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 mediocre ones’ Translation, Reviewed Polly McLean ‘Important and useful’ ‘Translators wishing to do justice to a great poem or ‘Translation is a great a great novel will need to democratiser, allowing pay attention not just to its anyone to study the best surface meanings, but its writers in the world’ David Shook voice, its tone, its style, Translator Profile its music and allusions’ Maureen Freely Translator Profile
You may be interested in the You may be interested in the following pieces: following pieces: Translator Profile, David Shook A Revolution in Words, Mark Thwaite A Brief History of Intercultural Awareness, Awaiting News at the Dock, Julian Evans Jon Parrish Peede
6 Providing Developing a valuable new readers teaching tool and writers
Literary translation can foster a deeper understanding Refugee and migrant communities within the UK of the intricacies of language and its various functions, are often hugely underrepresented in our national and can improve written and spoken communication literature, and it is important that we create a skills in English. The pedagogical benefits of space for new and emerging voices and readers; learning languages are increasingly evident; both particularly where they might not otherwise have a through scientific research and the direct impact platform. International literary festivals can attract of translation projects for young people. Certain new readers, and in turn generate more translations, initiatives like Translation Nation and Poetry Inside by catering for different linguistic groups and Out show that when language learning is enhanced being aware of the kind of issues, languages and with translation, young people gain confidence and stories that are important to the audiences their critical thinking skills as a matter of course. experimentation draws in. ‘After many lessons of ‘By providing access translating others’ work, to translations through students “are bursting to festival programming, express themselves – the readership of to write”’ translated works will Olivia Sears increase and thus Beyond the Text the opportunities for ‘There are too many people translators will too’ either complacent about, Geoffrey Taylor Found in Translation or frightened by, languages other than their own. The ‘Translation is an important ultimate challenge for tool for promoting Welsh linguists is to address this language literature debilitating combination of globally’ complacency and fear’ Wiliam Owen Roberts ‘For Wales: See England’ Michael Kelly Britain’s Crisis of Language Learning
You may be interested in the You may be interested in the following pieces: following pieces: ‘Important and useful’, Polly McLean A Revolution in Words, Mark Thwaite Translation and Reciprocity, Ivor Indyk Unlikely Encounters, David Del Vecchio Translator Profile, Amanda Hopkinson Translator Profile, Nicky Harman
Introduction 7 Developing new Contributing to markets economic growth
A number of writers in this collection throw the Literacy, cultural understanding and linguistic familiar assumption that anglophone readers have a capability can help fuel economic competitiveness, meagre appetite for books in translation into question. improve employability and develop insight into Research carried out by Dalkey Archive Press also foreign markets. Reading works in translation – indicates that readers really are ready to ‘consume’ whether it’s the latest Scandinavian crime novel or books in translation. With generous portions of Stieg a recent autobiography of a political activist – helps Larsson and Carlos Ruiz Zafón in translation being foster a generation that is able to work in the world served around the world, can we still justifiably assert without being trapped in a single language. that readers find literature in translation difficult to stomach? There are huge untapped markets that ‘Having a second language we’re only just beginning to cater for; and we’re scarcely beginning to grasp the potential of online enables graduates to research and promotion for translated titles. thrive and communicate ‘Literature is literature and confidently in complex there is always a market for global societies ... they great books’ are the future leaders in David Del Vecchio business, the professions, Unlikely Encounters voluntary organisations, ‘Migration from print to education and research’ digital platforms carries Michael Kelly great promise for translation’ Britain’s Crisis of Language Learning Jon Parrish Peede Awaiting News at the Dock ‘The internet allows us to do peer-to-peer marketing directly. There are hundreds of blogs out there with hundreds of thousands of readers. They are telling publishers what they (and their followers) want to read’ Mark Thwaite A Revolution in Words
You may be interested in the You may be interested in the following pieces: following pieces: A Small Country in the South Pacific, ‘Important and useful’, Polly McLean Jean Anderson Translation and Reciprocity, Ivor Indyk Awaiting News at the Dock, Jon Parrish Peede
8 Introduction Cultural
9 Translation, Reviewed Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, believes that the ‘import-export’ of words is a vital part of keeping literature alive
No one should be surprised that translated literature small countries through small stories, we are right receives less critical attention than PEN (or the TLS) to be suspicious – just as we will feel little obligation would like. Literary criticism of all kinds has less appeal to review English novels promoted on posters on to editors than it once had. While opinion everywhere the Underground. Winners of national literary prizes extends its reach, argued opinion is confined. Argument – designed to exercise soft power on unsuspecting based on knowledge including the knowledge of readers – should be equally examined with caution in – other cultures and other languages is confined all the literary editor’s office. – the more. So it is valuable to recognise, in every way we can, how essential is the import-export business of Each year the Times Literary Supplement publishes words to literature’s life and worth. reviews of a wide variety of translated fiction and poetry. Among notices of novels in the past 12 months, For as long as there has been a literature writers have I have counted almost 70 (out of more than 300) translated to survive. Translation from Greek into Latin translations into English from some 18 languages, more than 2,000 years ago was the starting point for the from Slovenian, Korean, Hebrew, Hungarian, critical canon, for what we have traditionally recognised Russian, Czech, Japanese and all these and – as literature at all. Writings are still being translated more in addition to the large number of books we to keep writing alive; and future canons of classical review in their original language. We take note of literature are already being born from translation translation for many reasons, some that might be seen even if the key languages are not yet identified. as classical, others that are not. Translation brings But when we worry that we are not translating enough, or no more guaranteed virtue than any other act. not reading enough translation, we are rightly worried. But we consider translated books because we look as widely as we can for what is worth finding. We should, however, beware despair. Translation happens more than we think, more than we sometimes The classical dictates of comparative literature remain notice and for many different reasons, good, bad and vital. The line of Plato, Boethius, Chaucer, Petrarch, indifferent as well as wonderful. Wyatt, Marlowe, Dryden, Hölderlin, Pound and Hughes is not to be lost; and the skills learnt in following that I’ve been asked to consider whether there is line, and other long lines, helps the understanding and ‘a perceived bias against translated literature in the identification of successor lines. Informed arguments review media’. The evidence of the newspaper pages about the value of books demand deep knowledge of the and broadcast schedules certainly suggests a lack of layers of meaning and association that have gathered consideration for new Indian poetry or Qatari novels. over time. Even the greatest originality depends on the But we should not assume that, because of the absence understanding of origins: and often those origins are of coverage alone, there is a bias here. If literary editors in other languages as well as from other times. For a sniff at an expensively funded campaign to promote classicist the essence of translation is the rendering
10 Cultural 11 of Sappho by Catullus, the way in which ‘Phainetai Luís Peixoto, ‘a novel of inner marathons’ based on the moi keinos isos theoisin’ becomes ‘ille mi par esse life of a Benfica Olympian in 1912 who lived next to deo videtur’ and thence is driven on into centuries of a house of abandoned keyboards. Peixoto, concluded personal poetry and prose about the feelings of a lover Madeline Clements, has ‘an extraordinary way of in the presence of a beloved. But the argument for perceiving’, one that is ‘enhanced in Daniel Hahn’s fine keeping open the literary trade routes must go beyond and sensitive translation’. the purely critical, well beyond the chain that links Propertius to Ezra Pound and Sappho to Swinburne. One way of assisting translated literature is to recognise better – both financially and critically – those who One reason for our reviewing a translation is simply to translate it. Payment for translation is often poor. Critical open eyes to things not visible in any other way. We like recognition is too often absent, sometimes because the to find books that tell us of worlds we do not know, or reviewer prefers to ignore it (the British have a better have forgotten or been encouraged to forget. As well as record here than the French) and often because the keeping our minds at home, we can be encouraged to reviewer does not know the original language. send them abroad. As well as the domestic present there is the foreign past. In recent months, for example, the A powerful virtue of translation into English or Spanish TLS has noted the Hungarian Gyula Krúdy’s Life is a is to find readers in Britain, America and Spain for Dream, translated by John Bátki and reviewed for us by books that for various reasons appeal less at home. George Szirtes, reminding us of the dreams of a nation, This year the TLS noted the publication history of forgotten when the First World War took three-quarters Bernhard Schlink’s hugely successful novel and of its land away. We also reviewed Hans Keilson’s film treatment, The Reader, noting how Schlink was Comedy in a Minor Key, a reminder that in the 1930s known at home only as a crime novelist and how the Nazis were sometimes only at the edge of human the The Reader was judged in Germany to be too stories; and also his The Death of the Adversary, the soft on the Nazis. Reviewing a later book by the same story of a Jew in love with Hitler. author, The Weekend, Julian Preece judged his style to be even ‘possibly better suited to English’. We noted German Sadulaev’s I Am a Chechen!, a novella of personal testimony and exotic mythology, Translation from languages with few readers to those with a hero who is half Russian and half Chechen in a with many is an important way of spreading a story, a conflict that translation helps us both to understand and fact, a message, a style. But like almost every aspect to keep in our minds. We praised a translated reissue of this subject, the benefits are laced with dangers. of Khirbet Khizeh, a novel based on a Jewish soldier’s The novelist Tim Parks warned in the TLS this April that own account of the eviction of a Palestinian village in writers have begun to seek an international readership 1948. For 60 years this story of the day the ‘ownerless to the neglect of one close to home. The rewards property’ of orange growers was destroyed, its owners of celebrity abroad may come at the expense of the driven away in trucks, their houses tattooed by machine very literary distinctiveness that originally attracted guns, lived on only in Hebrew; in 2008 the grim lyricism readers to the Dutch or the Danish or the Egyptian of S. Yizhar’s prose was translated into English; and in Arabic. Kafka and Beckett may tell of essential human 2011 it was newly published in England, encouraging values; but the ability to travel far from home, for our reviewer Toby Lichtig to predict for the book the words as much as wine, is not the only test of quality. international audience it had always deserved. A campaign for translated literature should beware of promoting prizes and subsidies only for those that The Bulgarian Nobel Prize-winner and much-translated meet the demands of internationalism. writer, Elias Canetti, wrote in German. But Deyan Enev’s Circus Bulgaria, the result of a life spent half It is worth asking too whether the responsibility for under communism and half in its aftermath, had to be reviewing translated literature – and other works translated from Bulgarian. As our critic, Julian Evans, deserving extended critical attention – needs to be put it, Enev’s work is here now to ‘revitalise’ those of us spread more widely. In October 2009 there was a ‘tired of too many well-groomed, linear, consequential conference at Princeton during which, alongside and contained Anglo-Saxon narratives’. To ‘revitalise’: the now ritual abuse of newspapers and TV for that is one of the essentials of the translator’s art. abandoning literary criticism, there were distinguished Translations of Márquez’s One Hundred Years of voices asking whether the ‘mainstream media’ had, in Solitude revitalised readers and writers of the English fact, undertaken this task longer, and for less profit, novel in the 1970s and 1980s. That was not just than might have been expected. Perhaps universities – because of the style that became known as magical and their presses – need to work harder to produce and realism, important though that was, but because of market places where the good can be recognised. That what it described, what it said. will require respect for journalistic independence as well as academic rigour. The internet age offers enormous In translations we may also find literary techniques possibilities. Those who care for the traditions of we have forgotten or never known. We noted this translation must act as well as complain about the year, with admiration and some bemusement, inaction of others. The Piano Cemetery by the Portuguese writer, José Peter Stothard
10 Cultural 11 A Brief History of Intercultural Awareness Julian Evans, writer and former Chair of the English PEN Writers in Translation Committee, navigates the translation trail from sixteenth-century Spain to the present day
In the dry, brownish town of El Toboso in La Mancha, – is also an interplay in our everyday lives that often early morning and late afternoon, the streets are full of goes unacknowledged. But if we tend to behave as sheep, trotting tangily past with a clangour of bells; the though we live in a purely factual world, our curiosity descendants of those same sheep that a sixteenth- about the world and its sensations confirms our need century knight of fiction once rode into with his lance, for non-factual input; our impulse to absorb the world’s believing them to be an army of his mortal enemies who otherness by seeing, listening, reading for ourselves only looked like sheep because a sorcerer had changed has a strong component (as for Quixote) of the might- their shape. To a twenty-first-century city-dweller the be and the not-yet known and the emotions that go sight is still simultaneously prosaic and enchanted: with them. In order to know, to make sense, to quell the contemporary urban eye sees a herd of sheep our fears, we tell ourselves stories (as Quixote did) and as a remote, inscrutable quantity, and the herdsmen consume the stories of others. who pause, smoke, and watch expressionlessly for stragglers as outlandish as that distant fictional figure. This absorption is never exclusively factual. For instance, we feel the settings, narratives and El Toboso is real, ancient and ordinary, but it too has characters of films, plays or novels to be authentic (or its elements of fancy. Another of its sights is the casa not) on aesthetic rather than objective grounds; we feel de Dulcinea, the restored farmhouse of the ‘empress different places, cultures and people to be imbued with of La Mancha ... mistress of my most hidden thoughts’ a romance of difference. Why is there no alternative – accolades bestowed by a lanky, complex, deluded to the word ‘exotic’, when we know it to be the most hero on a woman who didn’t exist. As if to pay further abused of clichés? Postmodernism has not relativised tribute to the power of that hero’s imagination, a couple our understanding to the point where we see everything of streets away and across the square from the church as constructed, subjective, fictional; but our curiosity of San Antonio Abad, at the Instituto Cervantes is a is a yearning to bring the ‘outside’ (‘exotikos’) inside library of many editions of the novel in which he appears. by whatever means are at our disposal. Storytelling is They are here because the institute’s curator once had about both gaining more knowledge and reconciling the idea of asking the internationally famous to donate our desires and fears of otherness. Recent research a copy of the Quixote to its collection. In its first-floor at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, has suggested that showcases you can see signed copies that once we don’t just tell stories to ‘present’ and make sense belonged to the actor Alec Guinness, to Mrs Thatcher, of ourselves: we also ‘adopt’ the stories of others as Ronald Reagan, Benito Mussolini and others. though we were the protagonist.
Among the ideas that Miguel de Cervantes’s novel In literary terms, it is routinely asserted that in Britain continues to stir into being – what constitutes reality, (and often the anglophone world as a whole) we are the attraction and repulsion of unfamiliarity, how vital resistant to this wider curiosity; that islands are traps, to us as humans the made-up elements of reality are and we are intrinsically insular; that, linguistically, our
12 Cultural 13 sense of superiority and self-sufficiency as English- in news-gathering that tended towards the personal speakers makes us less receptive than the owners of and the narrative – citizen reporting, blogs, social other languages and cultures. Is it so? networking – that jolted us to look outwards again.
