1990.
The Dimension of the Present Moment . David Young (ed.). London: Faber and
Faber, 1990.
Holubová, Miroslava. More Than One Life . Alexander Zucker (tr.). Evanston, IL:
Northwestern UP, 1999.
Hostovský, Egon. The Arsonist. Christopher Morris (tr.). Praha: Twisted Spoon Press,
1996.
Hrabal. Bohumil. Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka . James Naughton (tr.). Praha:
Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age . Michael Henry Heim (tr.). New
York: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Cutting in Short. James Naughton (tr.). London: Abacus, 1993.
The Little Town Where Time Stood Still and Cutting It Short. James Naughton
(tr.). New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.
Too Loud a Solitude . Michael Henry Heim (tr.). London: André Deutsch, 1991.
I Served the King of England. Paul Wilson (tr.). London: Picador, 1990.
The Death of Mr Baltisberger . Michael Henry Heim (tr.). London: Abacus,
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List of Some of the Anthologies
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105 Appendix 4
Samples of promotion materials: list of Čapek’s works translated by Norma
Comrada and a book mark made for a sale event.
106
107
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