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A Global Translation Initiative Report by English PEN and Free Word

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A Global Translation Initiative Report by English PEN and Free Word A Global Translation Initiative Report by English PEN and Free Word Taking Flight A Global Translation Initiative Report by English PEN and Free Word The Global Translation Initiative (GTI) is a collaborative research project that aims to identify perceived barriers to literary translation, to explore successful models of best practice, to celebrate achievement and to establish ways of building infrastructure for literary translation across the anglophone world. International Translation Day and the Literary Translation Centre at the London Book Fair are important staging posts for the discussion of GTI-related topics, which range from practical issues such as education, funding and training for literary translation, to wider cultural concerns such as literary translation in review media, the role of literary festivals, the translation of minority languages and intercultural understanding. Other GTI publications The GTI survey, Research into Barriers to Translation and Best Practices, was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2011. Available online www.dalkeyarchive.com The GTI interim report, Flying off the Shelves, was published by English PEN and Free Word in 2011. Available online www.englishpen.org Foreword If we value literature at all, we know the worth of literary translation. If we want language to be as subtle and supple and layered and resonant as language can be, we know the worth and the work and the subtlety of literary translation. If we care at all about looking beyond our back yard and our own dominant narratives, we know the worth, the work, the open border, open mind, open eyes and ears of literary translation. If we belong to a culture which rates the word literary, we know the value, the scope, the touchstone, the creativity, the generosity that exist in this fusion of literary and translation. If we consider the tiny percentage of translated literary works published, compared to everything else in the UK’s literary publishing output every year, we’ll be entitled to feel sober, ashamed, cheated, excluded from whole worlds. If we work against this, we’ll be a lot richer, in the end, when it comes to world and worlds. If we recognise that a country, in all its history and all its contemporaneity, can be seen, revealed, understood by recourse to its literature; and if we can see that all human languages belong to and with each other, exist in the one huge borderless country of language; then it’s obvious even just at a glance: the importance of, the excitingness of, the fertility of and the imperative in, the act of literary translation. Ali Smith Foreword 1 Anything to declare? Yes, we have! 2 Introduction 3 This is the final report of the Global Translation The essays in this report have been arranged in Initiative. Taking Flight: New Thinking on World three sections to reflect three types of value that Writing brings together a series of 18 short essays we associate with literary translation – cultural, from professionals that are keen to declare the professional and commercial. There are many value of literary translation. Concerned with the instances where these classifications overlap, Anything to declare? relatively small amount of literature available in but they provide a useful framework as we begin translation across the anglophone world, our to measure this value. contributors consider obstacles facing literary translation and tell us why they believe we deserve better. We declare that literary translation brings great value in the following ways... Helps us to Allows us to read understand the the best of the best changing world Provides a valuable Promotes shared teaching tool values Develops new Regenerates readers and literary sources writers Revitalises Develops new language markets Revitalises Contributes to literature economic growth 2 Introduction 3 Understanding the Promoting shared changing world values Engaging our senses with the cultural exports of By conveying human rights issues, the experiences another country enables us to understand not only of the marginalised, and elements of common the world as it is now, but also the shared history that humanity, translation encourages a greater brought us here. The world is constantly changing. understanding between different communities and Advances in digital technology, for example, mean cultures. Whether it’s Anna Politkovskaya’s Putin’s that we can access writing from around the world at Russia or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Petit Prince the touch of a button, but what is it actually like to be that awakens your empathy, it’s incredibly important a blogger in a country like China or Iran? Nasrin Alavi’s that we have access to these stories and experience We Are Iran captures the writing and experiences of literature beyond the borders of representation of our a young generation of Farsi bloggers, which opens own countries, or worlds. our eyes to their thoughts on revolution, censorship, women and even fashion. ‘Translation increases ‘Translated books have readers’ awareness of profoundly shaped our shared human emotion cultural perspective over and experience’ Geoffrey Taylor the past half century’ Found in Translation Jon Parrish Peede Awaiting News at the Dock ‘Literature in translation ‘A healthy landscape of is essential to an informed literary translation can transnational dialogue’ David Shook produce a healthy level Translator Profile of “awareness without borders”’ ‘Translation creates Julian Evans relations between writers A Brief History of Intercultural Awareness and readers that dissolve ‘We like to find books that not only literary barriers, tell us of worlds we do not but barriers of economics, know, or have forgotten’ politics, nationalism and Peter Stothard cultural materialism’ Translation, Reviewed Julian Evans A Brief History of Intercultural Awareness You may be interested in the You may be interested in the following pieces: following pieces: Many Languages, One Literature, Many Languages, One Literature, Namita Gokhale Namita Gokhale A Small Country in the South Pacific, Go Dutch!, Mireille Berman Jean Anderson Found in Translation, Geoffrey Taylor ‘Important and useful’, Polly McLean Awaiting News at the Dock, Translation and Reciprocity, Ivor Indyk Jon Parrish Peede 4 Introduction 5 Regenerating Revitalising literary sources language The power to renew the literary impact of a work is Translated work can enrich and benefit the language not restricted to new translations of classic authors into which it is translated, bringing new terms and like Tolstoy or Zola. The fortunes of The Reader by ideas with it. Each interpretation of a text is a revival Bernhard Schlink were transformed by its translation of language and imagery; a new setting though from German to English and its exposure to a new which we frame our understanding. By exploring and audience. In Germany, Schlink was considered to be experiencing different cultures through literature, we a crime writer, and The Reader labelled ‘soft’ on the build our capacity to articulate the world around us Nazis. It was on the back of the translation of the in fresh and exciting ways. novel that its adaptation for film was commissioned, sparking great commercial success. Translation allows literature to travel, meaning writers can speak ‘Words and phrases that out across generations and cultures. we are most frequently touched by trickle into our ‘Translation from daily use: words like déjà Greek into Latin more vu, orang-utan, assassin than 2,000 years ago was and doppelgänger’ the starting point for the Geoffrey Taylor critical canon, for what Found in Translation we have traditionally recognised as literature ‘Translations of García at all’ Márquez’s One Hundred Peter Stothard Years of Solitude Translation, Reviewed revitalised readers and writers of English novels in the 1970s and 1980s’ Peter Stothard Translation, Reviewed You may be interested in the You may be interested in the following pieces: following pieces: A Brief History of Intercultural Awareness, Many Languages, One Literature, Julian Evans Namita Gokhale Translator Profile, Maureen Freely Translator Profile, Maureen Freely ‘For Wales: See England’, Wiliam Owen Roberts 4 Introduction 5 Revitalising Reading the best literature of the best Having more books in translation encourages us In every other art form we can enjoy the ‘best in to experiment with our own literature. It can inspire the world’. We can visit world music festivals like anglophone writers to reach beyond their niche; WOMAD to appreciate diversity in the UK music to learn from the literary techniques, language scene and watch the latest Luc Besson film at our and concepts of other cultures. Salman Rushdie local Picture House cinema courtesy of Artificial playfully explores the borders between Hindi and Eye, but with literature it’s a little more challenging English in Midnight’s Children, drawing attention to locate ‘the best’. Great work is already being to the absorption of one language and culture into done but we need sustainable infrastructure in place another. It is vital that we continue to play with these to ensure quality books are consistently identified, linguistic and cultural boundaries to ensure diversity marketed and, above all else, read. Whether it’s in our national literature. literary fiction or fantasy novels we’re after, surely we can, and should, enjoy the very best. ‘To revitalise is one of the essentials of the ‘Publishers must find great translator’s art’ foreign novels and avoid Peter Stothard publishing
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