If it is, it wasn’t always. Before passing on from the From 2000 to 2002 I travelled through Europe, on a Quixote, at the Castilian university town of Alcalá de meandering Quixote-like course, to record some Henares, in the house where Cervantes is supposed to radio programmes on the rise of the European novel. have spent his boyhood, there is another library, of first In the BBC’s commissioning of the first series and editions of his novel. Though he died a year after the its re-commissioning of the second were signs of a second volume was published (in April 1616, the same change in anglophone attitudes. Maybe the month as Shakespeare), he had lived long enough to programmes themselves changed a few more attitudes; see his Quixote become the first international bestseller but in terms of reader numbers our curiosity continued in fiction. The first translation had appeared in 1612; to need stimulus. In these circumstances, in 2004, others took the novel to France, Belgium and Italy. English PEN’s Writers in Translation (WiT) programme But that earliest translation, by Thomas Shelton, was decided to expend its main energy and funding on into – you’ve guessed it – English, beginning a British helping to promote and market translated literature. As relationship with this quintessentially Spanish novel deputy chair of the WiT committee at its foundation, that deepened through the eighteenth century and I had a hand in that decision, for which there was a fundamentally influenced its writers – Tobias Smollett, clear rationale. By supporting the promotion and Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and the rest. marketing costs of a translated title – so often at the bottom of the publishers’ heap of priorities – with an Translation’s role in establishing the ‘most central novel’ emphasis on staging readings and events with authors in world literature is thus itself central and enduring (the and translators, you build both readers and readers’ Quixote’s most recent English translation, a superb curiosity; you reassure publishers that there is a viable version by Edith Grossman, came out as recently market for translated fiction and non-fiction (rather as 2004). It might even be argued that anglophone than just ‘a good cause’ to be ministered to); and you readers have had more access to the Quixote and to create leverage by which the funding programme itself sixteenth-century Spain than Spanish readers have, becomes more widely known, attracting new clients and for, re-translated from time to time, our Quixote never collaborations to the process. Writers in Translation’s gets marooned in one century, while his Spanish- reputation today, after six years of operation, suggests language double becomes ever more archaic to that it has to some degree accomplished all those modern Spanish readers. things, and gone a long way towards redistributing readers’ and publishers’ literary priorities. In fact, literary translation’s ability to regenerate its sources, over and over again, driven each time by new The vitality of all literature rests on an insistence: that language and imagery, lends it a particularly renewing we question historical experience, seeking the perspective. Turning books outwards to other cultures, individual in the communal and the communal in the growing and reviving their appeal, translation helps to individual. That search is bound for inconclusion, pilot literature through space and time. And not only because the sense of who we are is never fixed, but that: Harold Bloom, echoing the professor at Erasmus a constituent part of our engagement with a changing University, has pointed out that Cervantes’ novel ‘so world. At the most personal level, a book is a work contains us that, as with Shakespeare, we cannot made by an individual about his or her world for another get out of it.’ For that crucial invention of ourselves, individual; as much as a metaphor, it’s a request Cervantes’ translators continue to deserve some of from writer to reader: Here I am, as a human being. the credit. The books we read in translation from day to Do you recognise anything? Are we both human day may be more modest in their claims to greatness, beings? (The Quixote, by the way, is a supreme example but translation’s proposal is still an expansive one. It of that request for recognition. In the ingenious knight’s humbly offers to facilitate our curiosity; it also wants, delusions we find, are entertained by, and forgive our to borrow the title of English PEN’s recent anthology, own.) At a collective or communal level, a book is nothing more nor less than to make the world legible. something different: a form of awareness, a signifier, a cultural specificity, that its text both conserves Yet such intercultural traffic, we know from experience, and seeks to communicate. Translation takes that doesn’t come out of nowhere. The willingness to be awareness beyond its own specificity and makes it part curious, as child psychologists tell us, needs to be of our intercultural traffic through linguistic empathy. stimulated by attention and example. From the 1980s to mid-1990s the readership for translated work in the UK Theories of translation need not, perhaps, concern declined to a point of stagnation. The ambitious British us overmuch here. But what cultural weight does Centre for Literary Translation had opened in 1989, but that intercultural awareness, and the work of it was perhaps ultimately our revival of interest through translation that facilitates it, have? First, it opposes pivotal historical events (the fall of the Berlin Wall the surly borders thrown up by concepts of ‘national and the end of Soviet Communism; the Balkan wars; literature’; it creates relations between writers middle-East conflict; 9/11) combined with a revolution and readers that dissolve not only literary barriers
12 Cultural 13 but barriers of economics, politics, nationalism reach new readers and enthuse existing ones. Marked and cultural materialism. Being European (for against these criteria, it has made a significant impact. instance) becomes not about living in the shrunken simplifications of euro-Europe, dependent on a How much WiT might be capable of leveraging ready-made cultural Europe of cappuccino and our awareness further is a question to which its city-breaks or a political Europe whose ideals and committee must continue to address itself. One of ambitions are principally economic, but about the programme’s requirements is that a funded title’s sharing a reality with readers in Estonia, Greece, content and intention conform to PEN’s Charter. the Netherlands, Portugal, or Sweden. In that While this may be interpreted more widely in future, experience lies the profound promise of relations the other rule of engagement – that both title and and understanding. Through such explorations we translation must show literary excellence – must not. understand, for example, that others want and need There remains more that can be done, and some ground the freedoms we have – as we have seen nightly in to make up. A secondary feature of the programme recent TV broadcasts from Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain has been its sample translation and reader’s report and Libya, although anyone who had been reading scheme: basically the provision of a synopsis, report Naguib Mahfouz, Ahdaf Soueif or Alaa al-Aswany and English-language sample of a book that has not would already have known very well what journalists yet found a UK publisher, which is then made available in Cairo and Benghazi have been telling us. We also free to publishers. So far the sample translations understand that we must not lose our own freedoms commissioned by WiT have generally not resulted in through complacency, political misdirection or fear. English publication of the book in question. A reason, These are vital human and political matters; to all of if not the reason, for this failure is that the programme them translation is essential. has not established its brand as a source of worthwhile, innovative texts as well as it has established itself as Is it possible to measure intercultural awareness? a marketing funder of energy and judgement. Another There are social and cultural conditions that make it area in which the programme might expand its activity more likely: the extent and effectiveness of language is among the UK’s constituency of refugee and migrant teaching, the possibility and levels of travel/emigration, writers, poets especially, who have no access to the the outwardness or lack of it in schools’ teaching of usual publication channels in their own language. geography, history and literature, the inclusiveness or provincialism of the prevailing political and media It is, of course, absolutely vital above all that climate. Yet even in the absence of healthy levels of Writers in Translation continues to operate, as it can most of those conditions – as in the last decade in the exceptionally well within English PEN’s embrace, as UK – a healthy landscape of literary translation can a respected champion of literature beyond national produce a healthy level of ‘awareness without borders’. and linguistic borders and beyond conventional In Britain in the last ten years or so our own landscape literary expectations. In the diversity of its constitution has changed almost out of recognition, with the revival of – writers, translators, publishers, literary journalists, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the introduction scouts and agents – it has become a benchmark for of the Man Booker International Prize and the annual critical judgement, independence and commitment in Sebald Lecture on the Art of Literary Translation, the the UK translation scene, free of the prejudices and arrival of a new generation of more experimental partis pris not just of insular publishers, provincial small publishers, abetted by new technology, and the politicians and trivia-hungry media but of all special- blooming of a thousand translation blogs. interest groups – including perhaps even translators! However it changes in the future, it must retain that This evolution is one to which PEN’s Writers in disinterested passion. Translation programme has contributed through both its funding and initiatives, including its online I don’t want to end on a moralistic or triumphalist World Atlas and collaborations with other agencies. note; and there is one further annotation to be made Writers in Translation is reactive, as grant-giving to the brief history of intercultural awareness I’ve bodies tend to be, but in the energy of its reactions – attempted here, which offers us an opportunity to in particular its energetic participation in the planning calculate the consequences of dismissing or denying and realisation of marketing campaigns for every book the value of that sort of understanding. It takes us it funds – it is widely acknowledged to have added back to the first-floor room at the Instituto Cervantes value and influence to the UK translation scene. at El Toboso. Here, among the showcases and Its insistence on the mutual value and visibility of donated copies of Cervantes’ novel, there is a single, translator and author has helped improve the standing green-bound, bulky volume that is an exception to all of translators. Its willingness to reflect on its own the other editions in the library. It is not an edition of activity, and to seek to operate outside its comfort zone the Quixote, as all the others are, but of the German and that of translation generally, has helped produce epic poem Das Nibelungenlied, pointedly sent in flexible strategies to support a wide variety of books its place and dedicated to the Cervantes Society in and situations. It has worked not only with publishers, El Toboso by the German Reichskanzler in his own authors and translators but with festivals, libraries, book hand, ‘A Hitler, 1. Juli 1933’. fairs, conferences, schools and external agencies to Julian Evans
14 Cultural 15 14 Cultural 15 David Shook
Destination of Choice Hammock; Any bar with Víctor Terán; Nightclubs in Malabo with Occupation Recaredo Silebo Boturu Translator Languages Spanish, Isthmus Zapotec, English
Name David Shook; a.k.a. Tekwani (Nahuatl for tiger, shark, maneater; literally “habitual eater of people”)
Other Activities of Interest Editor of online broadside Molossus; competitive foosballer; sponsored representative of Oregon Wild Hair Moustache Wax
David Shook’s commitment to translating and publishing minority voices has taken him on many intriguing – and dangerous – journeys
16 Translator Profile: David Shook Translation offers the young writer the same benefits February 2011 saw the incorporation of my non-profit Creative Writing programmes do, often for considerably Molossus Productions, a boutique publisher of world less money. One offers a diploma, neither much literature in translation. Our first title is the Mexican guarantee of future income. I’ve learned both ways, writer Mario Bellatin’s novella Shiki Nagaoka – profiled and while I am proud to have worked with several in the New York Times in late 2009 – which uses poets of international reputation during my master’s translation as a narrative strategy to authenticate a programme, I think I have learned at least as much false biography. Molossus Productions will use a from Octavio Paz, from José Saramago, from Tedi primarily-electronic distribution system, marketing López Mills, Víctor Terán, Mario Bellatín, Francisco titles to both mainstream and specialised audiences Hernández and many others. Translation is a course in across platforms – including Kindle, Nook and iBooks, understanding the blurred boundaries between craft with secondary hard copies produced in limited runs and genius, in the flexibility and limitations of syntax, at a slight premium and an exclusive lettered run of and in the core tone of the work. Translation is as old signed copies. The Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles as literature, an important teacher, especially since the is supporting our launch by bringing Mario Bellatin to beginnings of Modernism. That master’s programmes Los Angeles, and similar events are being planned in don’t require it is a short-sightedness that I suppose other major US cities. is attributable to an increasingly internationalised but visually communicated media culture. Monolingualism Our second title is a collection of poetry by the is a poor excuse; cribs have their own set of teachings Equatoguinean poet Marcelo Ensema Nsang, a to offer. Our Babelic delusion is just that. Claretian priest imprisoned and tortured under Macías for his social activism. To accompany that, My efforts as translator, poet and editor have centred I’m also producing a documentary about Ensema on the idea that literature in translation is essential Nsang, using my on-the-ground hunt for the poet as to an informed transnational dialogue, that minority the starting point for a story about translation, poetry, voices like that of Isthmus Zapotec poet Víctor Terán the life of the artist in society, and a portrait of one of deserve attention – and that once received, stand the world’s most unusual and unusually repressive – up to critical analysis and even receive popular places. Other projects to come include Tecuani, a – acclaim. In early 2010 this proved to be just the case, series of poetry chapbooks by indigenous Mexicans, when the Poetry Translation Centre sponsored the edited by Víctor Terán, and including work from Mexican Poets’ Tour, featuring Terán’s work in my Isthmus Zapotec, Zoque, Yucatec, Wixáritari (Huichol) translation alongside work by poet-translator pairs and Mazateco. Coral Bracho/Katherine Pierpoint and David Huerta/ Jamie McKendrick. The three-week tour featured Critical defence and promotion of literary translation dates in major cities of England and Scotland, and are important, but even more so, in my view, is an exposed Terán to a major international audience emphasis on just how enjoyable literature in translation for the first time, something especially significant can be, in both its creation and its consumption. because of the low cultural status of indigenous Translation is a great democratiser, allowing anyone languages and literatures in Mexico. As poet David to study with the best writers in the world. I encourage Huerta explained in an interview with BBC4, the all master’s programmes in the UK to include it in their indigenous literatures of Mexico are quite distinct curricula so that they might avoid the provincialism from the Spanish-language tradition of the majority, and cliquishness that the more developed American increasingly visible but often considered sub-literary MFA community is often guilty of. Good translators by the Mexican establishment. must be good writers, even if they do not write themselves, and it is high time we pay them the praise Since late 2009 I have edited Molossus, an online they deserve for their often invisible work. broadside of world literature, with a special emphasis on literature in translation, often from the perspective I leave Los Angeles tonight for Malabo, Equatorial of the literary translator. The site features reviews as Guinea, to produce my documentary about Marcelo well as original content, such as our recent interviews Ensema Nsang, motivated to take an 8,000+ mile trip with translators including Jeffrey Yang, Mark Schafer, of considerable cost and potential danger because of Sudeep Sen, Pascale Petit, Ilya Kaminsky and Jamie the power of Nsang’s verse. He writes, McKendrick. In addition to serving the practicing translator, my hope is that the site might promote it’s not possible to step on the flight of bats the translator and their work to a broader literary and or to steal the blind song of the barn owl … intelligent mainstream audience. One current initiative, which should launch in 2011, is our companion In response to those impossibilities, I suggest that it webisode series Lit Minute, which will primarily is a miracle of equal power to be able to read and feature literature in translation. Our small production engage with literatures from other languages and team includes several of Los Angeles’ best young TV cultures. Indeed, translation is a necessary and writers and producers, and early titles include Ugly achievable miracle, increasingly important in our Duckling Presse’s recent 5 Meters of Poems, an globalised world. I recommend its practice to all. accordion-style fold-out poetry collection by Peruvian Vanguardist Carlos Oquendo de Amat, in Joshua Beckman’s and Alejandro de Acosta’s translation. David Shook
17 Found in Translation Geoffrey Taylor, director of the Toronto International Festival of Authors, shows how literature in translation can bridge festival communities, reach far-flung audiences and boost the translation of books into English
G
Our author events started in June 1974. writers, and not too long ago we had an in-depth By October 1980 we had inaugurated what is now look at graphic novels. In past years it has been our signature event: the International Festival of a country-of-focus such as Denmark, Japan, Authors (IFOA). From the very beginning of the Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Scotland or Ireland. festival, works translated into English were an In 2011 the IFOA will examine works in translation. integral part of the programming. Since those early This programming focus aims to bring new works years we have presented over 7,500 writers from of literature from a wide range of international and 100 nations. 60 per cent of these scribes were national authors to Canadian audiences with the from outside Canada. And of those, at least half purpose of sparking discussion on the benefits were from countries where English is a second or and challenges of literary translation. third language. This focus on translation evolved from a stand-alone Canada is officially a bilingual country; in practice, festival that we presented in June 2010, Found in however, it is a country that speaks not two Translation. This festival highlighted authors whose languages but hundreds. Currently 47 per cent works originated in a language other than their native of Canadians consider English their second tongue. Held over three days, the festival featured language. Once you learn that over 50 per cent of events in English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. the population was born outside of the country, Authors who participated included Laura Alcoba this seems only logical. (Argentina), Kebir Mustapha Ammi (Morroco), Ying Chen (China), Louis-Philippe Dalembert (Haiti), Thanks to Toronto’s multiculturalism, we have been Wayne Grady (Canada), Andreï Makine (Russia), able to attract a great variety of linguistic groups to Tierno Monénembo (Guinea), Gilda Piersanti (Italy) our venues. We have presented events in dozens and Ryoko Sekiguchi (Japan). Our lead partner on of different languages over the years. We have this project was the Consulate General of France found that currently it is the second generation of with support from The Japan Foundation, Istituto new Canadians, and later ones, that are looking Italiano di Cultura, the Conseil de la communauté for the stories of their parents’ homelands. This marocaine a l’étranger, Bureau du Québec and others. has invariably meant that this new generation, Events were held both within the different cultural and in many cases a new generation of readers, is communities as well as in the heart of the city at interested in and needs works in English. This has Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Hosting these events resulted in the vast majority of our events being throughout the city, helped reiterate the importance presented in that language. of building communities through translation.
Most editions of the IFOA have had a theme of This mini-festival paved the way for our theme sorts. Last year we focused on mystery and thriller for 2011. By embedding the Found in Translation
18 Cultural 19 festival within the IFOA we hope to gain a cross- to understand and truly appreciate: the urban over audience from our main festival. The IFOA aims legend that the Eskimo have many more words for to convey the importance of literary translation as snow then we do is just a misunderstanding of the a foundation for cultural exchange through a wide structure of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. (Through range of events including readings, round tables the use of suffixes, their vocabulary seems and talks. The focus also aims to open doors for unlimited.) Even confusion over words like Eskimo those who have not yet been discovered in Canada. adds to the discussion. Most recent textbooks Also, the festival hopes this focus is a spring-board will tell you there are no Eskimos, that they are for more translated works. called Inuit or ‘the people’. That said, thousands of Yup’ik speakers who consider themselves Eskimo Translation allows for both unique interpretation would disagree. All of these examples open us up and a broader audience than a work written in just to an entirely new interpretation of language and one language. It also means that many versions meaning to be explored through the understanding of one work can exist. For example, Pablo of translation. Neruda’s poem ‘Me gustas cuando callas’ has been translated as ‘I Like for You to be Still’, ‘I Like It is often asked how non-native speakers can You When You Are Quiet’, ‘I Like You When You participate in English-language festivals. The Are Still’ and ‘I Like it When You’re Silent’. These answer is quite simple: their works are translated are just a handful of the numerous renditions that into English. This hints at just how many great are available, and English readers will of course foreign works there are that we will never be able favour one translation over another for reasons of to experience. personal taste and understanding. Last year marked the start of an ongoing Similarly, translation gives us access: access to collaboration between five of the world’s top literary material we may never have been able to read or festivals, in a partnership called the Word Alliance. G understand without the translation. A number of The IFOA, Edinburgh International Book Festival, the years ago a group of authors was discussing books Bookworm Beijing literary festival, Internationales at the IFOA and the conversation turned to the Literaturfestival Berlin and Melbourne Writers merits of a new translation of Homer that had just Festival joined together to share their high-calibre been released. A member of the group turned to Sir presentations of international authors and to William Golding to ask his opinion. His reply was facilitate dialogue between their countries’ best that he had not read the new release, but that it was writers. The IFOA and its collaborators hope their unlikely to be as good as the ancient Greek version. partnerships will encourage the discussion of This goes to show that although we may lack the new translation opportunities for the hundreds of skills to read much of the world’s literature in its authors they present on their stages. The Word original voice, translation allows us to experience Alliance will be announcing the addition of more at least one interpretation of a piece. festivals including non-English language festivals in the not-too-distant future. Translation is a vehicle of access and awareness. The original creator of a work provides a glimpse of Globalisation and instant media have given us the their characters’ familial situation, their community impression that we have a partial understanding of and what political, economic or social issues may the world’s cultures. However, until we know each be affecting their characters at a given time. While other’s stories, we are condemned to think of the not every nuance or saying can be translated, an world in sound bites and left wondering if we have effective translated work includes a local take on missed something. A good translation of a good characters while maintaining the original feeling or work of literature provides us with a window on to message of a story. As a result, translation increases a culture that can never be closed. It is our hope readers’ awareness of shared human emotion that by providing access to translations through our and experience. It allows readers to explore new festival programming, the readership of translated worlds and cultures. The role of the translator is works will increase and thus the opportunities for to provide us with the best approximation of the translators will too. To have more, and in some author’s voice so that it also reflects the world in cases better, translations would create more which we live. bridges of understanding that could lead to the best principles of enlightenment. This reflection can be seen throughout time as the languages, words and phrases that we are most frequently touched by trickle into daily usage: words like déjà vu, orang-utan, assassin or doppelgänger. Even one of the languages that seems most distant from English, that spoken by the Inuit, has provided us with the word ‘kayak’. In fact, there is a wealth of such languages that we have scarcely begun Geoffrey Taylor
18 Cultural 19 A Small Country in the South Pacific Jean Anderson, Director of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, asks: shouldn’t this small country focus primarily on the translation of writing from its closest neighbours?
