Visiting Libraries

I have already mentioned how much I like the smell of books, but I don't think I've written about the other senses involved in a visit to the library. There are some libraries that are just so stunning that it is hard to believe you are allowed to sit there and partake of the books, the building, and the atmosphere. I certainly would like to visit the libraries pictured here at some point.

In Praise of Nerdiness

On a recent trip to Austria, I attended a reading with two friends and afterwards, we met up with several more of their acquaintances at a bar. It transpired that all six of us around the table were translators. Over drinks, we proceeded to discuss language, authors, translation, the translation industry, translation studies, having inter-lingual relationships, and much more. It was supremely nerdy, but in a great way, and I had a lot of fun.

Sometimes, when I complain about the poor English on signs or in articles or when I enthusiastically mention plans for learning another language, friends tease me for being too much of a dorky linguaphile. Once in awhile, it can be wonderful to hang out with other word nerds, gleefully chatting about all aspects of language and translation.

Translation and the Economy

Lots of translators have mentioned being hit by the downturn in the economy. It makes sense -- if customers are going to cut corners somewhere, they'll often do it by skimping on quality translation (or editing or writing). As it is, many clients grumble about the supposedly high prices that a good translator charges, so this is a good excuse for them to find cheaper translators (often in far-away countries where the costs of living are much lower but where people may not be experienced with the source or target languages).

I rarely do work for agencies, but I am still listed in several agency databases from the early stages of my career, when I did take on such work. For this reason, I have received several emails in recent times from agencies. These messages subtly offer the following message: Times are bad, so lower your prices or you won't get work from us anymore. Agencies don't pay translators that well anyway, and it saddens me to think about all the ways agencies and direct clients are finding ways of not paying translators what they are worth.

Personally, I am not lowering my prices. My services are worth just as much, if not more, as they were a year ago. I hope my colleagues will consider keeping their prices the same, too, so that clients won't start taking us for granted. They get what they pay for and they should be willing to pay well for good translators, financial depression or not.

A Round-Up of Articles

Time for another round-up of articles.

First, an article on apostrophe usage, which three different people sent me this article; that’s how well-known my obsession with apostrophes is!

Next, a piece by Lawrence Venuti, who is always interesting to read.

An article on spelling.

Then an article about translated literature in Sweden.

Finally, here is some interesting reading on the income of literary translators and related issues.

Translators as Readers

I like to think I’m always a fairly close reader, but I’ve noticed over the years that I seem to get more out of a text when I’m translating it. That’s not really surprising, considering how translators have to pay close attention to every aspect of a text in terms of both meaning and form, but it does make me wonder how translators develop such good reading skills and whether this can be taught, and also whether translators might in some situations make better critics than those who don’t work with language in the same way (obviously, some writers, too, may be good critics, but there are plenty of people who write book reviews but do not seem to have much writing or translating experience themselves).

Tim Ferriss on Learning Languages

Someone keeps recommending Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek to me, but I just haven’t had time for it yet (maybe I should outsource the reading to someone else!). I have, however, had some time to look at his blog. Some of his posts on learning languages are pretty interesting.

Check out his advice this post on learning any language in three months, and this one on learning languages in an hour, and finally this post on reactivating previously known languages. What do you think of his advice?

A Translator’s Diary

Erik Andersson’s published diary, called Översättarens anmärkningar, from his work doing a new translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to Swedish in 2002-2005 reveals his concerns and thoughts about a variety of topics regarding Tolkien’s classic text. It is very interesting to read about Mr. Andersson’s experiences translating this book. Some entries, all he writes is how many words he translated that day, or he discusses the physical pain that can come from sitting by your computer all day, but most of the time, he explores the challenges involved in crafting a fresh translation of a well-known text.