The New Zealand book market is a small one, on the horizon, however. The main Arts funding body, and publishers here have as their prime objective, quite Creative New Zealand, set up a special fund in late 2010 understandably, the publication and promotion of New specifically to provide support for the translation of New Zealand books. Where literary translation is concerned, Zealand writing into other languages. While the sums the initial response has been that it is of no concern to the involved are modest, it is at least an acknowledgement local market, neither as regards support for the translation of the strategic importance of translation in promoting of our writers, nor as a factor in ‘importing’ work from other our national literature. A further initiative in 2011 has languages. The exception to this is in the area of children’s seen the Publishers’ Association of New Zealand aim books, in which a great deal of translation is done from and to provide publicity for this new fund at the Frankfurt into Pacific languages. This recognises the importance of Book Fair, and perhaps to provide materials in the target preserving the cultural heritage of community groups that language to improve accessibility. have migrated here principally since the 1960s and 1970s. Other than this, two small publishers, Gecko Press and Unfortunately there is no corresponding local fund for Small World, specialise in translated children’s books. the translation of foreign-language works into English for publication in New Zealand. While the point of view that For adults, the situation is a lot less promising. Currently, publishers in Great Britain or the United States will ‘take support for translation and publication costs must come care’ of market needs for translations into English, and from the source countries, several of which do have that such books can be distributed here once they are funds for this purpose. However, it would seem that available, is perhaps understandable given the size of the most publishers are not aware of these. There are very local market, it nevertheless perpetuates something of a few literary translators in New Zealand, and they tend to misunderstanding of New Zealand’s place in the world. have a low profile compared with those working in the commercial translation sector. Literary translations here, To put it simply, readers here do not have the same with just a handful of exceptions – a half-dozen titles – are interests or literary tastes as the American or British self-published (probably another half dozen). This is an market. This may seem like a generalisation, but it should estimate of the total number of works of translated adult give us pause. New Zealand is a small country in the literature ever published in book form in this country. South Pacific. An increasing proportion of our population is of Pacific origin, and while the active field of translating At government level, there is as yet little recognition of children’s literature is testament to the flow and exchange the role of translation as an important element of cultural that can happen between languages, it seems strange that diplomacy, although a recent initiative (2005-2007) saw there is no perceived need to support this same cultural the publication of a selection of New Zealand poetry in exchange at the level of a more mature readership. Russia and of Russian poetry in New Zealand – to some acclaim among afficionados of the genre. Wellington-based Huia Books is, to some degree, an exception to this rule. While they specialise once again It would obviously be an overstatement to claim this as in children’s literature, either written or translated into a breakthrough. There are some small signs of change the indigenous language, Maori, and in fiction and non-
20 Cultural 21 fiction by Maori writers in English, their list also contains participants is currently underway. It is hoped in this way a small number of translated works of adult fiction, for to strengthen the community of scholars and practitioners example, Patricia Grace’s Potiki, translated from English in the Pacific region in particular, but with extensive links to Maori, and Tahitian writer Chantal Spitz’s now equally into the wider world of literary translation. Given modern classic Island of Shattered Dreams. But the key word here communications technology, there is in fact no reason why is ‘small’. An Auckland publisher, Little Island books, is translators in, say, the Philippines or New Zealand, could showing interest in translations of Pacific writing, and not readily work with colleagues – or indeed publishers – two university presses, in Auckland and Wellington, have around the globe. made minor forays into the wider field, as have a handful of literary reviews (notably Landfall and Poetry New Zealand). Here we come to the crux of the problem. How can we get However it is very much the translators’ initiative, both in publishers to come to the party? How can we move past approaching a suitable publisher and in securing funding, the financial bottom line? Should we even be thinking this that drives these occasional projects. way? The economics of the process are quite rightly a vital consideration for the publisher, and presumably no Exceptionally, in 2007, the French Embassy sponsored a translator or writer wants to see a ‘successfully’ completed month-long festival designed to highlight New Caledonian project jeopardise the existence of the publishing house. culture and provide an opportunity for New Zealanders to And without proper funding, the publisher cannot commit sample some translated works from our nearest French- to effective marketing – and yet another ‘important’ book speaking neighbour, chiefly poetry and dramatic pieces. can fail to make an impact, thus perpetuating the vicious circle of translations perceived as a costly burden. We should not forget that some of New Zealand’s closest neighbours are not English- or Pacific language- Sadly, it is hard to see past the financial aspect of the speaking, but Francophone. French Polynesia (Tahiti) dilemma. Can publishers with a small local readership find has a small but active group of writers whose work a way to connect to international markets more easily? would certainly appeal to other Pasifika peoples, but Is the ebook the answer? Will online publishing make that audience cannot currently access these books room for a bigger number of more diverse texts? because of the English-French divide; and New Caledonia (Kanaky), with more than twenty indigenous It is difficult to imagine now what the publishing scene languages, is united on the literary level by the language might look like in another decade or quarter century. The of French colonisation, but separated from a potential speed of technological innovation has already brought us anglophone readership in the region. to the point of having to reimagine the book: while some physical form will no doubt remain, fiction is becoming While translations from the wider world of literature increasingly virtual. Perhaps, from the point of view of those remain important, the Pacific should, arguably, be our with a stake in translated literature, these technological first area of interest. In the past, Australian efforts, through developments are positive and point, not to ‘the death the Pandanus imprint at Australian National University, of the book’, but to a brighter future. The question then to bring the works of these more ‘local’ writers into becomes, How to get the maximum advantage from these English have eventually foundered as funding has been innovations? The ebook is arguably a means by which the withdrawn. Currently a small number of academics are product of creative minds – wherever their geographical working to help Pacific literatures to cross this divide, but and linguistic roots may be – could reach out through a that remains an uphill battle. much more ethereal medium, and much more rapidly and inexpensively, to a truly global readership. For this The founding of the New Zealand Centre for Literary to be possible, however, literary translation will need to Translation, Te Tumu Whakawhiti Tuhinga o Aotearoa, come into its own. Unless we become a planet of English at Victoria University of Wellington, has provided a speakers (or Chinese speakers, why not?), there will be no focal point for the development of a higher profile world literature without translation. for literary translation. Although some elements of academia remain unconvinced of the scholarly and/ We could adopt a pessimistic stance, and see recent or artistic value of literary translation, the setting up Google initiatives as either impinging on the fundamental of specialist postgraduate degrees in the discipline at rights of the creator, or AmazonCrossing focusing only on Victoria University in 2010 has gone some way towards the translation of best-sellers, at the potential expense of all a recognition of the skills required. those undiscovered gems … Or we could be more optimistic – perhaps unusually for the literary translation community – The Centre hosted its inaugural international conference and suggest that if Google, Amazon, Kindle and the other in December 2010, attracting high-quality proposals components of this emerging technological network do from scholars and practitioners from over twenty in fact become some kind of vast ‘reading-machine’, then countries. Keynote speakers were Gayatri Chakravorty surely that machine can only increase the need for an Spivak, Lawrence Venuti and Paulo Britto, and a number appreciation of our work, especially if it creates a space for of foreign Embassies added their support to that of the dissemination of lesser-known literatures which might Victoria University. then be issued with a lower financial risk for the publisher …
The conference provided an important opportunity to Watch this space. create links with translators and academics from around the world, and work on editing a collection of essays by Jean Anderson
20 Cultural 21 Photo:Garima Jain Many Languages, One Literature Namita Gokhale, co-director of the Jaipur Literary Festival, reflects on the role of literary festivals in a nation where language, culture and literature exist in a constant state of translation
‘Should a language that is still While Midnight’s Children was a watershed which had a huge impact on how the world viewed restricted to 6 per cent of India’s Indian writing, Salman Rushdie’s magical prose also population, an English-educated transformed the way Indian writing looked at itself. Although some critics saw it as a valorisation of elite, be invested with such global the ‘post-colonial exotic’, Pico Iyer’s famous essay representational power in literary The Empire Writes Back described it as ‘a call to free spirits everywhere to remake the world with and cultural terms? What does imagination,’ opening up ‘a new universe by changing it mean that the world reads and the way we tell stories and see the world around us.’ Saleem Sinai’s voice reclaimed the language of believes that it comprehends ‘India’ the Mumbai streets, bringing the spoken sounds of through Rushdie and Roy rather India into English literary usage. than Kamleshwar (Hindi), Ambai My first novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, was (Tamil), or Qurrutalain Hyder (Urdu)? published in 1984. There were few quality English language publishers in India at the time, and These questions are important ones being published ‘there’ and receiving the offshore and have necessarily animated the validation of the western world was an important rite of passage for aspiring writers. The first of the critical discussion. Fortunately, good ‘sari rippers’, Paro, published by Chatto & Windus, translations and scholarly editions received the full ‘twice-born’ treatment – yet its non-squeamish use of Mumbai patois still puzzled of ‘bhasha’ or indigenous language those Indians who equated good books with the literatures are beginning to make Queen’s English. their appearance and are beginning Now, Indians have accepted and appropriated to challenge sanctioned ignorance English as an Indian language, using it in the easy style of films like Jab We Met. Several important of these literary languages and international publishers have taken root in India, traditions.’ including Penguin, Harper Collins, Picador, Random House and Hachette. Many of these, such as Penguin, Harper Collins and Random House, Priyamvada Gopal, The Indian English Novel: have accepted publishing in the Indian languages Nation, History and Narration as part of their mandate.
22 Cultural 23 Indian writing in English has now found its place in and that was how the Sindhi sessions, conducted the world. Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, trilingually in Sindhi, Hindi and English, reached out Kiran Desai, Aravind Adiga and others have refracted to the local, national and international communities. powerful, personal images of their homeland through their works. Vikas Swarup’s Q&A was adapted into India is, and always has been, a ‘bahubhashit’ the film Slumdog Millionaire and won eight Oscars. multilingual society. The Vedas, the earliest Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City, Sunil Khilnani’s The remembered expression of our literary culture, record Idea of India, and Ramchandra Guha’s India after a moving prayer which urges invoking the Gods in Gandhi all interrogate Indian realities using different many languages. Today, with 22 national languages, voices and perspectives. 122 regional languages and 1,726 mother tongues, India is engaged in an act of constant, ongoing This was the climate in which we began the Jaipur cultural and literary translation. Literature Festival in 2006. Of the 18 invited writers, two didn’t turn up, and the festival began with Like democracy, translation must seek equity. 16 writers and audiences of 40 to 50 people per There should be no dominant bias towards the two session. That year, and every year after, people languages, and the cultural cues and subtexts within came, listened and argued. While setting up the the work need to be projected for effective literary festival, we tried to establish that the main intention translation. This is, naturally, not an easy process, of this event was to showcase Indian literature. requiring intensive dual-language skills and cultural In the first few years we had to fight for this ground; knowledge. However, while it is generally easier to explain to academics and the media that if we to translate between cognate rather than non- had a great poet or writer from a tribal part of India, cognate language clusters (Marathi to Gujarati he or she deserved exactly the same space as the is easier than Marathi to Mizo, for instance), the biggest names in the world. Even quite recently this connecting language for translation in the Indian was not the prevailing view, as there was a rather literatures still tends to be English. The existence insecure condescension and disdain reserved for of this ‘middleman’ language is a mixed blessing: the ‘vernacular’. while making space for more translations, it can sometimes also result in distancing in the translation In the nineties, Rushdie had made a contentious process, a second level of distortion. comment on Indian literature, claiming that both fiction and non-fiction by writers working ‘in English’ India has had a peculiar hierarchy of languages. was proving a more important body of work than that On the surface it appears plural, polyphonic, but produced in the so-called ‘vernacular languages’. between those many languages there has always Khushwant Singh added to the controversy by been a clear dominant language. The aesthetic stating provocatively that ‘vocabulary in all Indian distinction between desi and margi, that is, languages is comparatively limited; English is a between the classical and the folk styles, has been richer language and has a larger market.’ When transmuted but not disappeared. At the top of the Rushdie came to Jaipur in the third year of the heap, historically, was Sanskrit – followed by the local festival, writers in the Indian ‘bhasha’ languages median languages and then the folk tongues and were still hostile to him on this count, but he was dialects. Somewhere along the line, in the process enthused as he listened to new Indian voices. The of colonisation, English effectively replaced Sanskrit Diaspora writers, the so-called international names, as the elite and aspirational tongue. As India found also have an emotive need to remember the sound its own voice, and the national languages flourished of their own languages. It’s a subtext no bilingual in the supportive environment of the press, media writer can completely erase. and technology, the balance shifted back to the local ‘bhasha’ languages. Over the last six years, the phenomenal success of the Jaipur Literature Festival has convinced me of the An important aspect of contemporary Indian acute need for a space of simultaneous interpretation: writing is exemplified by the transformational Dalit interpretation of the contradictory and often conflicting writing movement. This literary articulation by realities of India and South Asia. Jaipur’s platform for the emergent, previously marginalised voices of the shared South Asian languages, such as Urdu, disadvantaged castes is in part the assertion of a Nepali, Bangla and Tamil, led to even more engaged class struggle, a Black-Panther-style movement. levels of debate on literature and society in regions There is also a tremendous outpouring of hurt and that are fractured by distinct political identities and pain; a process of catharsis. Caste and community conjoined by linguistic and cultural identity. For are sensitive issues in India. Every category feels example, the Jaipur session on Sindhi writing in 2010 badly treated and victimised by others, so there brought both Muslim writers from Sind Pakistan and is endless potential for provocation, anger and Hindu Sindhi litterateurs together to celebrate and conflict. The Dalit readings and panels at the DSC reclaim their common language and literature. The Jaipur festival last year discussed the rejection of Hindi word for translation is ‘Anuvad’. An allied word, mainstream Indian literature and the assertion of an ‘Sethubandhan’ implies the building of bridges, alternative sensibility. Despite the inherent politics
22 Cultural 23 and propaganda there were people weeping in the But we in India collectively inhabit the miraculous audiences, as the raw pain and hurt of these writers plasma of a vibrant oral literature: a continuously was immensely revealing to those of a cocooned, improvised and reinterpreted dramatic literature middle-class mindset. There was also a lot of media which constantly revalidates its understanding of attention, in India and internationally, focused on that tradition. That is the many languages, one these writers and issues. literature trope, and the environment which Jaipur is rediscovering. One of the leading ideologues of the caste struggle, Kancha Ilaiah, wrote a moving editorial piece about After many millennia of complex stratification, how this was the first time that Dalit literature Indians are emerging into an individuated engaged with mainstream literary space and instead understanding of themselves. It is a beginning for of feeling rejected found that they had a lot to give, women to be given new spaces, for people from and a lot to take from the experience too. He wrote suppressed castes and repressive backgrounds to in the Deccan Herald, ‘literary festivals teach how struggle for equity and equal opportunities. There to connect oneself to social mass culture, if one is is an immense amount of suffering and corruption doing transformative writing. If it helps even a section and cynicism, but it is still a new India, fighting for of oppressors to identify with the viewpoint of the its voice through different languages and literary oppressed, writing becomes more meaningful. The traditions. I say ‘voice’, but in India we would Jaipur festival has shown the signs of such positive never speak in one voice; rather we would speak exchange of views.’ In India, because we feel so in the manner of what is called jugalbandi, where passionately about our literatures, it does provide two musicians perform together within classical a space for people to share problems, and anger is structures but with variations which are completely a very important part of the process. I don’t know improvised in that moment. where else in the world so much anger is associated with literature. It is valuable, because it’s a thinking Modern India exists in a constant state of translation. anger; it’s a talking anger, not a stone-pelting anger. The simultaneous worlds of the internet and the That’s the unique energy at Jaipur – the buzz in impact of new technologies have made this process the air, the passionate enthusiasm and curiosity of easier. To quote a great Indian writer and poet, people who are trying to figure themselves out in the A.K. Ramanujan: ‘By a curious perversity I read midst of challenges and change. Tamil constantly in the Kannada area, Kannada in the Tamil area, studied and taught English in South Asian Literary space is redefining its borders. India, and India and Indian languages in the US.’ In The Pakistani segment at Jaipur is an important Ramanujan’s fictional autobiography the protagonist, part of the literary dialogue. The Karachi literature an Indian with an American wife teaching history at festival was a resounding success. The Bhutan a college in Iowa, recalls his childhood. ‘In my early literature festival, where the youngest democracy years, I spoke Madras Tamil to Amma. I switched in the world is learning to use language to assert to Mysore Tamil with our Iyengar housemaids and to understand, has entered its second year. An who cooked for us. Outside the house, I spoke exciting literary festival in Nepal is being planned. Kannada with friends. Upstairs in his office, Appa conversed in English … Thus upstairs-downstairs, Another crucial aspect of literary tradition inside-outside, I grew accustomed to three resides in the oral heritage. It is assumed that a languages.’ society which is not literate in modern terms is illiterate. This is clearly not true. Such fragile and While Indians live in many languages, they are rarely endangered cultures have a continuity of ancient aware of this plurality. I conclude with a tribute oral literatures which, though intangible, have to the ‘curious perversity’ of our complex literary been mindfully nurtured and passed on from culture and the conviction that this spontaneous generation to generation. Most of these are now and accepting multilingualism will persist, and sadly facing extinction. One can’t simply record, flower to greater glory, in its upstairs-downstairs, archive and store them, as this would render them inside-outside trajectory. static. Oral literatures are precious things and to be effectively transmitted they must be understood, contextualised and valued. In a space like Jaipur, or other places where they are respected and showcased, the process of transmission becomes possible – not necessarily to genetic heirs, but intellectual and cultural heirs: people who want to learn and take these stories forward.
In most cultures today, writers who are not exposed to at least some formal education might find it difficult to articulate their talent within a tradition. Namita Gokhale
24 Cultural 25 ‘For Wales: See England’ Wiliam Owen Roberts, winner of the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Award, tells the story of a language and literature that have been successfully fighting suppression, and even extermination, for centuries
On the eve of the Second World War, the intellectual and was usually enforced through legislation banning and author Georges Duhamel bemoaned the fact that the use of the native language in schools and all other French books were no longer being translated and public and official settings such as courts of law. In sold elsewhere in Europe. He felt that the French time this creates a psychological condition where spirit was in peril, and that the voice of his culture the native population loses its sense of identity, was not being heard in other countries. He also internalises the values of its oppressors and comes made the point that culture and economics have to hate its own culture. always walked hand in hand. ‘The French book has always opened up the way for our dealers in brandy, Luckily this process was only partially successful in champagne, or silk stockings.’ The English had a Wales. Welsh speakers still have their own literature similar attitude, and it’s significant that the British and culture even though it is little known elsewhere. Council was set up in recognition of the importance Wales’s idea of itself as a nation has been fostered of ‘cultural propaganda’ in promoting British political over many centuries through a long and rich poetic and economic interests abroad. Thus these days it tradition sustained by a home-grown aristocracy. directs most of its efforts towards China and India Indeed, our country’s bardic tradition until the fifteenth (where Germany’s Goethe Institute is also very active) century is richer than any other European country. as in the twenty-first century, these are the countries We have a poet of world class in Dafydd ap Gwilym with burgeoning economies. Aesthetic considerations (1320–1370), whose work has been translated into go hand in hand with a nation’s economic interests. several languages. He is still not fully acknowledged You could argue that any author who takes part in as he should be, though: I would argue he’s a better such a project is a sort of secular missionary, whether poet than Chaucer. The language of the Welsh poets he or she is aware of that or not. was used to its highest effect in the sixteenth century for a translation of the Bible, published in 1588. Along Unfortunately, the position of authors from countries with most European countries, our most important where minority languages are spoken is rather book is a translated one. different. Often, the linguistic minority has been conquered and exists within the borders of a larger The Acts of Union in 1536 and 1542 joined Wales nation state, like the Welsh in Britain or the Bretons politically, economically and culturally to England. in France. Concerted attempts were then made to The indigenous ruling class re-located to London and suppress and eradicate their languages, Matthew became anglicised, and the fate of Welsh-language- Arnold describing the aim of such a policy in Wales literature – in a country without a single university in the nineteenth century as ‘to render homogenous – was left in the care of the petite bourgeoisie. the linguistic differences between England and Colonies do not benefit from the energy of historical Wales.’ This was seen as desirable for the sake of currents, becoming instead stagnant backwaters, to administrative convenience and cultural cohesion the detriment of their literature – which in the case
24 Cultural 25 of Welsh literature meant becoming timid and overtly Some promising developments notwithstanding, religious, with folkish undertones. From the sixteenth in this corporate age it is still more beneficial for to the twentieth century, the history of European a Welsh-language writer to have his or her book literature is that of the ruling class, the bourgeoisie translated into English and placed with an English – which reached its apogee with Modernism at the publisher in London, in order to take advantage beginning of the last century. This is the movement of the marketing resources and expertise there. which has mapped the European imagination and The danger is, European translators may then gone deepest into its psyche, but it did not really work from the English text. This is far from ideal, penetrate the fabric of Welsh-language literature until and something of a paradox, but until we in Wales the second half of the twentieth century, much to our achieve an international presence, it will remain a cultural impairment. pragmatic option.
The other major barrier to be overcome is the The changing attitude of London publishers towards international image of Wales. For years, the entry Welsh language literature is in itself interesting. for Wales in the Encyclopaedia Britannica read: Traditionally, due to a sense of cultural superiority, ‘For Wales: See England.’ When the poet Chris there was not much interest shown in any minority Meredith and I toured Southern Germany with literature, Welsh included. In the 1930s Rosamond the British Council in 1995 we quickly learnt the Lehmann, favourably reviewing a novel by Kate advisability of beginning our sessions by locating Roberts, one of our foremost short story writers, Wales on a map of the UK for our audience, and referred to this English ‘incuriosity’ about Welsh- by the end of the week, we had perfected a fifteen- language literature. Things have slightly improved minute introductory précis of the history of Wales in this regard, however, as English attitudes have and its literature to put our own work in a more evolved. The days of empire are long over and culture developed context. After all, having lacked any is much more pluralistic and not so resistant to other political representation in Europe since 1418, how voices. The world is shrinking, allowing ‘the other’ is an emerging nation to represent itself? to become just another– equally valid – perspective, rather than something strange and alienating. Until the successful Devolution of 1997, Wales was ruled exclusively from Westminster. Only now is On a less positive note, the publishing world has Wales beginning to emerge, tentatively, as a country been increasingly at the mercy of market forces. in its own right. In this brave new post-colonial world, Economies of scale inevitably militate against we’ve looked to other small countries for inspiration minority voices. The attitude says, give the audience as to the best way to foster our publishing industry, more of what they know (and what the publishers to present and publicise our literature in translation know will sell). The leap of imagination needed to to an international readership. Iceland, for instance, embrace translated works from minority languages with a total population of just 300,000, has a healthy is something most commissioning editors, with book industry that is sponsored by the government. a constant eye on the bottom line, are becoming We used this blueprint in Wales to lobby Assembly reluctant to make. London publishers are not actively Members for increased funding for Welsh authors. seeking out Welsh-language writers. Scottish and The campaign proved successful and the increase in Irish writers have fared much better, but that I think, funding has had a very beneficial effect, energising a is because they write in English. previously dormant sector of the arts. This brings us back to Georges Duhamel: the danger Translation is an all-important tool for projecting our is that literature doesn’t any longer play a part in the literature globally. To this end the Wales Literature exchanging of commodities: it becomes a commodity, Exchange, based in Aberystwyth, was established nothing less, nothing more, along with brandy and silk in 2001 with the simple but challenging brief of stockings, its value measurable only by the volume facilitating the translation of Wales’ literature, and of its sales. To counter this increasing philistinism, then promoting it internationally. The Exchange has minority cultures must battle unashamedly for subsidy done excellent work on a small budget, working and support, in both the commissioning of new with foreign partners and publishers, participating in literature, and its subsequent translating. I believe the international book fairs as well as other events. It has Welsh Assembly Government has a clear role to play succeeded in its brief with a very wide range of books. in this, and we need to convince them of the value of As the native publishing industry is made up of many our literature and the economic benefits that could small publishing houses, only very limited resources accrue from its flourishing. It’s still early days here in are available for publicity and promotion, although Wales and it will take years before a representation of this is, encouragingly, starting to change, and in our literature in translation reaches the world directly, recent years there has been a limited international unmediated by the English publishing world. But the dimension emerging. Nevertheless, the role of the foundations are in place, and I feel optimistic that we Welsh Literature Exchange in this respect is extremely can build on them. valuable and given the excellent work it does, it fully deserves further support. Wiliam Owen Roberts
26 Cultural 27 26 Cultural 27 Nicky Harman
Destination of Choice A place where everyone reads Occupation literature in translation! Translator Languages Chinese, English
Name Nicky Harman
Other Activities of Interest Evangelist for literature in translation; Translator Mentor; Translator in Residence at the Free Word Centre; co-founder of Paper Republic; promoter of Chinese writers to publishers; (occasional) writer about translation
Nicky Harman has been behind a range of innovative translation projects and is now one of the first Translators in Residence at the Free Word Centre in London
28 Translator Profile: Nicky Harman 29 I translated my first novel about a decade ago and publishing world. We took ourselves to the London that personal milestone set me off on a road which Book Fair in spring 2009 and the Frankfurt Book Fair I’ve never wanted to turn back down. However I very in the autumn of that year, introducing the website soon realised that being a translator was not a matter to yet more publishers and agents. It was a hugely of sitting at home and waiting for the book contracts educational experience, both for us as translators to come. Then, as I searched for work, I got involved and for those we talked to. in some activities which not only shed an interesting light on the world of Chinese-to-English translation – When the year’s grant was up and I was writing my they changed it. final report, I began thinking about what we could do next. It seemed obvious that we should be In the spring of 2008, the first Sino-British Literary encouraging more graduates in Chinese into the Translation (SBLT) course took place (in a hotel) on the translating world. Meanwhile someone else had bamboo-clad slopes of Moganshan, near Hangzhou, had the same idea and acted on it: with the aid of China. It was organised by Penguin China (Jo Lusby), funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, supported by Chinese and British government Danny Hahn at the Translators Association has set funding and the Arts Council England (ACE). Valerie up a mentorship scheme for translators who are Henitiuk of the British Centre for Literary Translation starting out. This scheme pairs a beginner up with (BCLT) Summer School also provided input. In brief, an experienced translator who supplies support and the week-long workshop sessions consisted of encouragement over a period of six months or so. small groups of students, working together with a The first two to be mentored were chosen from the Chinese author (or an English one for the English- BCLT Summer School, at which I was a tutor, and to-Chinese groups) and an experienced translator are working respectively from French to English and as workshop leader, to produce a translation of an Chinese to English. Anna Holmwood, for whom I am extract of the author’s book collectively. Interspersed a mentor, has just landed a contract to translate her with these sessions, there were presentations and first novel for Virago, and I’ll be able to support her discussions led by publishers and literary agents on through that process. the publishing world, copyright and contracts and other related topics. Another new initiative in which I am involved is the Translator Residencies at the Free Word Centre, The first SBLT course brought together a group of London. I will be one of two Translators in Residence, Chinese-to-English translators, both beginners and and in my case, there will be a special focus on the more experienced, from all over the world, and Chinese-to-English translation. That said, I have had all the fizz of excitement that you would expect taken as my brief to de-mystify translation and make from such a new venture. In short, it was inspirational. it fun; all the events I am organising are designed So far, so good then; but at the end of a week we all to include non-Chinese-speakers, and indeed went our separate ways. non-translators. We will cover all age groups, in a series of free events which range from story-telling Nevertheless, an initiative grew out of the first in Chinese and in English for children, workshops SBLT course which proved extremely important to for adults on translation and Chinese cooking, on Chinese-to-English translation and to me personally. translating Chinese classical poetry (with the aid of a Eric Abrahamsen, an American living and working literal translation for those who don’t read classical in Beijing, had already set up the website Paper Chinese!), listening to and translating Chinese rock Republic (paper-republic.org). Its aim was to provide music lyrics (also with the aid of a literal translation) a blog and discussion space for translators, as well … right through to a series of free lectures, for as to tickle the taste-buds of those all-important instance on ‘The Translation of Conflict’. publishers who might then commission translations. After SBLT 1, and with the encouragement of Kate Literary translators may work in isolation but, Griffin of ACE, Eric and I applied successfully for an certainly in the case of Chinese literature, they also ACE grant to develop Paper Republic. have a wider role to play as ‘mediators’. I hope it will be clear from this short piece that the situation Chinese literature in English translation is a tricky area for Chinese-to-English literary translation is more for publishers. Few of them are familiar with Chinese positive now than it was just a few years ago. We fiction. Almost none can read the works in the original can claim some success in making Chinese fiction language. They are therefore dependent on finding accessible to publishers in the West, both through a competent, trustworthy translator. Not surprising, our own efforts and thanks to the support we have then, that they have sometimes been wary of taking received from fund-giving organisations, agents the plunge. The injection of real cash in the form of and publishers. The old cry, ‘We’d love to publish the ACE grant allowed us to provide publishers, as more Chinese work in translation but we can’t find well as other translators, with informative articles a translator’, while still sometimes heard, is heard and discussions, profiles of translators, and of less often. Chinese authors and their works. As we filled out the website, we also built up a network of contacts in the Nicky Harman
28 Translator Profile: Nicky Harman 29 Commercial
30 Commercial 31 Awaiting News at the Dock Jon Parrish Peede, director of Literature Grants at the National Endowment for the Arts, asserts the value of literary translation and identifies new ways for translated works to travel as the publishing industry evolves
When the last instalment was due, the smelly docks varying from Arabic to Zapotec. Having served eight of the New York City harbour were teeming with years in various leadership roles at the NEA, I can everyday citizens eager for news from the voyagers. attest that the agency is rooted in a long-standing Unable to wait any longer, they supposedly called out commitment to translation that continues unabated. to the arriving ships: ‘Is Little Nell dead?’ Such was the appetite for the serialised works of Charles Dickens Though it is estimated that only two to three per across the pond in 1841. Of course, we as readers, cent of new titles published annually in the US are writers, and publishers know those glory days are literary translations, these books have been of great no more. If we did not know this fact so confidently, significance to the world of American letters and have I would not close this preamble with a reference to profoundly shaped our cultural perspective over the the thousands of American middle-schoolers, college past half century. Here one might think of the influence students and so-called ‘grownups’ who packed of French critical theory on academic scholarship, but bookstores at midnight more than 150 years later to in fact I am referring to the effect of literary works on find out if young Harry Potter had survived his evil Dr. Johnson’s ‘common reader’, the general citizen. tormentors. Though both The Old Curiosity Shop Consider the political impact of Anne Frank: The Diary of and Harry Potter introduce us muggles to foreign a Young Girl, published in Dutch in 1947 and published words, neither is a work in translation. But these in the US in 1952. The short life of Anne Frank came British imports function here in the US like the best to stand for the undignified death of millions. Even works in translation: they transport us to places we now, her words are a barrier to those who would deny have never been, to live among people we have never the Holocaust. Or consider Boris Pasternak’s Doctor known, to comprehend our world in a way we had not Zhivago, which was smuggled out of the USSR and comprehended it previously. published in Italian in 1957 and in English in 1958. Pasternak won the Nobel Prize in 1958, despite the As Director of Literature Grants from 2007 to 2011 at government’s ban on the book in his own country. the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the US Albert Camus’s The Stranger (French, 1942; US, 1946) government’s arts funding agency, I had the privilege had an equally powerful effect on American readers, of overseeing more than $6 million in annual funding and especially undergraduates, that lasts to this day. for translators, writers, poets, presses and journals, and literary organisations and festivals. Since 1965, the Non-European literature in translation also influences American writers and readers. Again, this is particularly NEA has helped to sustain the field of translation by supporting book releases, promotional activities and true in the case of sociopolitical novels. Awarded the translation-focused conferences and organisations. Nobel Prize in 1982, Gabriel García Márquez’s One For thirty years, the agency has also awarded grants Hundred Years of Solitude was published in Spanish to translators for self-selected projects. This cultural in 1967 and in English in 1970 with a translation by investment comes to more than 300 fellowships for National Medal of Arts recipient Gregory Rabassa. works from more than 65 countries and 55 languages, Having sold more than 10 million copies, the novel
30 Commercial 31 helped to open the door for the US publication, and that both value literary content and use emerging attendant commercial success, of the work of other technologies to present and discuss it. If we are to Latin American masters, such as Octavio Paz, Jorge nurture, sustain and ultimately increase the audience Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Carlos Fuentes and Mario for translated literature, then we must encourage both Vargas Llosa. In Asia, Chinese author Mo Yan’s novel traditional and fresh ways of supporting translators Red Sorghum (originally published in 1987), which was and presenting their work. We must be mindful of made into a popular film, was brought into English with the fact that emerging audiences gather information support from a 1993 National Endowment for the Arts in new ways and have different consumer profiles Translation Fellowship awarded to Howard Goldblatt. from their predecessors. A large-scale study, carried Travelling in the other direction was Amy Tan’s novel out by Roger Bohn and James Short (How Much The Joy Luck Club (1989), which gave China a view of Information), found that Americans spent 11.8 hours its history not yet fully explored in its own novels. a day consuming information, and that 55 per cent of the information bytes were delivered via video or Several years ago, I learned first-hand about the video game platforms. Enhanced ebooks – digital impact of US government-funded literary exports books with other media embedded – should find a during a lunch with a cultural attaché from Romania. welcoming home among the younger generations that She described how, during the Cold War, travelling already sustain the video gaming industry. State Department artists and Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts fed artistic creativity behind the Iron Curtain; If you love hardbacks like I do, you may think that and how different it was for her own students after the these enhanced ebooks aren’t for you. But have you fall of communism – when American consumerism ever read a book that you loved dearly, but in truth gave them the tasteless television show ‘Baywatch’ you weren’t even sure that you were pronouncing and other vulgarities of the entertainment marketplace. the name of main character’s village right, much less She longed for the high quality of our earlier exports. her name? Have you ever wanted a map at hand Now, alas, our government engages in markedly less while you read Homer? As readers, particularly of literary and book-centered cultural activity abroad, historical works, we often want enhanced text even except for occasional projects such as the excellent if we don’t use that term. We don’t want to wade international poetry anthologies published by the NEA’s through footnotes that crowd the pages, but would International office. If the NEA budget was dramatically appreciate hyperlinked place-names and embedded larger, I would advocate for a Literary Voice of America pronunciation guides. In many ways, translation could that included several canonical works that do not shy prosper as digital books gain market share, just as away from acknowledging the failings of democratic the Web’s global reach has allowed the site Words states, such as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Without Borders to gain a readership unequalled by or F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. There is a previous translation-focused publications. Likewise, reason totalitarian regimes ban books, filter the internet, few publishers print bilingual editions because of the suppress speech, and curtail the free expression of expense in paper and shipping as well as the mixed ideas. They know that words are knowledge, and that response of book buyers to such formats, except in knowledge is power. Good governments do not fear the the case of poetry. A bilingual ebook on the other hand judgment of good books, because they are unafraid of has fewer costs, and as electronic works evolve, there investing of power in their citizens. is the possibility of offering a bilingual ‘on/off option’ not unlike the closed-captioning option in video and The power structure of the publishing world will be television. Where translation meets technology, form utterly transformed within a few short years: more and function align. books will be read as ebooks than in print; between a third and half of author royalties will be derived from As individuals, we read for pleasure. We read electronic, video, and audio sales, and platforms to daydream; to escape our lives for a moment. that combine these formats; physical bookstores will And of course we read to educate ourselves, develop decline grossly in number and dramatically in market skills and advance our careers. We read to evaluate share. Lastly, book reviews in newspapers and mass options before taking action. As societies, we read audience magazines will continue their sharp decline, for many of these same reasons, only with more to be replaced in influence not by magazine-like emphasis on practical application. For the Global websites such as Slate or Salon, but by prominent Translation Initiative to have a meaningful impact, niche blogs such as the translation site Three Percent, it must address our needs both as individuals and or the Poetry Foundation’s blog, Harriet. as societies. The initiative must find a way to establish a greater understanding of the practical While there is understandable concern about the societal value of reading literature in translation, attention span of a generation encouraged to in addition to its intangible, intrinsic value, which has communicate in 140-character bursts, the migration long been acknowledged but is less and less visible from print to digital platforms carries great promise in the marketplace. for translation. The funding portfolios of foundations and cultural agencies should certainly include forward-looking print publications and innovative, digital-born ones; and they should be publications Jon Parrish Peede
32 Commercial 33 A Revolution in Words Mark Thwaite, digital marketing manager at Quercus Books, led the online marketing campaign for one of the best-selling translated books of recent times. Here he challenges the notion that books in translation are ‘difficult’ to read or to market
These days, I have the rather grand job title is a considerable constituency of readers out of Digital Marketing Manager for Quercus Books there who are interested in challenging books and and MacLehose Press. By a rather crooked books in translation; there is also an (arguably pathway, a good part of what I do on a daily basis different) group of readers that is most certainly is to use the internet to market books, many of not discouraged from buying a book because the which are titles that were first written in another author has a ‘funny name’. The difficulty is reaching language. In August 2010, I began work on a new these readers. This has long been the challenge for Flash-based website to promote Stieg Larsson, publishers who have traditionally relied on printing, www.larssontrilogy.com. This was followed by hoping and dreaming that word of mouth will lead www.larssonfans.com, a new type of web forum to success. dedicated to fan-fiction, with an active blog. The internet, however, allows us to do mouth- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the to-mouth, peer-to-peer marketing directly. There biggest-selling books of the past few decades are hundreds of blogs out there with hundreds of (the first to sell over a million copies on the Kindle; thousands of readers. They are telling publishers sales have reached over 50 million worldwide). what they (and their followers) want to read. We just Curiously, Larsson is precisely the kind of author need to learn to listen harder and respond more that we used to be told could never sell well in the quickly; we need to engage. UK: dead, and with a funny name. But it would seem the British public is just a tiny bit more When I started my job at Quercus & MacLehose sophisticated than that: they have been buying Press we merely had a website. Now we have Stieg by the bucketload. a daily-updated blog, three separate Twitter feeds, a YouTube channel, a Flickr account and a Alongside creating a new Larsson website, the Facebook page. We’re also growing our presence main purpose of my job is to improve the Quercus on Goodreads.com, LibraryThing and Scribd. In site, make a MacLehose Press site and, crucially, addition, I launched three dedicated websites and create an impressive and extensive online our first web viral and worked with Momentum presence for the whole of our business. Web 2.0 Pictures to create a dedicated iPhone app for The means, to me, that we can never presume where Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. All this can and should our potential audience is, nor where it sources its be done by publishers to help market foreign fiction information. We need to cast our net wide. This is titles. The internet is a massive archipelago of a multi-channel universe and, if we want to reach related islands – perfect for niche publishing – but readers, we need to work across it. The reality is only by being all over it can we hope to catch the – and the number of superb blogs dedicated to readers who are hiding away in some of its more fiction in translation proves the fact – that there obscure corners.