Some of his most interesting passages are in reference to names. Tolkien clearly spent a lot of time choosing the names, and other features of the text, and he even wrote a list of instructions for his translators. Also, Mr. Andersson had the additional complication that there was an already existing translation of the book, including the names, and Tolkien fans had strong opinions about what should be retained in the new translation and why. Mr. Andersson explains the problem of translating names as follows:

Tolkien has had certain ideas for the names, but he wouldn’t choose a name that didn’t have euphony. From the euphonic, one can always rationalise to the meaning, but the question is whether the process can go in reverse. Can I go from the meaning and rationalise to the euphony? (Here are all translation problems in a nutshell.) (20-1, my translation)

I think Mr. Andersson’s book offers a lot of insight into the translation process and thus would be of interest to translators themselves, Tolkien enthusiasts, and others who would like to learn about what it means to translate literature. As of now, it’s only in Swedish, but perhaps it will be translated, and maybe the translator of Mr. Andersson’s work will write an accompanying book about the challenges of translating Översättarens anmärkningar.

Babylon Websites

Last year, I was asked to try out the Babylon dictionary and translation services. I always feel a bit guilty when I am invited to review something and then don't like it as much as I had hoped I would.

The dictionary provides quite a bit of information for each word, though only a couple of translations (to Irish and Welsh for each of the words I chose -- not quite the most useful languages). And the translation software didn't work at all from English to Swedish in my experience. It kept offering me translations to a Cyrillic language for some reason. Spanish, Norwegian, and Danish worked somewhat better, especially the Spanish.

In sum, I'd say the dictionary is pretty good for language-learners while the translation software definitely needs improvement.

Grammar Mistakes

Unfortunately, there are many common grammar and usage errors in English. This BBC article explores twenty such errors, while Paul Brians' book and website list many more.

What are your particular grammar and usage peeves? Personally, I strongly dislike the incorrect usage of apostrophes and I also don't like when "a lot" is written as one word. But there are many more that annoy me -- and I see them very often in my line of work.

The Five Things Tag

Erika Dreifus tagged me on 23 December and I actually wrote this up right away, but since I had other posts planned, it is a month later that I am posting this.

What were you doing five years ago (December 2003)?

1. Living in Helsingborg, Sweden.
2. Trying to adjust to life in Sweden, even after having already spent 2.5 years there.
3.Teaching English at a variety of schools around southern Sweden, and thus spending a lot of time commuting.
4. Translating, editing, and writing (much like I do today).
5. Working towards an MFA in fiction.

What were five things on your list for today?

1. Finish a book review.
2. Write a draft of an article based on some of my research.
3. Try to get rid of my terrible back pain.
4. Attempt to find the holiday presents I had hidden and then forgot where I hid them!
5. Get organized for my trip to Chicago to visit my family (as I post this, I am now back from said trip!).

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Dark chocolate.
2. My grandmother’s noodle kugel and cookies (which I have now enjoyed in Chicago!).
3. Matzoh spread with peanut butter or sunflower seed butter.
4. Plantain chips.
5. Fruit, especially bananas and apples.

What are five things you'd do if you were a billionaire?

1. Charity would be the number one way I’d spend the money, with a particular emphasis on charities related to education/literacy, to medical research, and to providing food, clean water, and a source of livelihoods to people.
2. I would want to make sure my relatives and friends had enough money for living expenses, education, and other necessities, as well as for some special treats.
3. I’d travel more, including more frequent trips to visit relatives. My trips would also include lots of time spent at museums and at interesting restaurants.
4. I’d like to have one permanent house/apartment that I’d do up very nicely, with a wonderful kitchen where I could happily cook and bake and also a library with lots of lovely books.
5. Like Erika, I’ve long fantasized about starting a publishing company. In my case, I’d like one that focused on literary translations to English. While running it, I’d also continue my own translation work, as well as my research, writing, and editing. So having money would not necessarily buy me time!

What are five jobs you've had?

1. Translator, writer, and editor (okay, so I’ve had these same jobs for a long time!).
2. Acquisitions editor at a publishing company (although I got paid minimum wage for that!).
3. Teaching a writing workshop at a senior citizens’ home.
4. Tutor in Latin and math.
5. One summer I worked as a temp while also studying and that included work at a candy exhibition. The smell of sugar was truly sickening after a few hours.

Who are five people you want to tag?

1. Eric Dickens.
2. Andrew Shields.
3. Ola Wikander. (And now with a blog in English, too!)
4. Simon Ager.
5. Chad Post.

A Site for Word Nerds

I'm an admitted linguaphile (or a word nerd, as some of my friends so very politely term me), so I enjoy this site, where I can indulge my frequent desire for unusual new words.

Translation Goals for 2009

This is Brave New Words' 300th post and since it almost coincides with the new year, I thought I'd use it to write about my translatorial goals for 2009.

First on my list is finishing my Ph.D. in translation studies. If all goes well, I'll be Dr. B.J. by the autumn.

Related to that, I want to keep working on my translation-based research. It is really fascinating to see how literary texts are modified in translation and why. I also think it is essential for translators and translation researchers to have more contact and I hope to use some of my research to bridge the gap between the practioners and the theorists.

Finally, I also hope to continue to get really interesting translation projects. One thing I love about translation is that I learn something new with each assignment. An additional benefit especially for literary translation work is the pleasure it gives me to know I am helping a talented author get a wider audience.

What are your goals for your translation practice in 2009? Whatever they are, I wish you a wonderful year, full of exciting projects!

Language-Sharing Programs

Has anyone tried out internet sites for language learning, in which users share their knowledge with one another? Let’s say your native language is French and you want to learn Russian; on such a site, you can find someone whose native tongue is Russian and who wants to learn French. You two can work together online, exchanging your knowledge. My university actually has a program like this and recently I’ve heard about Palabea, a site with users from 190 countries. I’ve looked at Palabea, but I am not sure if I think such sites can work so well; just because someone has a particular native language doesn’t mean that s/he knows how to teach the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to another person. I might try it out at some point, anyway, so I’d be glad to hear what experience others have with language-sharing programs.

Wild Words from the Voice of America

Someone from Voice of America contacted me to suggest I might be interested in a new blog by one of VOA’s reporters, Ted Landphair. This blog is about various places Mr. Landphair has visited and it features a section entitled Wild Words, where he explains some of the unusual terms he comes across. I’d never heard of “burley” before and I liked the phrase “red-headed stepchild.”

A Round-Up of Articles

As usual, several of the articles I’ve found interesting are from the NY Times. The first is on the publishing industry.

The next is on computer translation.

Another piece is about bailing out the writers.

I also enjoyed an article on teaching literature.

Finally, a piece about the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness. This article mentions an early novel by Laxness, which is now out in a “vigorous translation” to English, whatever that means.

A Site for Learning Indo-European Languages

This is a great resource: a website for learning Indo-European languages. I’ve already started looking at some of the courses offered there and I can imagine I’ll spend more time on the site in the future.

More Metaphors for Translation/Translators

In the last post, I mentioned Susan Bassnett’s Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. She includes some analysis of translation metaphors, which is a topic I am interested in. She writes that studying metaphors translators use about their work is an important part of translation studies today. Here are some of the ones Professor Bassnett mentions:

“[C]lusters of metaphors used by translators reflect their thinking about the role and status of translation in their own time. Predictable metaphors relating to rhetoric in general include following in footsteps, changing clothing, discovering treasure or alchemical transfer, and these metaphors also show a certain degree of ambiguity towards the source text, with the status of the text in its source system being significant in determining the attitude and strategies of the translator as well as the right of the target culture to possess it.” (146)

The translator as a servant was a popular metaphor through 19th century. (147)

Augusto de Campos uses the metaphor of the transfusion of blood. “Translation is for him a physical process, it is a devouring of the source text, a transmutation process, an act of vampirization.” (155)

“The images of translation as cannibalism, as vampirism, whereby the translator sucks out the blood of the source text to strengthen the target text, as transfusion of blood that endows the receiver with new life, can all be seen as radical metaphors that spring from post-modernist post-colonial translation theory.” (155)

Comparative Literature Has Had its Day?

I was reading Susan Bassnett’s Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction and noticed that her chapter on translation studies is a good basic introduction to the field, though it focuses primarily on recent times and trends. She argues that “[c]omparative literature as a discipline has had its day…We should look upon translation studies as the principal discipline from now on, with comparative literature as a valued but subsidiary subject area.” (161) What do you think about that?