32 Commercial 33 My own love affair with translated fiction started in Initially, I envisaged ReadySteadyBook as being my teens when, rather dazzled by a slightly older, a mini-Amazon, reviewing books across different devastatingly pretty and fearsomely well-read goth genres. Within days, however, I realised that this – a girl, in fact, who wouldn’t be out of place in a was beyond me. Around 500 books are published Larsson novel – I began, at her suggestion, reading every week in this country. Not only could I not cope Emile Zola. Thérèse Raquin hooked me straight with the amount of books that were being offered to away. Germinal shocked and moved me and Nana me for review: I had precious little interest in most kept me up late at night: I was soon reading my way of them. Blogs work when the blogger involved has through the entire Rougon-Macquart series. I’m not some degree of passion for his or her subject. I had entirely sure now why they enchanted me quite as no passion for most books in most genres, but I did much as they did. No doubt decadence plus realism have a huge passion for what I had been told were plus compelling plotting was the heady mix that held difficult books in translation. Unfortunately, not only fast my teenage attention, but I do remember, quite had I been told that no-one wanted to read ‘difficult distinctively, loving the Frenchness of them. The fact books in translation’; I had also been told that they that Zola was a French writer was de facto proof that certainly didn’t want to read a blogger writing about he was more exotic and exciting than dull old Dickens these ‘difficult books in translation’. or turgid, Tory-beloved Trollope! So, it is fascinating for me to note that To be honest, I haven’t entirely renounced this view. ReadySteadyBook began to pick up readers, and I can’t help but be a bit more excited by the idea of very many readers at that. And it did so the more a novel from the Icelander, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, I wrote about the ‘difficult books in translation’ than by another dose of North London miserabilism that no-one was supposed to care anything very from Tony Parsons. Moreover – and with my much about. I could always gain a few more hits marketing hat on – I think it is this very exoticism by declaring, once again, how dreadfully overrated that is increasing the appeal of such books. Perhaps I considered Ian McEwan to be. Sustained growth, even Edward Said would allow me just a little sales- however, was only possible when I talked about based Orientalism if it helped me shift a few books authors like Proust and Sebald, Borges and Kafka, that went on to undercut the ideas I used to help Josipovici and César Aira. promote them. I kept writing and I kept reading; and my blog grew Somewhere between my late-teenage infatuations until, at its height, it was receiving upwards of 8,000 and my postgraduate delusions of grandeur – and unique visitors a day. probably somewhere around the time I first read Said – the internet appeared. My first proper job was as a Following the success of my blog, I went on to legal librarian, but within months I’d been taken on become Managing Editor of The Book Depository’s by Amazon.co.uk. I started work for them from the website. When I started working with them five years moment they began trading in the UK. ago they were turning over £12 million a year; when I left them earlier this year turnover had increased to After five years at Amazon, learning how to use the £70 million. Not all of that was due to me, but online internet from inside one of the most successful online sales and marketing techniques (a blog, a targeted operators, I decided to take leave of my Slough-based monthly newsletter, innovative use of Twitter) certainly American masters and make my way home, back helped raise the company’s profile. up North, in the hinterlands of Manchester. Beyond geography, I had one small dilemma: the publishing After four years with The Book Depository, and over world is based predominantly in London (yes, we a decade in bookselling, I decided that I should have fine publishers like MUP and EUP based outwith cross the Rubicon and become a publisher. Sadly, the capital, but publishing – and trade publishing yet unnecessarily, publishing is in the doldrums especially – remains an extremely London-centric at the moment: unsure of what to do with ebooks business). A Northern job meant a techie or online and still nervous about online culture, it seems to job, for sure; in any case, not a book-related one. have forgotten its greatest strengths. The internet Could I really cope with a non-biblio nine-to-five? revolution has largely been a revolution in literacy, in And just how on earth was I going to keep getting words. Publishers are good with words, are perhaps free review copies? the guardians of words, and should be there to protect and promote aggressively those who can wield words Like so many bloggers after me – but, serendipitously, most movingly. Working with the world’s best writers few before me – I decided that the best way to requires innovative use of a worldwide forum and, it maintain my publisher contact list and to keep those seems to me, the Web is the perfect platform for us to proofs flooding in was to set up my own literary strive for excellency and to save literature. website. ReadySteadyBook.com was launched in October 2003. The world did not shift on its axis; but I was thrilled. Mark Thwaite
34 Commercial 35 Go Dutch! Mireille Berman, Head of International Literary Projects at the Dutch Literature Foundation, celebrates the Go Dutch! promotional campaign of 2010 – a project that introduced UK audiences to the wealth of Dutch literature available in translation
Both British and Dutch commentators seem to In 2010, the Dutch Foundation for Literature believe that hardly anybody in the UK is interested presented a promotion project called ‘Go Dutch’. in translated literature. It is a fact that there are In cooperation with Jonathan Davidson from few translations on the market there: a measly Midland Creative Projects and with the help of UK two or three per cent of published literary works publishers, venues, festivals and bookshops, we are translations. This makes a sharp contrast with organised a series of events with Dutch writers here other countries such as Germany, Italy and France, in the United Kingdom. Our aim was to enhance where this figure is above 50 per cent. In the awareness of Dutch literature and increase its Netherlands, more than 60 per cent of published visibility. Before we began, we wanted to get a books are translations. better hold on just what the obstacles were to bringing translated literature into the UK. One of We are quite aware of how difficult the task is. the main problems, in our eyes, was that foreign For publishers and foundations like ours, trying to literature seemed to be perceived by many there promote Dutch literature abroad means competing as alien and unfamiliar. Our impression was that with all the other fascinating literature in the world: British people often refer to the insular mentality of Chinese masterpieces, poetry from Kyrgyzstan, their countrymen, their ‘fear of all things foreign’. Italian classics, deep Baltic reflections. With such And so for such an audience, the presentation of great works on offer, who cares about modern foreign literature as ‘a window on to the world’, Dutch literature, in which we have recently seen for example, would be counter-productive: it a tendency to dive deeper and deeper into a emphasises the distance, and confirms their Calvinist guilt complex populated by lonely impression of foreign literature as strange and farmers in endless flatlands? hard to grasp – and therefore unattractive.
The prevailing wisdom in both the UK and the This applies to readers, and therefore also to festival Netherlands is that it would be simply impossible directors and literary programmers, who all want to create an audience for Dutch literature in the to fill their halls with an attractive programme. We UK. We are full of admiration for the small band of needed them, but they were hesitant to invite our brothers that dares to try anyway; and especially ‘exotic’ Dutch authors with their unpronounceable those who have met with some success, such as names. They were afraid that nobody would turn Philip Gwyn Jones, Stuart Williams, Christopher up to their readings, and anyway, they weren’t sure MacLehose, Daniela de Groote and Gary Pulsifer. a Dutch author’s English would be up to scratch. This brave vanguard has done a great job, but Thus our most obvious and important partners, the overwhelming impression remains that where whose collaboration was crucial to the success of translated literature in the UK is concerned, we our project, considered our authors problematic, are working against the grain. hard to promote.
34 Commercial 35 We decided instead to point out connections, to So, to increase the availability of translated literature underline the similarities rather than the fact that this in the UK, you have to be smart and find the right was literature from across the Channel. We selected people; you have to point to the common themes, Dutch authors who dealt with recognisable themes not to the exotic. And if you publish or programme and issues; writers with excellent English who we a series of events, keep up with current affairs and knew were great on stage. The variety of events was hot topics of interest in the UK. Don’t bring out a enormous, ranging from a talk at the Hay festival on series of classics from one single country, but a great the adventures of Frank Westerman climbing Mount book about, say, the colonial experience, which just Ararat to a reading club in Essex whose members happens to be a Dutch experience too. Programme discussed with Tommy Wieringa the adventures of a series of events about childhood memories in his hero Joe Speedboat. literature and ask Dutch writer Otto de Kat to take part. And who knows? You might even find that our Jonathan Davidson knew the literary infrastructure in Calvinist guilt complexes and lonely Dutch farmers the UK well, so he could pick out the festivals and actually have something in common with your gloomy literary venues that might be persuaded to programme protestant tales of lonely British farmers... a Dutch author. He also helped us get support from Arts Council England, and so we were able to help The communication between cultural institutions and the venues with extra costs and make a website in UK publishers and festivals depends very much on English that introduced the authors and told people the occasion, on the author involved, on the event who was appearing where. Most importantly, we tried that is planned and, last but not least, on the people to bring Dutch and UK authors together on the same who are in charge. There is no standard or formalised stage and let them talk to one another. We didn’t want process for this communication, and usually there to present the Dutch authors as representatives of an are so many parties involved that improvising and intercultural exchange, but rather as sharing a common going with the flow is the most important technique goal with their British colleagues: to get more people to master. There are a few things to keep in mind, at the grass-roots level reading good books. however, such as ensuring that an author’s books are available when you plan an event. This means it is We avoided any mention of ‘windows’ and ‘worlds’, vital that the publisher knows about your plans at a of ‘cultural encounters’, or ‘getting in touch with really early stage. foreign literature’. Rather, we presented our Dutch writers simply as interesting authors with an original Like everything else in the publishing world, a lot point of view that was recognisable for UK readers; depends on personal contacts. If I know a certain as if they were authors who just happened to be from publisher or festival director quite well, I will work the Netherlands. This way, the fact that they were with him or her more closely and share my plans, my Dutch was an added extra; instead of an obstacle, it hopes and my doubts. became a bonus. Cultural institutions should not be ‘part of the We pointed out the themes the authors were writing publishing furniture’, but should be actively engaged about and suggested good combinations with whenever it is appropriate and useful. Publishers contemporary British writers. So, at the Manchester absolutely know how to find them when there are Literature festival, ‘our’ Surinamese-Dutch Cynthia possibilities to cooperate in production, translation McLeod talked with Dorothea Smartt about the or promotion of a book; cultural institutions should treatment of colonial heritage in their work. Toon in turn come up with fresh ideas that add something Tellegen delighted forty Scottish children with his tale the publisher can’t provide. These institutions of the elephant who ate a whole cake (all by himself, should remember that they can be helpful and no sharing), which left them in awe and confusion – supportive but are not essential in the publishing and not because Toon is Dutch. We also presented process. Unpretentiousness and modesty is an journalist Joris Luyendijk, who talked with Index essential asset. on Censorship director John Kampfner about the struggle for objectivity as a reporter.
We simply presented our writers as fascinating authors, who need to be discovered and translated not because they provide an insight into that strange, unknown land called the Netherlands, but because they had something to add to an understanding of important issues that also play a role in UK society. We told everyone involved that these authors have intriguing and original things to say, that they offer a surprising point of view – which is not necessarily a Dutch point of view. Mireille Berman
36 Commercial 37 Unlikely Encounters David Del Vecchio, owner of Idlewild Books, looks to a thriving future for independent booksellers as larger chain stores around the world are being forced to shut down
Three years ago, I opened Idlewild Books, a small That may sound obvious, but I mention it because I independent bookstore in New York City where the am often struck by what I see as a tendency among books are organised by the country of their setting. both big publishers and organisations dedicated to Reading had always been a part of my life but I had no promoting literature in translation to view these works previous background in either bookselling or publishing. as being very different from literature in general. While I I’d always enjoyed reading books set in other countries, strongly support efforts to bring more foreign literature especially those I travelled to, but I’d never consciously into English, and to promote the books that have already thought of these books as ‘international literature’; nor been translated, I don’t think readers make much of a did I think of novels originally in other languages as distinction or that publishers, booksellers and others ‘literature in translation’. should promote these books any differently.