Nobel Lecture by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

You can read or watch the Nobel lecture by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, this year’s Nobel Prize winner in literature, online. There is also a lot of other interesting material on the Nobel Prize website.

Favorite Translation/Language Blogs

I've long kept a list of blogs on this site, but I thought I'd call your attention to it now, as the days are getting darker and people just want to stay inside with a warm drink and some good reading material. This is not a complete list, of course, just a few of my favorite, frequently updated blogs on translation and language.

Three Percent

Beyond Words

Language Log

David Crystal's Blog

Language Hat

Omniglot

From Our Lips

Web Translations

Life In Translation

Translating is an Art

Masked Translator

About Translation

Separated by a Common Language

Ur språkens tunnlar (in Swedish)

Another Round-Up

A short NPR news segment looks at translation and interviews three translators.

This article is on the future of books and publishing.

Here is an essay on bilingualism.

And just for fun, from the same site, an essay on procrastination. Warning: this might keep you from your work!

A Reference Website

This reference website doesn't include the Scandinavian languages, but it does have Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Korean, and other languages. You type in a word in Dictionarist's search engine and it then gives you the translation to all those languages and you can also hear the word pronounced. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer the pronunciation of the translations, but this feature could be useful for English-language learners.

Podcast on Translation

I haven't listened to this yet, but I have been informed about a new podcast on translation.

Astonishing!

A few weeks ago, I was reading Voltaire’s Candide (in translation) and I came across the following lines in Chapter 18:

Cacambo translated the King’s witticisms for Candide, to whom they seemed witty even in translation. Of all the things that astonished Candide, this was by no means the least astonishing.

In other words, Voltaire seems to be suggesting that the idea that humor could be translated is astonishing. Many things on Candide’s adventures are indeed astonishing, but good translations, in my opinion, should be viewed as achievable in the hands of good translators, not shocking.

The Smell of Books

I can’t be the only bibliophile to love the smells of books and of libraries. Leather, a hint of dust or mustiness, ink, even pipe tobacco. Mmmm.

So for my birthday a few weeks ago, I was very pleased to receive an amazing perfume called In the Library. This is one of many unusual scents created by Christopher Brosius. I recommend it for all book-lovers!

Residency Program for Translators

I learned about a residency program at Banff International Literary Translation Centre.

The Banff International Literary Translation Centre is open to literary translators from Canada, Mexico, and the United States translating from any language, and to international translators working on literature from the Americas.

The annual BILTC residency program has places for 15 translators. Since the inaugural program in 2003, the program has hosted translators from 21 countries, translating work involving 31 languages.

Applicants must have published at least one book-length literary translation (or equivalent) and participants are selected on the basis of material submitted to the Advisory Council. Eligible projects include translations of works of fiction, literary essays and biography, poetry, oral tradition, children’s literature, and drama.

Priority is given to projects that have signed publishing contracts.

Call for Submissions for Translation Award

I received word of the following award:

Northern California Book Awards-Translation Award

Dear Friends:

The Center for the Art of Translation is co-sponsoring the Northern
California Book Award in Translation for the best translation by a Northern
California translator. The deadline for nominations is quickly approaching
so please send in any suggestions for the award.

We are gathering books that may be qualified for the translation award and
ask for your assistance in identifying book-length translations from any
language into English (primarily fiction and poetry, though some non-fiction
will be considered) published by Northern California translators in 2008.
For clarification, Northern California is here defined as Fresno and north
to the Oregon border; the publisher does not have to be from Northern
California, but the translator must currently reside there. This award is
co-sponsored by the Northern California Book Reviewers (formerly Bay Area
Book Reviewers Association/BABRA) and PEN West Translation Committee.

Sponsors of the Northern California Book Awards (with categories in fiction,
non-fiction, poetry, children's literature, and translation) include the
Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, and the San Francisco
Public Library. This year's NCBA ceremony will be held at the San Francisco
Main Library in April 2008.

DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2008

(If the book is due out later in December, we still need all the information
in advance of the deadline.)