Before opening Idlewild I spent a year building a list of The typical reader doesn’t think about translation titles by country, apprenticing in a couple of bookstores I liked and meeting with publishers and others in the I sometimes read defensive remarks by American book industry. When the store finally opened, it quickly publishers and reviewers that they don’t give more became popular with travellers who like to read, and as attention to translated works because Americans a venue for events on literature in translation. won’t read translations. On the other side, campaigns and organisations promoting translated literature often Idlewild’s footfall doesn’t just come from people planning suggest that the most interesting thing about a particular a trip or looking for non-American fiction in particular; book is the fact that it is a translation. about half our customers on a given day are people who live or work in the neighbourhood, or shoppers After three years working in a bookstore where translated who just happen to be passing by and are looking for works are mixed into the inventory on every shelf and something to read. Many are unaware of our speciality table, my sense is that the overwhelming majority of and browse our tables of new releases and ‘staff picks’ our customers don’t have positive or negative feelings the same way they would browse the tables in any about translation. As long as the book in their hands bookshop. They don’t seem particularly confused by is in English, they don’t seem to think about it. The the fact that the latest books by Peter Carey and Patti main exceptions I have observed have been among Smith share table space with a couple of new books academics, or when there is a well-publicised new we like from the German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translation of a nineteenth-century French or Russian an Urdu-language writer named Qurratulain Hyder. classic; but these are instances in which the customer The latter two sell just as well in our store as books by is excited to read a translation. Three of the most English-language writers – in part because we popular novels in our Vietnam section are by Graham recommend them, but also because they have enticing Greene, Marguerite Duras, and Duong Thu Huong – and covers and compelling descriptions on the back. although we frequently recommend all three to people
36 Commercial 37 who are looking for a good book that is set in Vietnam, and buying habits than previous generations. Our older rarely does the customer’s final choice seem to be customers will frequently ask for the latest book by a based on whether the book originated in English, French famous author or for something they saw reviewed in or Vietnamese (although they may be more personally the newspaper or a magazine. Our younger customers drawn to an English, French or Vietnamese point of view, don’t seem as familiar with authors or the latest ‘big which makes perfect sense). books’ and are drawn more by striking cover art, books that seems quirky or unusual, or anything that I don’t want to undervalue the importance of translation, we highlight with a blurb. They also almost never buy or the exemplary work that translators do: I believe that hardbacks. an excellent translator is an artist. I simply disagree that a reader won’t read a book because it is a translation. There are certainly downsides to these trends – it’s I would therefore question the strategy of promoting a easier to sell cartons of the latest media-driven book on the basis that it has been translated, and of bestsellers to customers who follow book reviews – suggesting we should read it as a means of bridging but they present opportunities for translated literature cultures or expanding our horizons. Most people don’t as well. Because younger readers are less attached read books because they’re good for them, or to affirm to celebrated authors, and seem less influenced by their common humanity. They pick up books that seem reviews in the mainstream media, they are often more enjoyable or interesting. willing to take a chance on an unknown foreign author or something that looks unusual. And because the Sometimes a book’s foreignness is a selling point small presses that specialise in translated literature mostly issue new books as paperback originals While I don’t think the fact that a book was originally than as hardcovers, these books are more likely to written in Swedish or Japanese is a major influence on appeal to our younger customers than the latest $28 readers’ choices, the fact that it comes from Sweden or hardcover by Philip Roth or Jonathan Franzen. Japan might be. But this presents more opportunities than challenges. Many of us read to escape, or want a book Independent bookstores represent one of the best that takes us somewhere – either for pleasure, or to learn entry points for translated literature more about the place in question. Whenever a country is in the news, Idlewild sells more books from that country Since Idlewild opened three years ago, three because people become curious about it. Mysteries Manhattan branches of Barnes & Noble (America’s and thrillers that are set in foreign cities appeal to many largest bookstore chain) have closed. Earlier this readers because of the foreign setting: the fact that the year, Borders (the country’s second-largest bookstore book is set in Rome, or features a Swedish cyberpunk chain) filed for bankruptcy. While all bookstores must heroine fighting neo-Nazis, makes it exciting. Whenever adapt in the face of digitalisation and other trends, we attach a shelf talker to a book in the store that says smaller independent stores may be better positioned the book created a sensation in France or was banned to weather these changes than the giant chains that in China or reveals the dark side of modern Japanese have dominated retail bookselling for the past decade. youth, sales of that book spike. Of the mysteries that sell Over the past three years, New York has actually seen well from our Italy section, some are by Italian writers, more independent bookstores open than close. and some are by American writers, but our customers don’t seem to regard them differently. To survive, these independent bookstores will have to offer customers something they can’t easily find Sometimes a book’s foreignness is beside the point online or in a chain store. The front tables in most chain bookstores feature the same handful of heavily One of the pleasures of being a bookseller is entering promoted bestsellers that can be found everywhere into conversations with readers who don’t know exactly (and that ever increasing numbers of customers what they’re looking for, and helping them find the perfect buy or download from Amazon). The indispensable book. I recently recommended the Russian classic independent stores are the ones where you not Oblomov to a customer who was looking for a book for only find interesting books that you haven’t seen her dilettante brother; and sold a wonderful Hungarian before, but where the staff is well-read and can make novel called Skylark, about a dutiful couple whose lives personalised recommendations. unexpectedly become more exciting when their spinster daughter takes a trip, to a woman whose youngest The two questions I am most frequently asked daughter had just moved out of the house. Neither of by other people in the book industry is whether these customers asked for something foreign, but the I think there is a strong market for literature in books they ended up with seemed just as appropriate translation in the US and if I believe there is a for them as an American book might have been. future for independent bookstores. My answer to both questions is the same: literature is literature, Younger readers may be more open to translated there is always a market for great books, and the literature than older readers independent bookstores that continue to thrive will be the ones that connect readers to experiences The majority of our customers are in their twenties and they are unlikely to encounter elsewhere. thirties – the store is located in a neighbourhood with lots of offices – and seem to have very different browsing David Del Vecchio
38 Commercial 39 ‘Important and useful’ Polly McLean, translator and founding director of The Funding Network, challenges philanthropists to take literary translation seriously
As a literary translator, I am familiar with the and forthcoming cuts to the Arts Council. Translation challenges of a field in which Arts Council support is specialists Dedalus and Arcadia have gone on record diminishing, and in which commercial pressures on to say that the continuation of independent publishing is publishing are making it ever more difficult to produce endangered by the cuts, and also that many of the foreign literature in translation. As someone who has been novelists published in the UK today would be lost to an involved in setting up a crowd-funding organisation English-speaking audience if it weren’t for publishers (The Funding Network), I am also familiar with some of the like them. This is a very serious issue: unless a broader concerns that influence philanthropic decision-making. funding base is found, it is possible that contemporary authors of the calibre of Dostoevsky, Kafka or Balzac Why does literature in translation merit might no longer find their way to an English readership. philanthropic support? The reason this is important doesn’t lie only in the Firstly and most importantly, because translated literature intrinsic value of top-class fiction. We also hope that by is under grave threat in the contemporary marketplace. In reading great international literature, readers broaden France, fifty per cent of books published are translations their perspective on other parts of the world, question from other languages. In Britain, we know that figure their prejudices, become aware of the suffering of others is between two and three per cent. The hegemony of and possibly even take action. Also, literature gives the Anglo-American language and culture is partly reader a particularly personal insight into foreign worlds. responsible for this, but our particular market conditions When we read contemporary master Tahar Ben Jelloun, are also to blame. It’s no secret that the combination for example, the actual experience of living under a of increasingly powerful booksellers, online retailers, repressive North African regime is brought home to us with supermarkets and ebooks is squeezing profits and a power unimaginable in newspaper reporting. Similarly, discouraging risk-taking among publishers. Retailers The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi (which I translated in exert a great deal of influence on the kind of novels that 2009) brings the sexuality and rage of a Taliban fighter’s succeed, through their reserving of prime retail space wife alive in a way that I certainly haven’t come across in for ‘3 for 2’ books. This then creates a vicious circle other media. Finally, literature opens our eyes and hearts in which publishers’ marketing budgets are focused to the relationship between past and present – I challenge almost exclusively on those books. Translated novelists anyone to read Zola without questioning contemporary tend to make it into this bracket only if they are already capitalism, or to emerge from Primo Levi’s astounding If household names. We can see, therefore, that relying on This Is a Man unchanged in their bones by the horrors of market forces to produce a broad range of literature in the Nazi concentration camps. Literature, then, offers us translation is a hiding to nothing. a visceral taste of lives lived in countries a million miles from our own – physically, psychologically, spiritually and The continued vibrancy of international literature in linguistically. The effect of this is impossible to measure, English is doubly under threat as a result of recent but surely merits support.
38 Commercial 39 What are the main obstacles to the philanthropic project, in which 16 Portuguese-speaking young support of literature in translation? people from Norwood School in South London were coached in creative writing in both Portuguese and Perhaps the biggest barrier is that international literature English. In both examples, the social and academic tends to be seen as something read largely by left-wing benefits to the children involved are very tangible, and middle-class intellectuals. It’s important to remember there’s also the side benefit of the next generation that funders are usually considering various proposals being exposed to the delights of literary translation, against each other – and it is easy to see that the thus potentially nurturing the long-term health of intellectual needs of a relatively privileged segment of the profession. the population might not compete well against activity groups for illiterate young people in inner city estates, Moving on to the quality and profile of the literature that say, or musical equipment for prisoners or people with does make it into English, it is incumbent on publishers to learning difficulties. ensure that they only publish truly important, thoughtful books, and get them out to mainstream readers. We Secondly, I’m not sure that philanthropists understand desperately need more translated bestsellers like the extent to which literature in translation is under The Reader, which tell distinctive stories in pacy, threat. Are they aware that the commercial and statutory accessible prose (and preferably get made into films!). funding situation is such that there’s a real possibility Publishers must avoid thinking of literature in translation that contemporary masters such as Saramago will no as a highbrow, niche market, and search out foreign longer be published, and future geniuses comparable language books with mass appeal. Stieg Larsson is the to Murakami or García Márquez might never become obvious success story here – so successful in fact that accessible to English readers? It seems to me that one he is no longer even thought of as a translated author. I of the contributing factors to this lack of awareness am not advocating the dumbing-down that has afflicted might be the publication of some fairly mediocre much of the domestic publishing scene recently, but international fiction in English. Readers, and the a celebration of challengingly diverse subject matter philanthropists amongst them, might be forgiven for and style that does not fit our stereotypes of obscure, surmising that if endless kooky French relationship slow-moving foreign literature. I know it’s a controversial dramas and depressing rural Scandinavian tableaux notion, but not only must publishers find great foreign are getting through, we needn’t worry too much about novels, they must also avoid publishing mediocre ones. what’s being left out. Every tedious translated tome gives the whole field a bad name. Similarly, every incompetent or clunky translation Finally, though it might seem rather crass to say so, reflects badly on the entire scene, and publishers would many philanthropists fund the arts because of the name do well to follow Gallic Books in having new translators recognition it affords. To a certain kind of philanthropist, mentored by an experienced professional if they wish to endowing a theatre space or a gallery procures a invest in the development of the next generation. degree of glamour, stature and kudos that is hard to resist. Books, however, are more mercurial, less visible Finally, it seems to me that there’s room for rather beasts. Reading generally takes place in private, and more glamour in the world of translated literature. The publishing houses tend not to be public locations. Some Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is making a step in the philanthropists do still start publishing houses – notably right direction with its Taittinger-sponsored reception. I the admirably discreet Sigrid Rausing in the case of would hazard a guess, however, that there’s also a Portobello Books – but not in the same numbers as they philanthropist out there who could be persuaded to support university departments or exhibition spaces. put his or her name and money to a high visibility prize for socially important, politically orientated literature in Each of these obstacles contains within it a possible translation. The prize money might kill two birds with one opportunity. With regards to the class and access stone, by going to the publisher rather than the author or issues, a few organisations devoted to world literature translator, and being directed to marketing the book to a have created innovative projects that bring in more large and mainstream readership. marginalised parts of the population. For example, the Translation Nation scheme sends established literary If we are serious about securing funding for translated translators into primary schools to work with children literature from private donors and grant-making for whom English is a second language. Research has trusts, we need to decrease the number of mediocre shown that support for bilingual children results in these books published in translation; prioritise important but children outperforming their monolingual counterparts accessible fiction; publicise the currently imperilled state (R. Sneddon, University of East London), as well as of foreign literature in translation; make international becoming more engaged in writing and speaking in literature both important and useful to marginalised English. Translation Nation thus sees bilingualism as a groups; and provide opportunities to raise the profile potential advantage rather than a disadvantage. These of books in translation. Not a modest to-do list, but benefits have clearly appealed to its funders, the Esmee an achievable one, particularly if we are able to bring Fairbairn Foundation, Mercers Company and the interested philanthropists on board. Arts Council. Similarly, last year the Arvon Foundation launched their Gulbenkian-funded Mother Tongues Polly McLean
40 Commercial 41 Translation and Reciprocity Ivor Indyk, founding editor and publisher at Giramondo Press, seeks to strengthen the international translation community through collaborative projects and initiatives
Although the commissioning and writing of a as a form of research by the academy. It is still literary translation is usually a straightforward affair, common to overlook or ignore the role played by the creation of a durable infrastructure which will the translator, but the value that is placed by the ensure longer-lasting relationships between authors, academy on the transmission of writing from one translators, publishers, and – beyond them – the culture to another will make it more and more countries involved in translation exchanges, is much difficult to sustain this attitude of neglect. more difficult to achieve. Authors in our group have been translated into The Writing and Society Research Group at the many European languages as well as into Chinese University of Western Sydney is possibly unique and Thai. The translations published by Giramondo, in that it brings together expertise in translation particularly in HEAT magazine, originate in an equally (Chris Andrews, translator of Roberto Bolaño and wide range of languages, including Slovenian, César Aira), authors who have been the subjects Indonesian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Russian, Danish of translation (Gail Jones, Nicholas Jose, Alexis and ‘Sjetlin’. In translation itself, the Group’s expertise Wright, Mireille Juchau and Catherine Rey, who lies in French, Spanish (particularly South American is notable for writing in French in Australia), and writers) and Chinese. We have a writer in residence a publisher, Giramondo, with a commitment to exchange in Germany with the Goethe-Institut and translated works. The fact that our activity in these the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin. Because the university areas is underwritten by a university is of great is located in Western Sydney, the Group is particularly importance – not simply because it pays our wages, responsive to the language groups from which but because the administrative capability, the the emerging writers in our region are descended, intellectual legitimacy (as far as funding agencies including Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, are concerned) and the international outlook Urdu, Hindi and Chinese Australian culture draws . necessary for a sustained participation in literary much from an immigrant tradition; and such a culture translation come more easily from a university than should provide a hothouse for the production of from commercial or corporate entities. literary translators. But the money and the jobs are in commercial translating and interpreting, not in literary It is therefore ironic that, in Australia at least, literary translation. We have a strong sense of belonging to a translation is not recognised as a legitimate field of place which is rich in linguistic and literary resources, research by the academy. Translators can claim their the development of which would require capital essays about translation, or about their translated investment on a scale we can only dream of. authors, as research output; but they can’t do the same with the published translations themselves, no In the meantime, we take our opportunities where matter how highly regarded they might be. On the we find them. We set up initiatives in the hope that other hand, creative writing has been recognised they will strike a chord with our collaborators,
40 Commercial 41 since reciprocity is at the heart of literary translation Chinese readers in Australia, to Sydney. In March – both as an individual art and as an enduring joint 2009, the Group had been one of the sponsors of effort between organisations and countries. It was the Chinese-English Literary Translation Course, on this basis that we organised a symposium on organised by Jo Lusby of Penguin China, and held literary translation at the Hughenden hotel in Sydney in Suzhou, on a model provided by the British Centre in October 2010, featuring keynote speakers Esther for Literary Translation at the University of East Allen, Marcelo Cohen and Olivia Sears, as well Anglia. The line-up of sponsors for this week-long as Australian translators from Spanish, Chinese, training workshop gives an idea of the complexity – Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese and French. In the and the cost – of collaborative projects designed to absence of infrastructure, you bring people together build supporting infrastructure for literary translation: and trust that their encounters will bear fruit. Of course, on our side the University of Western Sydney and there is a necessary and inevitable delay between the Literature Board of the Australia Council; on that first gesture and the echoes that answer it. the British side Penguin, the University of East Anglia, and the Arts Council of England; on the Our relationship with China offers another example Chinese side the General Administration of Press of this process and the attenuations it often suffers. and Publications. The project allowed us to bring Here the dream of capital investment touches four Australian literary translators (including Bonnie the ground, for Australian iron ore and coal are McDougall and Jane Pan), as well as the Australian much in demand for the building of Chinese cities. novelist Julia Leigh, on to the course. With funding from government agencies, where there is a trade incentive, a cultural programme Julia Leigh’s novels The Hunter and Disquiet were is likely to follow. But you have to remain wary subsequently taken up for translation into Chinese of the agency’s priorities. Last year, on the back by Shanghai 99 Readers’ Culture, a Shanghai-based of earlier initiatives in Shanghai and Beijing, our publisher which specialises in the publication of group applied for funding for a Chinese-Australian contemporary fiction from the US, the UK and Europe. literary symposium to be held in Chengdu. The Peng Lun, who was responsible for the acquisition application was made to the Australia International of foreign titles for Shanghai 99, had been invited to Cultural Council, which operates under the Australia in 2008 as part of the Visiting International auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Publishers programme funded by the Australia Council Trade – and was rejected by them, on the grounds for the Arts, and was therefore already familiar with that the symposium offered only limited public Australian literature. He also agreed to the publication diplomacy benefits. It’s true that a gathering of 30 in Chinese translation of Carpentaria, the novel writers, translators, editors, critics and publishers by the Indigenous author Alexis Wright, which had around a table, discussing the ins and outs of been published in 2006 by Giramondo. Carpentaria Chinese and Australian literature and the role that won almost every major Australian literary award might be played by translation, isn’t going to have in the year following its publication, including the any immediate diplomatic impact. You’d notice a prestigious Miles Franklin Award. Alexis Wright has difference though, in 20 years time. a Chinese ancestor; but in addition, the Indigenous sense of the land portrayed in Carpentaria held a Those earlier initiatives might, with hindsight, be particular appeal for her translator Li Yao, who found dated back more than 20 years, to Nicholas Jose’s resonances with the landscapes of Inner Mongolia. term as cultural counsellor at the Australian Embassy The publication of both Julia Leigh and Alexis Wright in Beijing from 1987 to 1990. The relationships he in Chinese was subsidised by the Literature Board of established then with the younger generation of the Australia Council. Chinese writers and artists has had an enduring effect on Australian culture and continues to provide I visited Beijing with Alexis Wright in March 2010 – we the basis for literary exchange between our two were both guests of the Australian Embassy’s annual countries. But the immediate stimulus for our present Australian Writers’ and Publishers Week, during activities was the invitation to Gail Jones to take up which the Embassy organises public events, visits a residency with the Shanghai Writers’ Association, to Australian Studies centres in Chinese universities in 2008, as part of an international programme and literary festivals, and a roundtable discussion the Association was then inaugurating. During her between Chinese and Australian publishers. The residency two of Gail Jones’s novels, Sixty Lights sponsors for these events were the Department of and Sorry, were published in Chinese translation by Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Copyright Agency the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, Limited, the Bookworm bookshops, Michelle and the period in Shanghai also provided material Garnaut (whose M on the Bund restaurant provides for her new novel Five Bells. the venue for the Shanghai Literary Festival and a legendary gathering point for English-speaking In return, in May 2009 we invited the Vice-President expatriates) and the Literature Board of the Australia of the Shanghai Writers’ Association, Ye Xin, a Council. It was during this visit that I met up with prominent novelist with a strong following among Patrizia van Daalen, the foreign rights acquisition
42 Commercial 44 officer at Shanghai 99, whom we subsequently invited to Sydney on a publishing visit funded by the Australia China Council. There is a high degree of interest in the Chinese market from Australian publishers, and some trade in the other direction, usually of Chinese bestsellers which have aroused international interest.