For all suggestions, please include the author's name, the translator's
name, the publisher, the original language, and the title of the book, and
send the information to:

Olivia Sears: osears@catranslation.org

You can also write to us at:

Center for the Art of Translation
Attn: NCBA Translation Award
35 Stillman Street, Suite 201
San Francisco, CA 94107
tel: (415) 512-8812
fax: (415) 512-8824

We look forward to hearing from you,

Olivia E. Sears & Barbara Paschke

Center for the Art of Translation
web: www.catranslation.org

The Center for the Art of Translation is a non-profit organization that
promotes international literature and translation through programs in the
arts, education, and community outreach

Our postal address is
35 Stillman Street
Suite 201
San Francisco, California 94107
United States

Our website is www.catranslation.org.

Cultural References in Translation

How obvious do you have to make cultural references in translation? Recently, I was reading an English translation of a novel by a Japanese author. I caught phrases such as “going to a Japanese teahouse” and “X, the Japanese god of…” and so on. In other words, the translation gives more information than the original and emphasizes the “Japaneseness” of the text (I assume this anyway, since I can’t read Japanese, but I doubt a Japanese work would need to explain Japanese concepts for Japanese readers). Do you think literary translations should have added explanations (non-fiction translations require different strategies, as we know)?

Article Round-Up

Time for another article round-up!

The first article is on the growing strength of Latin courses. As someone who studied Latin (and even attended the Latin School of Chicago!), I was happy to read that.

Next is a piece on text analysis and the use of words.

The article on preserving the Arapaho language also has an accompanying video.

Speaking of videos, I also liked this brief one featuring physicist Murray Gell-Mann talking about languages.

This review made me want to read of Roy Blount Jr.’s new book The Alphabet Juice.

Penultimately, here is an article on on urban fiction, or “street lit”.

And finally, the piece on translation and the U.S. This article includes quotes such as the following:

It is a commonly held assumption that Americans don’t like to read authors who write in languages they don’t understand. That belief persists here in Frankfurt, where publishers from 100 countries show off a smorgasbord of their best — or at least best-selling — books.
By and large, the American publishers spend most of the week in Hall 8, the enormous exhibit space where English-language publishers hold court.
…
“When you look at how much is paid for a mediocre midlist author” in the United States, he said, “and how much you have to pay to get a world-class author who has been translated into 18 languages, it is ridiculous that more people don’t invest in buying great literature.” Mr. Godine said he had purchased the rights to a foreign book for as little as $2,000.

Conference on Subtitling

I saw this announcement for a conference on subtitling and thought some of you would be interested:

Languages & The Media
7th International Conference on Languages in the Audio Visual Media

www.languages-media.com

**************************************************
Quality Audiovisual Media for All

// Quality standards of subtitling and translation are high on the agenda of this year's Languages and The Media conference //

Berlin, Germany. The conference programme of Languages and The Media has been finalised. The 7th International Conference and Exhibition on Language Transfer in the Audiovisual Media will take place from October 29th - 31st at Berlin's Hotel InterContinental.

Bringing together delegates from more than 20 countries, the conference will contribute to the international debate on inclusion and universal access to mass media on a global scale.

The event focuses on the translation and transfer of language in films and on television, as well as in interactive media such as computer games and the Internet. Experts from the fields of media, translation and academia from all over the world discuss current developments in the media industry and exchange their expertise.

The conference programme offers insight into quality standards of translation, synchronisation and subtitling. Further topics are the localisation of content, as well as the effect of new tools and future technologies on the transfer of language, like machine translation and speech-recognition captioning.

Localisation refers to the process of adapting digital content to culture, locale and linguistic environments at a high quality. Carmen Mangiron, who is one of the localisers of the Final Fantasy series into Spanish, will show how language barriers in video games can be overcome through audiovisual translations and editing techniques.

Subtitling and audio description enable the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as the blind or partially sighted audiences to access media. Bernd Benecke from Bayerischer Rundfunk - Germany's only full-time editor for audio description - will offer insight into this rare discipline in a pre-conference workshop.

The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition, showcasing vendors and manufacturers of language technology products and providers of language services.

Further information: www.languages-media.com

LANGUAGES & THE MEDIA
7th International Conference & Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media
October 29 - 31, 2008, Hotel InterContinental Berlin

Participation fees: 400 Euro, students 190 Euros
Organiser: ICWE GmbH, Leibnizstr. 32, 10625 Berlin, Germany
Contact: Ms Astrid Mendoza, Tel: +49 (0)30 310 18 18-0
info@languages-media.com, www.languages-media.com

The Best Translations?

The Society of Authors has posted a list of the 50 best translations to English from the last 50 years. In a way, the list represents the usual suspects. It’s perhaps not surprising that many of the books reflect the few foreign books English-speaking readers have actually heard of. What do you think?

Ethical Concerns, Or, Being Plagiarized

Ethics are important in every job. In our field, our customers rely on us to be the experts, especially as they may not have the knowledge to check over our work. It is up to us to make sure we translate the words correctly, edit the text multiple times, and so on. Doing something incorrectly or sloppily can cause a lot of damage for our clients.

So I can’t help but wonder what it means for their clients when a translation company plagiarizes and doesn’t seem to be overly concerned about ethical and legal behavior. It could very well imply that said company doesn’t have good oversight and that they don’t care about doing things the right way. That’s bad news for the company’s clients.

A few weeks ago, I was made aware that a British translation company called Merlin Translations (I won’t link to them, so as not to give them additional traffic) was plagiarizing me. They post this blog on their website so that it looks like they themselves do all the work of researching and crafting these posts.

I emailed them. A manager claimed not to have been paying attention to what an employee was doing. That suggests a clear and worrisome lack of supervision that shouldn’t exist in any company, including a translation company. I said that either they could credit me for each post they used or else they must remove all my content from their site. Not only have they made no improvements to the situation, but they also have continued to post the content from Brave New Words.

I’m a person who works hard at what I do. I take my work as a translator, writer, and editor very seriously. I also enjoy making knowledge about translation more widely available via this blog. So it is disappointing and upsetting to me personally when I am being plagiarized in this way. But on a bigger scale, the fact that a company that provides services to clients would use unethical means to try to make themselves look better (that is, increasing the material on their website by plagiarizing others) is disturbing indeed.

Another Call for Submissions

TWO LINES Call for Submissions

TWO LINES World Writing in Translation is currently accepting submissions for its sixteenth volume, guest edited by award-winning translators MARGARET JULL COSTA and MARILYN HACKER.

DEADLINE: October 31, 2008.

TWO LINES World Writing in Translation publishes original translations into English of writing from any literary genre. Translations from any language will be considered, and works from outside Europe are especially sought.

- Previously unpublished work only.

- The translator cannot also be the author of the piece unless it is a co-translation.

- We generally publish one to four poems from a single submission, but we will read up to a maximum of ten pages.

- The average prose submission is about 2500 words, but we do publish shorter and longer pieces (1000-4000 words). Short stories are preferable to novel excerpts. However, novel excerpts will be considered if thoughtfully excerpted to stand as independent pieces (to the extent possible).

- In order to be considered, submissions must include a brief introduction (400-500 words) with information about the original author, the background of the piece, and unique issues that the translation process presented.

- All submissions must include a copy of the original text.

- Translators are expected to acquire copyright permission for all work not in the public domain.

Electronic submissions are preferred, but hardcopy submissions are also accepted. For electronic submissions, please save your documents as RTF (Rich Text Format). If you would like your materials returned, please send an appropriately-sized SASE.

Send submissions to submissions@catranslation.org or to the postal address below.

TWO LINES
35 Stillman Street, Suite 201
San Francisco, CA 94107

We highly encourage everyone who submits to TWO LINES to read a copy before submitting.

Translators will be notified of editorial decisions by February 1, 2009.

We offer a complimentary copy of TWO LINES to translators and living authors whose work is chosen for publication as well as a nominal honorarium.


ABOUT THE EDITORS

Lauded for her translations of Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's novels of the last decade, including SEEING, MARGARET JULL COSTA has also brought the work of Fernando Pessoa into English, for which she received the Portuguese Translation Prize. Costa also translates from Spanish, her work with novelist Javier Marias having garnered an International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Instituto Cervantes Translation Prize. This year Costa was awarded both the PEN Translation Prize and the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her translation of THE MAIAS by Eca de Queiroz. Described by Jose Saramago as "the greatest book by Portugal's greatest novelist," THE MAIAS first appeared in excerpt in TWO LINES World Writing in Translation.