That was the status quo when, late in 2010, the Chinese consulate in Sydney suggested to the Literature Board of the Australia Council that a Chinese literary delegation visit Sydney late in 2011. The approach was made on behalf of the Chinese Writers’ Association and the Chinese Ministry for Culture. Ironically, their proposal for a three-day symposium of Chinese and Australian writers, editors, translators and publishers, echoed the one we had put up to the Australia International Cultural Council some months before, and which the AICC had rejected as having insufficient public diplomacy benefits.
The Chinese proposal also resonated with a project I had been party to in 2003 when ten Australian poets were paired with ten German poets in Berlin and spent three days in different cultural locations translating each other’s poems. This was a big- ticket item, and involved funding from UNESCO, the German lottery, the Australia Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs. It had been organised by Europe’s poetry translation maestro, Thomas Wohlfahrt, whose Literaturwerkstatt Berlin counts among its achievements not just the translation workshops between poets from widely different language groups which form part of their annual ‘poesiefestival’, but the Literature Express, which for six weeks in 2000 travelled across Europe from Portugal to Russia, with over 100 writers joining the train in different cities along the route to read their work in its original language, and have it read, in turn, in translation. We can’t do that sort of thing from Australia; we’d need a boat to travel around our region. Naturally we grabbed the Chinese opportunity when it was offered to us.
The reason I have been conscientious in mentioning sponsors while detailing the threads of association which underpin these collaborations in the field of translation, is to stress just how much money they require. Most of the sponsors are government agencies or government-funded institutions. It is hard to see how it can be any other way, given the scale of the undertaking and the fact that literary translation is, properly speaking, a matter between cultures and countries, however much it depends on individuals.
Ivor Indyk
42 Commercial 4344 Maureen Freely
Destination of Choice Anywhere and everywhere Occupation Novelist; translator; Languages journalist English, Turkish
Name Maureen Freely
Other Activities of Interest Professor at the University of Warwick
Maureen Freely, translator of Orhan Pamuk, gives a special insight into the internal dialogue of a translator and her ‘constant companions’ – the questions she carries from book to book
44 Translator Profile: Maureen Freely When I first took up translation, people who knew me silence. Its dark core bristled with danger. I wanted as a novelist told me I was mad. They advised me to get closer to that danger. And when I was close to concentrate on my own work instead of serving enough to hear it, I wanted to translate it. someone else’s. While I saw their point, I was never in any doubt that it was the right thing to do. It did Did I succeed? If this and subsequent translations not particularly bother me that I was not yet able went on to become part of the larger controversies to articulate the dreams then lighting my way: for a around Pamuk, was it because I’d let myself be led novelist, this is normal. Write it first, and analyse it by a novelist’s instincts, or was it because Turks were afterwards: that had long been my method, and when by and large unfamiliar with, and suspicious of, the I sat down in 2003 to translate Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, tradition of literary translation, viewing it as yet another it never occurred to me to question it. insidious western import? And what of the many who told me they thought Pamuk’s work read better in Eight years on, I question almost everything about the English than in Turkish? Did they mean to insult the way I work, and even more, I question the fractured author, or were they implying that I had doctored his way in which we understand the work of literary words, reshaping them for western consumption? Did translation in general. All too often the tone is set by they genuinely believe what one columnist said, that those who see it as a largely technical exercise, a Pamuk wrote for one person and one person only, that linguistic transfer to be effected within a tight time- this person was me, and that he brought his books to frame by a bookworm in an armchair. But we who me when he had finished them and I told him what to practise literary translation insist that it is not an do? I have no answers to these questions. I list them engineering feat but an art: translators wishing to do here to give a sense of the dimensions of the world in justice to a great poem or a great novel will need to which I now live. pay attention not just to its surface meanings, but its voice, its tone, its style, its music and its allusions. It is often forgotten that translators are not just cogs in the machine: we are involved in the transmission But how far is too far? What is the point at which of world literature from the beginning of the process translators should stop taking liberties? Is a translation until the end. We read widely, always hunting for new that reads like a translation more faithful to the original? voices. When we find them, we talk to publishers, What exactly does it mean to be faithful to an original? write reports, do everything in our power to get them Is it being faithful to an author’s intentions or to the placed. We steer the books through the publishing cultural conventions of the language in which he or process, help to publicise the book and the author. If she writes? These questions are now my constant our authors run into political difficulties, in their own companions. I take them with me into every new countries or elsewhere, we stand up for them. Back at translation, and every new sentence. I use them not home, we join translators’ associations, and through to reach a final, unassailable position. Rather, I deploy these associations we work to bring translation to larger them as guards against solutions that are too narrow audiences. Through this work, we enter conversations or extreme. For me, the golden rule of translation is with translators from other languages and other parts that there is no single solution. of the world. We read their translations and reflect on them, and when we return to our own work, we take But to succeed at translation is to be surrounded by those words and conversations with us. people who are not inclined to be so open-minded or playful. This is particularly the case in countries In my own case, that work might well be a translation, like Turkey, where every aspect of language and but it is just as likely to be a novel of my own making. discourse is politically charged, and where writers When I think back on Snow, what I remember with wandering into areas marked by the state as off-limits most gratitude are the days when I was able to sail so can expect harassment, prosecution and even death. close to its dark core that I could hear it whispering. I Orhan Pamuk was already controversial when I began was changed by what I heard, not just as a translator to work with him. Though partly due to various public but as a novelist. And as I went on to translate other statements he had made on freedom of expression, books by this author, my education continued. this was mostly due to his growing popularity in the West, a privilege many thought him to be abusing, if So if I had to go back in time, to argue again with the only because he had not used it to enhance Turkey’s friends and well-wishers who wanted to save me from image abroad. But with Snow, set in a remote Turkish a bad career move, I would of course have much to say city cut off from the outside world by a blizzard, he about the importance of literary translators in the larger seemed almost to be courting controversy. In this scheme of things. I would acknowledge the political and Dostoyevskian political drama, he had taken everything commercial realities that shape our world and our work. that had gone wrong in Turkey over the previous forty I would defend and try to illuminate the art of literary years and compressed it into three days. translation. But most of all I would want to describe translation as a privilege that has released me from the When it came out in Turkey, readers could hardly prison of my own language and literary culture. Question describe how it hit them. Though each maligned group by question, sentence by sentence, it has drawn me into was quick to claim offence, there was a reluctance the larger conversations of world literature. to address the larger picture it painted, of a state that maintains its power with violence and enforced Maureen Freely
45 Professional
46 Professional 47 Britain’s Crisis of Language Learning Michael Kelly, professor of French at the University of Southampton, reveals the disturbing implications for a society that is increasingly dependent on the linguistic capabilities of other countries
Britain’s crisis of language learning is shared nine years. Similarly, the number of undergraduates by other English-speaking countries. We have been studying language degrees at university has complacent about the advantages of having the changed little, with even a small increase in the international lingua franca as our native tongue. last couple of years to around 29,000. The number But we are now beginning to realise that these of linguists has not increased in line with overall advantages are accompanied by some serious increases in A level and university entrance across drawbacks. We are increasingly dependent on the all subjects. But the small language elite is not linguistic expertise of a lot of other people in order getting any smaller. to make our way in the world. And we are dependent on their benevolent intentions towards us, which It is likely that the stability in numbers at A level cannot be taken for granted in a politically volatile and university represents a continued interest in and economically competitive world. Our culture of languages among the more academic students. linguistic dependency leaves us more vulnerable all It may also reflect a social divide, since it is noticeable the time. that there has not been a corresponding decline in languages in the independent schools sector. And at The decline of language learning in British schools university level, language degrees are increasingly has crept up over the last 15 years or so. In the early concentrated in the more prestigious universities. 1990s, the creation of the European Single Market sparked widespread enthusiasm for languages. Most universities nonetheless offer opportunities This was reflected in England and Wales by for language learning to students of other subjects, the inclusion of a modern foreign language as a whether as an elective part of their course or foundation subject in the national curriculum that on an extra-curricular basis. And the number was created by Kenneth Baker’s Reform Act of of students training to be language teachers on 1988. The ill-advised removal of languages from postgraduate courses has recovered from its the core for 14-16 year olds in 2002 precipitated recent dip, from 1,700 to around 1,900. This is a collapse of language learning in English schools encouraging, though it should give us pause that to around half its previous level in pupils aged British-educated graduates now account for less 16. In Scotland, a language had not been made than half of trainee teachers. compulsory at 16, and take-up was already smaller than half the age group. But the decline has been The picture for languages is dark but not hopeless. correspondingly less marked there. The real challenge is for policy-makers, and the general public, to recognise the importance of On the other hand, numbers of students taking languages for students at every stage of the a language at A level have remained remarkably education process. This is the aim of the recently steady, at around 35,000 a year over the past eight or launched campaign for languages called ‘Speak
46 Professional 47 to the Future’. The campaign identifies five in sufficient numbers to meet the country’s needs. But key objectives which could transform Britain’s at the same time we have the opportunity to capitalise capability in languages. on our knowledge of English, so often the lingua franca between countries, and to add value to that Firstly, it is vital that every language should be valued knowledge through a mastery of foreign languages. as an asset. Many languages are used in the homes of UK citizens, not just the mainstream European A great deal more needs to be done to raise the profile languages. It would be a significant step forward if of highly qualified and professional linguists. This is a policy makers and citizens became more aware of major task, in which linguists themselves must play how this ‘language rich’ context provides a valuable their part. They can draw attention to the need for resource for social cohesion and economic success. specialists of many kinds, and to the wide range of careers and international opportunities that are open Secondly, all children in primary school need a to them. Some specialists, including very senior coherent experience of languages. They will benefit linguists in European and international organisations, from being introduced to the learning of other are working hard to spread that awareness; but their languages and cultures at an early age, when their efforts need to be redoubled. Their work is amplified learning capacity is very strong. And learning other and supported in England by the Routes into languages also carries the benefit of helping children Languages programme, in which national networks to develop a better understanding of how their own of interpreters and translators organise a bustling languages work. programme of master-classes, careers events and other outreach activities. Thirdly, every child should leave secondary school with a basic working knowledge of at least two languages Languages are a very personal thing. They speak including English. This will equip every school leaver to the roots of our identity. And it is at the level of to live and work in a global society where confidence personal encounters and experiences that the in learning and using other languages is a major students of today can be drawn to see themselves advantage. as the linguists of tomorrow. That is why personal contact with experts and hands-on experience of Fourthly, every graduate should be qualified in a using languages in specialist processes remain the second language. Whether they have been educated most effective ways of inspiring the next generation. in the UK or have come from elsewhere to study here, they are future leaders in business, the professions, Although it is sometimes unfashionable to say so, voluntary organisations, education and research. the state must take some responsibility in addressing Having a second language will enable them to thrive the country’s language deficit. The market alone will and communicate confidently in a complex global not help the UK to escape from its current language society. poverty. That market is an international one, and if UK suppliers cannot meet the demands, someone else Lastly, the UK needs an increase in the number of will; and the weakest will go to the wall. highly qualified linguists. There is a growing need in this country and internationally for language There is certainly a need for better information, to professionals, especially English speaking interpreters provide evidence of the high level of demand and and translators, and for teachers and researchers poor supply of UK-educated specialist linguists. specialising in foreign languages and cultures. Robust evidence will be needed to argue the case for strategic intervention by business, government and Each of these objectives connects with the work public service employers. of numerous organisations and individuals, and if pursued energetically could make a significant The main argument for positive state intervention in difference to this country’s linguistic capacity. But language education is that employers cannot readily when considering the value of languages in enhancing provide their employees with more than a basic level every area of national and international life, it is of language competence. Languages take time to important not to lose sight of the growing community learn, and in most cases the market requirement is of specialists, where languages are a central part of on a shorter time-scale than language learning. their business. They have skill sets of language and intercultural expertise that are indispensable to enable There are some cases where an employer might invest the UK to understand and communicate effectively several months or more in intensive language training with the rest of the world. for key members of staff, but they tend to be limited to jobs for which British identity is indispensable. Unfortunately, in interpreting and translation, in This might be the case, for example, in military or language teaching and research, the UK has become diplomatic postings. For other purposes, it is almost increasingly reliant on overseas linguists. We are always easier for an employer to find a suitably failing to inspire and educate highly qualified linguists qualified native speaker.
48 Professional 49 If British candidates are going to get jobs which require advanced language skills, it is difficult to see who, other than the state, can provide the necessary long-term investment. It would be highly desirable for business to play a stronger role in investing in languages, but outside certain specialised fields, investment is likely to achieve broader social aims rather than benefits to a particular company. For this reason, business is most effective in promoting languages when it joins in a partnership with the state, particularly in supporting educational institutions.
British people are no better or worse at languages than anyone else. We have some very committed and expert linguists. However, we also have less motivation and less opportunity to learn languages than countries outside the English-speaking world. As a result there are too many people complacent about, or frightened by, languages other than their own. The ultimate challenge for linguists is to address this debilitating combination of complacency and fear. Perhaps the message should be a very simple one: ‘Yes, we should learn languages.’ And ‘Yes, we can.’
Michael Kelly
48 Professional 49 Beyond the Text Olivia Sears, director of the Center for the Art of Translation, shows how the Poetry Inside Out programme helps young people use translation to develop their critical thinking skills
Fast-forward to high school. Suddenly the education ‘Translation made me use system pulls a switch: it’s time to learn a second words that I knew but did language so that American students can become citizens of the world. not say … made me think of At the Center for the Art of Translation, we view other words with other people a second language as an asset, not a liability – particularly for students entering primary school. We with different languages … first developed our education programme, Poetry Translation helped me learn Inside Out (PIO), to teach children to translate great poetry from Spanish into English, write poetry of how to say what I want to say their own and translate the poems of their peers. The programme has evolved to a point where it works with … how to choose my words, all students, regardless of their language background, and nurtures the next generation of readers and and say what I mean for the writers. Through PIO, students build their language people who read my poems skills, acquire complex cognitive tools, develop an appreciation of poetry, get a big boost in academic to understand.’ confidence, learn to view their first language asan asset and develop a creative voice. – From an interview with a Poetry Inside Out student, fifth grade In the Poetry Inside Out curriculum, students encounter great poems in the language in which they In the United States, where 30 per cent of students were written – Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, speak a language other than English at home, the Vietnamese, Latin and many others – and cultivate education system, motivated by the goal of raising the practice of literary translation. Students then test scores, has quickly made it a priority that all use these newly translated poems as inspiration children speak and write only English in school. for composing their own poems. The synergy of the This puts students for whom English is a second two practices – translating and composing poetry language at a disadvantage – they lag behind their – allows PIO’s participants to hone their linguistic peers in English ability and struggle in subjects sensibilities while building essential cognitive and across the board. Many lose confidence in their literary skills and finding their creative voice. The capacity to learn. Finally, they come to view their poems and translations produced by participants native language as an obstacle and a burden, and in PIO reflect their profound responses to language, may ultimately reject it. culture, society and themselves.
50 Professional 51 A PIO workshop consists of 16 lessons, taught long as they can defend the choices they make. once or twice a week, which focus on basic literary As Marty Rutherford, the director of research and translation skills, on the craft of writing poetry dissemination for the PIO programme says, ‘To give (exploring figurative language and poetic structure kids the awareness that a well-reasoned answer is and form), and on the performance of their work. more “true” than a so-called “right answer”: This is The students’ writing is collected into a classroom a life skill that serves us all.’ volume, and the best poems are published in the Centre’s biannual Best of Poetry Inside Out Students also begin to understand that meaning anthologies. In our Spanish and Chinese curricula extends beyond the text. One seventh-grader from most students are translating from their home Oakland, California, suggested that it is not enough language into English, while in our World Poetry to know the words on the page. ‘To really translate curriculum all students are given the instruction a poem you need to know something about the that enables them to translate, or imaginatively poet: who are they, how old are they, where do they adapt, a poem from any of the 19 languages come from, why did they write this?’ The process of we incorporate. translating poetry reveals a new level of complexity in reading, demanding deep thinking about even Literary translation is an ideal teaching tool because the most basic word choice and context. This will it leads inevitably to a deeper understanding of the extend to students’ reading and understanding of form and function of language. Translating poetry, in the world generally. particular, brings students into the closest possible relationship with the text, in part because attention Nowadays we accept the idea that translation is an to syntax, grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, nuances act of interpretation; so for young students, learning and colloquialisms (in both languages) is vital to the to translate means learning how to read critically. A process. fourth-grade PIO student describes the process like this: ‘When I translate a poem I look for what the We discovered that such a cross-cultural curriculum author is trying to tell us, but you have to figure it has the potential to transform students’ and teachers’ out. You need to look at all the words and what they engagement with language, literacy and literature. mean. It’s like a riddle.’ According to classroom teachers (surveyed before and after the workshops), PIO increased students’ Reading and translating renowned world poets understanding of syntactical differences between provides continual inspiration for the students. languages, raised vocabulary and comprehension Repeated exposure to great poems allows students and boosted awareness of the possibility of multiple to experience form, function, structure, and imagery, interpretations. In addition they reported that and acts as a foundation for their own writing. The students gained confidence in their ability to write poems they encounter create a kind of master-class poetry, using figurative language, sensory images or tutorial. As another former Poetry Inside Out and their imagination to portray ideas or emotions. student explained, ‘In the process of translation, One teacher writes that the skills they acquired were one comes to know a poem so well, so intimately – ‘transferred into other realms of literacy as well, as each word is pondered, considered and wrestled sharpening their skills as writers and readers.’ with – that a little bit of the author’s brilliancy is rubbed into the translator, and one understands, In the words of PIO artistic director John Oliver even if it is unconsciously, something more about Simon, ‘There’s something about the translation language and poetry.’ process that subtly transforms not just kids’ writing abilities, fluency and confidence, but the way they Teachers report that after many lessons of translating approach language, that central human endeavour.’ others’ work, students are ‘bursting to express They learn that languages can’t be mapped on to themselves – to write.’ Students become inspired to each other word for word: ‘Students translating a write their own poems and have fellow students read Verlaine poem from French into Spanish or English and translate them; it allows them to see themselves (their choice) instantly saw that French and Spanish in a new light, with greater possibilities. As one fifth- are closer to each other than either is to English, grade student in a bilingual immersion school wrote, and they were able to explain why. The words they ‘When we saw what artists and Latino poets wrote chose to translate the rain-sound conveyed in we thought we could do those things … we could French by “bruit” were as various as “patter” and be like them.’ “chapalateo”.’ Over the past decade, PIO has worked directly with This kind of realisation is significant in this age of more than 5,000 elementary and middle school standardised testing, where kids are taught that students locally and nationally through residencies there is a single correct answer – yes or no, black that take place during the school day. With the or white, right or wrong. In PIO, students learn crisis in education showing no signs of abating, early on that there are many right answers – so we see an urgent need to reach more schools
50 Professional 51 and students, particularly children in schools in deprived areas whose needs are not being addressed.
We continue to serve students through our residency model while broadening teacher training and dissemination of the programme. Locally, we are developing a larger, more diverse cadre of instructors and increasing the number of residency school sites. Nationwide, we are expanding our efforts to offer professional development to classroom teachers through partnerships with experienced professional organisations (such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York City) and educational research institutions that care as deeply as we do about the quality of implementation.
Our hope is to spread the programme far and wide, beyond all borders. We intend to create an online resource centre for classroom teachers and instructors, including lesson plans, worksheets, downloadable poem pages, an anthology manual, glossaries and background materials on the history and grammar of the languages. Longer-term goals include creating moderated message boards and a Student Writing Gallery to showcase top-notch work.
The Centre also envisions packaging the curriculum in a series of fun and educational workbooks aimed at both teachers and families, as we have seen first-hand that the benefits of Poetry Inside Out are personal as well as professional. Providing exercises for use at home will more closely engage parents with their children’s work, as well as help bridge the language gap in multilingual homes.
We haven’t forgotten our original mission: to promote translation and nurture new writers and translators, and of course readers. We have the opportunity to teach new generations that already bridge cultures in their own lives, that understand translation and that will read and enjoy poetry – and maybe even buy books (in whatever form they are available to the next generation). Indeed, the first PIO Instructors, Michael Ray and John Oliver Simon, wrote an article entitled: ‘Poetry Inside Out: Using Translation to Create Literary Fanatics.’ Truly one of the greatest uses of translation.
Olivia Sears, with Martha Rutherford and John Oliver Simon
52 Professional 53 52 Professional 53 Amanda Hopkinson
Occupation Professor of Literary Translation at Manchester University and UCL; LiteraryTranslator (fiction; poetry; testimony) Name Amanda Hopkinson
Destination of Choice How about in Xanadu with Coleridge... In a Persian paradise with Rumi... the Bengali Ghare-Baire with Tagore…or digging cabbages with Voltaire…
Languages French, Spanish, Portuguese Other Activities of Interest (Spoken: Italian, German) BCLT director 2004-2010; festival director of Notes and Letters, (King’s Place, October 2011); writer; journalist; interpreter; founder/chair of PEN Writers in Translation, 2004-2010; current member of English PEN Board and the Writers in Prison Committee
Amanda Hopkinson outlines how an interest in politics and human rights opened the door to an incredibly diverse career as a translator
54 Translator Profile: Amanda Hopkinson 55 Translation and interpreting came very closely bound What particularly interested me at this time was the up together in my adult life. My arrival as a student apparent mismatch between the wealth of different in Mexico City coincided with the infamous assault languages used at home (and in schools, where on a street protest in autumn 1968. On descending children at London primaries speak 347) and the from the Greyhound among the tanks positioned at near demise – through successive governmental street corners, at first I wanted to stand and stare. demotions – of language teaching. Whenever different Fortunately, a couple of other students forced me communities arrive, there is a brief period when down between two parked cars before the firing demotic culture can flourish in many more genres started. They were the ones who took me out to the than most of us are familiar with: the Mother Tongues University City – under Occupation – and introduced tour organised by Modern Poetry in Translation (and me to student leaders and human rights lawyers. supported by the Arts Council when I worked there) was testament to that vibrant tradition of rhetorical During my studies at Berkeley I hitchhiked back to oratory and epic poetry. The next generation, when it Mexico whenever I could, maintaining contact with turned to literature, almost exclusively writes English student activists, political prisoners and the handful fiction. Yet a language other than English can be of lawyers willing to represent them. On graduating, spoken in the home for generations, and few of these I returned to Mexico and began visiting Lecumberri newer languages have been included at school, where Prison and forwarding reports to Amnesty in London. learning any second language is now optional before My daughter was born while I was working there, the age of 14. and was a great distraction to the guards whenever I wanted access to a ‘reserved’ political prisoner. When With Arts Council funding, it was possible to launch I returned I became involved in the Latin American Sarah Maguire’s Poetry School at the School of Human Rights Committees, and spent eight years Oriental and African Studies in London. Somali, as editor – and translator – of the magazine Central Kurdish, Palestinian, Shona or Croatian poets America Report. Three anthologies of writing from worked with literal translators and anglophone the region resulted and as military dictatorships poets to achieve a new readership. And with seed began to fall, I happily translated more literature and funding from Bloomberg, the first new English PEN fewer testimonies. It was a relief to become involved committee for decades was born. Called Writers in in translating works of imagination rather than the Translation, it helps translate samples of works in unimaginable horrors of the secret detention centres, need of English publishers and supports these in torture chambers and extra-judicial executions. publicising works with themes relevant to PEN, and in bringing over and touring their authors. Our PEN As more children joined the family, so did the output of Recommends stamped on the cover is now a seal of literary translations. Those were then joined by writing approval guaranteeing promotion. and broadcasting on Latin American culture, most often literature and photography. Invited to Brazil From 2004 to 2010 the BCLT worked hard with through the British Council, I took a crash course partners and fellow organisations to raise the in Portuguese and ended up translating authors as profile of literary translation. In this, the media was entirely different as Rosa Mendes, Paulo Coelho and instrumental, and – after working for 25 years in the José Saramago. They came in the wake of the Central sector – it was a shock to find literary translation American series, and of Argentine authors such as hailed as ‘the happening thing’ by poet and presenter Ernesto Sábato, César Aira, Ricardo Piglia and Sergio Ian Macmillan. In tandem, it was important to raise Bizzio, as well as Mexicans including Carmen Boullosa, the profile of BCLT founder Max Sebald, through Elena Poniatowska and Juan Villoro. More recently, hosting two conferences at Cambridge and UEA, I have taken on co-translating French thriller-writer and speaking at many more. The final Sebald Lecture Dominique Manotti with Ros Schwartz – a new genre on the Art of Literary Translation during my time at for me, with a particular political and psychological the BCLT, delivered by Will Self on Sebald’s own twist of Manotti’s own. writing, was the most oversubscribed to date. A final undertaking at the BCLT was – at the third attempt – In addition, and to support my four children, I had to obtain an Honorary Doctorate to add to the OBE always held down a variety of jobs. As the youngest awarded last year to translator Anthea Bell. With that went to school in 2000, I took a post as the Arts it felt that literary translation had truly come of age. Council’s first International Literature Officer, making my first task that of reviving the defunct Independent Amanda Hopkinson Foreign Fiction Prize with the enthusiastic collaboration of the Indy’s literary editor, Boyd Tonkin. Since 1997, I also held the position of Senior Research Fellow in Comparative Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. Early in 2004 I was appointed Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), founded by UEA Professor WG ‘Max’ Sebald. At this point I gave up the other posts and moved to live and work in Norwich.
54 Translator Profile: Amanda Hopkinson 55 Contributor Biographies
56 Contributor Biographies 57 Amanda Hopkinson Geoffrey Taylor Amanda Hopkinson is professor Geoffrey Taylor has directed the of Literary Translation at Manchester International Festival of Authors University and UCL, and was at the Harbourfront Centre for six director of the British Centre for years. He is also an advisor for the Literary Translation for six years. Humber School of Creative Writing, She is a translator from the an inaugural member of the Word French, Spanish and Portuguese, on the Street (Toronto) Advisory most recently of three novels by Council and a founding member of Dominique Manotti (together with the Word Alliance – a partnership Ros Schwartz), including Affairs between the world’s top literary of State; of Rage by Sergio Bizzio festivals. He has also served as a (2009); and of The Notebook by jury member for the Toronto Arts José Saramago (co-translated Council, the Toronto Arts Awards with Daniel Hahn, published 2010). and the Amazon First Novel Award. Amanda Hopkinson co-founded the Writers in Translation committee of Ivor Indyk English PEN in 2003, and served Ivor Indyk is founding editor and as its first Chair until 2008. publisher of HEAT magazine and David Del Vecchio the award-winning Giramondo book imprint, in which capacity he David Del Vecchio is the owner has commissioned and published of Idlewild Books, an independent many works in translation. A critic, Manhattan bookstore specialising essayist and reviewer, he holds the in travel and international literature position of Whitlam Professor in organised by country. Before Writing and Society at the University opening Idlewild in May 2008, of Western Sydney. He has written David spent ten years working a monograph on David Malouf as for the United Nations, most well as essays on many aspects of recently as a press officer for Australian literature, art, architecture refugee programmes in Africa and literary publishing. and Latin America. Jean Anderson David Shook Jean Anderson teaches French David Shook’s poetry, translations language and literature at Victoria and criticism have appeared in University of Wellington, New Oxford magazine, Poetry, PN Zealand, where she founded Review, World Literature Today the New Zealand Centre for and elsewhere. A chapbook of Literary Translation in 2007. Since his translations from the Isthmus becoming interested in the field Zapotec of Víctor Terán is available in 2004, she has translated five from the Poetry Translation Centre, books into English, co-translated and his work also appears in the five into French, and published anthologies Oxford Poets 2010 over 100 shorter pieces in various (Carcanet) and Initiate (Blackwell). anthologies published in Canada, His translation of Mario Bellatin’s the UK, New Zealand, France and Shiki Nagaoka: A Nose for Fiction the USA. She is currently working is forthcoming. David Shook lives on a Tahitian novel to be published in Los Angeles, where he edits in New Zealand. Molossus. He is currently guest editing the Joyland Consulate.
56 Contributor Biographies 57 Jon Parrish Peede Michael Kelly Jon Parrish Peede was director of Michael Kelly is professor of French Literature Grants at the National at the University of Southampton. Endowment for the Arts, the US He is director of the UK Subject government arts funding agency, Centre for Languages, Linguistics from 2007 to 2011. In this role, and Area Studies and plays a Peede funded the nation’s leading leading role in developing public literary translators, fiction writers, policy on languages and cultural poets, non-profit presses and diversity in the UK. He was a journals, and literary organizations member of the Nuffield Language and festivals. He is a former Inquiry and is Editor of Synergies university press editor and magazine Royaume Uni et Irlande which journalist, and co-edited a collection publishes work on language and of essays on Flannery O’Connor. culture, and an Associate Editor of the journal French Cultural Studies, Julian Evans which he helped to found. Julian Evans was deputy chair Mireille Berman and chair of English PEN’s Writers in Translation committee from Mireille Berman manages its foundation until 2010. He is international projects to promote the writer and presenter of BBC Dutch literature at the Foundation Radio 3’s twenty-part series on for Literature in Amsterdam. She the European novel, The Romantic developed the Go Dutch! campaign Road, and a winner of the Prix in the UK, together with Jonathan du Rayonnement de la Langue Davidson, director of Midland Française from the Académie Creative Projects. She previously Française. His most recent book worked as an acquiring editor at is Semi-Invisible Man: The life of several literary publishing houses. Norman Lewis. Namita Gokhale Mark Thwaite Namita Gokhale is an Indian Mark Thwaite is the digital marketing writer and publisher. She is also manager of Quercus Books and co-director of the Jaipur Literature MacLehose Press. He is also the Festival and member secretary of Founder and Editor of one of the recently established programme the UK’s most respected and Indian Literature Abroad (ILA), visited online literary journals, which seeks to promote and ReadySteadyBook.com. translate literary works from the 24 major Indian languages into six Maureen Freely UNESCO languages. Maureen Freely is a writer, Nicky Harman translator, professor at Warwick University and a member of Nicky Harman translates English PEN. She is perhaps best contemporary Chinese literature known for her translations of the and has also taught translation work of Turkish Nobel Laureate at Imperial College London. Orhan Pamuk. Her latest novel, She has translated a number of Enlightenment, is an exploration of prize-winning authors, ranging the persecution of writers in Turkey from Xinran to Hong Ying, Han and was published by Marion Dong and, most recently, Zhang Boyars in March 2007. Ling. She translates both fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose. Nicky wants to de-mystify translation and make it fun in her new role as translator in residence at the Free Word Centre.
58 Olivia Sears Olivia Sears is founder and president of the Center for the Art of Translation, a non-profit organisation promoting international literature and translation through programmes in publishing (Two Lines), teaching (Poetry Inside Out), and public events (Two Voices). She is also a poet and translator of Italian literature. Sir Peter Stothard Sir Peter Stothard is editor of the Times Literary Supplement and President of the Classical Association. He is the author of On the Spartacus Road: A Spectacular Journey Through Ancient Italy. From 1992 to 2002 he was editor of The Times. Polly McLean Polly McLean is a freelance translator from the French, whose recent credits include This is Not the End of the Book by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière, and the Goncourt-winning The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi. She won the 2010 Scott Moncrieff prize for her translation of Laurent Quintreau’s Gross Margin. She is also a co-founder of crowd-funding organisation The Funding Network. Wiliam Owen Roberts Wiliam Owen Roberts has worked as a script editor and writer for HTV and is now a freelance writer for television and a novelist. His second book, Y Pla (1987) is set in Wales, the Near-East and Europe in the fourteenth century, and was translated into English by Elisabeth Roberts as Pestilence in 1991. His latest novel, Petrograd (2008), was winner of the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Award and the ITV Wales People’s Choice Award.
Contributor Biographies 59 English PEN works to promote literature and human rights. From defending the rights of persecuted writers to promoting literature in translation and running writing workshops in schools, English PEN seeks to advocate literature as a means of intercultural understanding, promoting the friendly co- operation of writers and free exchange of ideas.
English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme works to increase access to writing from around the world by developing audiences and infrastructure for international literature in translation. We currently promote between 6-8 translated books a year through the Writers in Translation grants scheme and events programme. Our aim is to celebrate books of outstanding literary value, dedication to free speech and intercultural understanding.
English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme is supported by Bloomberg.
60 English PEN www.englishpen.org Free Word 61 The Free Word Centre is an international centre for literature, literacy and free expression. It aims to push boundaries to promote, protect and democratise the power of the written and spoken word for creative and free expression. It brings together organisations across literature, literacy and free expression to enhance their work and the profile of their sectors.
The Free Word Centre is a national resource, with strong links to associates and partners throughout the UK and internationally. The centre, in its landmark building in Farringdon Road, provides attractive office space and venues for public events, including a hall, lecture theatre with screening facilities, meeting rooms and a café.
Free Word is supported by Arts Council England, London and the Freedom of Speech Foundation, whose parent company, Fritt Ord, is based in Norway.
60 English PEN www.freewordonline.com Free Word 61 Copyright 2011 © English PEN and Free Word under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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You may be interested in the following: The Girona Manifesto on Linguistic Rights, PEN International www.internationalpen.org.uk Bibliodiversity, Publishing & Globalisation www.bibliodiversity.org
Acknowledgements
English PEN and Free Word would like to thank all essay contributors and participants at both International Translation Day and the Literary Translation Centre. We’d also like to thank the following partners and sponsors for their support: Bloomberg, Dalkey Archive Press, The London Book Fair’s Literary Translation Centre and all its partner organisations: Arts Council England, British Centre for Literary Translation, British Council, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Literature Across Frontiers, the Translators Association and Words without Borders.
The following people also played an integral role in producing this report: Brett Biedscheid, Ollie Brook, Rachel Buchanan, Emma Cleave, Stephen Escritt, Shreela Ghosh, Kate Griffin, Daniel Hahn, Jonathan Heawood, Sophie Hoult, Martin Riker and Mazin Saleem.
54 Acknowledgements