Distinguished with the first ever Robert Fagles Translation Prize, MARILYN HACKER has published numerous volumes of her translations of poets Venus Khoury-Ghata, Claire Malroux, Emmanuel Moses, Guy Goffette, and Marie Etienne from French, several of which have appeared in previous volumes of TWO LINES World Writing in Translation. Also the author of twelve books of poetry, most recently ESSAYS ON DEPARTURE and DESESPERANTO, Hacker has been a recipient of the National Book Award, two Lambda Literary Awards, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hacker's numerous honors include the Bernard F. Conners Prize from the Paris Review, the John Masefield Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, and a Guggenheim fellowship.

Call for Submissions: Translations from Spanish

I saw the following call for translations in Erika Dreifus’ excellent newsletter:

Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories Wanted for New Anthology from W.W. Norton. "We seek translations from the Spanish of short-short stories from Latin America. The stories may be previously published, preferably within the last ten years, or unpublished, and should be between 500 and 1750 words long. Any topic or style, traditional or experimental - we are looking simply for the best recent stories from Latin America in this length. Our past anthologies, such as Sudden Fiction International, have included some of the world's most well known writers, and some yet to be known. If there's a great story that's just a little outside our time period or length limits, we'll consider it - but the odds of acceptance are much
better if it's within. The pay is not great but the company of writers will be excellent. Projected fee: $150 total to include both translator and author. Deadline: December 1, 2008." For more information, see the announcement on the
ALTA Calls for Submissions page,
http://www.utdallas.edu/alta/publications/calls.html

The Nobel Prize

Once again, it's time for the Nobel Prize in literature.

The secretary of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, recently got himself into some trouble with his comments about American literature. If you can read Swedish, check out this article. And if not, here is one in English.

Basically, Engdahl criticized American literature and suggested that not much good is coming out of the U.S., literature-wise at least, now (also implying that American writers better not hope for a Nobel any time soon!). What do you think? Is American literature more insular than that of other countries? Do any Americans deserve a Nobel Prize for their writing?

This year's winner is Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.

Opinions?

New Journal

Some of you may be interested in learning about a new academic journal, called Translation Studies.

A Debate on Children’s Literature

On September 16, at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, there was an interesting panel debate on children’s literature. The participants were Lotta Olsson, who reviews books for Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest newspaper; the author Ulf Stark; Karin Salmson, the publisher of Vilda, a publishing company that only puts out books that are politically correct; Jan Hansson, the head of the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books; Kristin Hallberg, who teaches children’s literature; Dag Henried, the publisher of Alfabeta; and Johan Unenge, an author and illustrator. The debate was led by Lillemor Torstensson, who also works at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books.

Earlier this year, Dagens Nyheter criticized Vilda for the way it marks books as though they were organic or free-range products and for the ideology that runs through them. This set off something of a debate in the Swedish media and among Swedish children’s authors and illustrators of children’s books. So the debate on the 16th focused on art versus ideology, commercialism, and what children’s books are instruments of/for.

Kristin Hallberg felt that children’s books “create a meeting” between text/author and reader. She said they shouldn’t have morals or points or be used for a specific purpose. Others agreed that it should be about the story and if the story happens to teach or comfort or do anything else, that’s fine, too. Obviously, Karin Salmson thought differently. She felt that it was important to have books with gender equality, race quality, etc. Some participants, including some audience members who spoke, agreed that it was important for all children to feel they were “reflected” in books (i.e. that there were books about people like them), but that marking books or having requirements for books might be going a bit far. Then the issue of whether ideology affects quality was raised, but no final points were made regarding this.

Another topic that came up was Dagens Nyheter’s recent list of the 100 most important children’s books. About 1/3 of the books were by Swedish writers, mostly modern ones, and the rest of the books were primarily classics from the western world. Some felt that it was strange that so few Swedish books were on it, while others felt that too many were. Others thought older Swedish books and more modern foreign books were ignored. My own annoyance with the list came from the fact that for foreign books that had been translated to Swedish more than once (which is often the case for classics, such as Alice in Wonderland), the newspaper simply wrote “multiple translations available”. As we translators know, translations can vary wildly in quality, and therefore I think it is important that if one recommends a book in translation, one also recommends which translation is best.

It was an interesting evening and I hope there will be future debates on children’s literature, both in Sweden and elsewhere. Over 100 people were in the audience and it was great to see how many people are actively engaged in and concerned about the field of children’s literature.

IBBY Conference

In early September, I attended the IBBY conference in Copenhagen. To be honest, I was disappointed by this conference, though on paper it sounded really interesting (not to mention the fact that the social events, such as dinner at Tivoli and a buffet at Copenhagen’s city hall, were fun).

IBBY is the International Board on Books for Young People, with chapters in 72 countries. Every two years, it has a large conference, at which there are many presentations, and the H.C. Andersen Prize is awarded to one living author and one living illustrator (this year, Queen Margrethe of Denmark gave the prizes to the winners, Swiss author Jürg Schubiger and Italian illustrator Roberto Innocenti), and the IBBY Honour List of good books and translations for children is announced, and the IBBY-Asahi Awards for reading promotion are presented (this year to Editions Bakame of Rwanda and Action with Lao Children). Incidentally, regarding the H.C. Andersen award nominees, as I was reading through the detailed list, which was given in Bookbird magazine, I was surprised, and a little frustrated, to see that a not insignificant number of writers felt that writing for children was easier than writing for adults. I would definitely disagree with that.

One of the keynote speeches was by a Norwegian woman (note: not a Jewish Norwegian) who wrote children's books based on her own experience as a Norwegian child during the German invasion in Norway in WW2 and another keynote speech was by a Danish writer, who had published children's books based on her mother's experiences during the war (her mother was Jewish and left Hungary for Denmark, but the author herself was baptized and raised Lutheran). Another speaker, who presented children’s books on the Holocaust, was criticized for not discussing Palestinians, even though that was not her area of expertise and there was not enough time to discuss every possible issue. Also, there was a keynote speaker who discussed Palestinian children’s books. So something that made the conference leave a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak, was that quite a few people complained about all this attention being paid to Jews at the conference. That an academic conference – especially one on children’s literature, which should be a field that is open and accepting – is expected to be politically correct is not news to me, but it is disappointing.

The next post will discuss more on ideology and children’s literature.

A Lovely Tree

Not long ago, I read Ett Träd Med Vida Grenar: De Indoeuropeiska Språkens Historia by Ola Wikander. In case you don’t know Swedish, the title is A Tree with Wide Branches: A History of the Indoeuropean Languages. And in fact, the only problem with this book is that as of now, it’s only in Swedish. I hope it will be available to readers in other countries soon, as it is quite interesting.

Mr. Wikander is a young Ph.D. student and translator in Sweden who is already the author of several books on “dead” languages, as well as co-author, with his father, of a novel. In this book, he discusses the science of reconstructing what is called proto-Indoeuropean (PIE), or the language from which stem all the Indoeuropean languages, including Swedish, English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Romanian, and many more. The purpose of this field, as he thoroughly explains in his book, is not just to reconstruct this language for the fun of it (although he includes some examples of writing people have attempted to do in PIE in modern times), but is in part to understand the cultures and languages that have helped shape Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.

Mr. Wikander is a talented writer who manages at times to make this science seem like a mystery, in that it is exciting to learn about how the reconstruction work is done and how Indoeuropeanists can use the reconstructed vocabulary, and other evidence, such as archaeology, come to conclusions about where those who spoke PIE lived (probably the south Russian steppes) and what their culture was like.

If you can read Swedish, I recommend this book and also Mr. Wikander’s blog. If not, you’ll have to wait for a translation!

Speaking of Punctuation…

Well, after reading Alfie the Apostrophe, I was in the mood for more punctuation. So I was glad Erika Dreifus sent me this article.

And further speaking of punctuation, what punctuation mark are you? I’m a colon! Take this silly quiz to find out.

Here’s what the quiz says about me and all the other colons out there:

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon