#namethetranslator

[yilinwriter]

Five Ways of Translating Li Qingzhao’s Poem《蝶恋花 – 晚止昌乐馆寄姊妹》❋ Yilin Wang + Vivian Li

The source text. 蝶恋花 晚止昌乐馆寄姊妹 泪湿罗衣脂粉满，四叠阳关，唱到千千遍。人道山长山又断，萧萧微雨闻孤馆。惜别伤离方寸乱，忘了临行，酒盏深和浅。好把音书凭过雁，东莱不似蓬莱远。     A “literal” explanation and transla

I have some new co-translations of Li Qingzhao's poetry out in Glyphoria, a publication created by Metatron.

Living in the Song dynasty, Li Qingzhao was China's most celebrated female poet. The poem I translated is my favourite poem of hers and touches on female friendship and sisterhood.

[womenintranslation]

Time Out for Translator Advocacy! The gentle art of asking for a translator shout-out….Happy to report that the translator’s name has been added!

[womenintranslation]

Why a ‘Strange and Nerdy’ Book About Eels Is Making Waves

Patrik Svensson mixed natural history with memoir for his debut, which has become a surprise best seller and award winner in his native Sweden.

#namethetranslator, NYTimes!

We had to go to the UK publisher’s website to find any trace of translator Agnes Broomé: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/patrik-svensson/the-gospel-of-the-eels/9781529030716

[womenintranslation]

The Broken Chandelier

Coda (8.16.2020)

One big focus in this post is on what’s missing in the translator contract between Magdalena Edwards and New Directions. Read this as a cautionary tale. Plenty of gigs in literary translation come through your friendship network. But if things go off the rails, you’re on your own. Make sure you have a contract that protects you. Have your contract vetted by a lawyer. If you join the Author’s Guild a contract review by a lawyer is a membership benefit. At the very least, look at A Translator’s Checklist for Negotiating Contracts, presented at the 2016 ALTA Conference.  —Margaret

Original post dated 8.21.2019

The translator Twitterverse exploded last Friday after the Los Angeles Review of Books published Magdalena Edwards' incendiary article about a translation gone awry, "Benjamin Moser and the Smallest Woman in the World." An insider's account of her experiences working with Benjamin Moser and New Directions as the translator of Clarice Lispector's The Chandelier, Edwards' narrative paints a grim picture of what would otherwise seem like a stellar project—to work on a previously untranslated novel by an internationally renowned writer, as part of a well-received series put out by a prestigious publisher. As Edwards relates it, a cordial long-distance acquaintance formed with series editor Benjamin Moser over their shared interest in Lispector, Elizabeth Bishop, and translation was a prelude to being asked to take on the project in 2015. Things quickly turned sour, however, after Edwards sent her draft translation to Moser in the summer of 2017. "The truth is that Moser tried to get me fired, arguing that my completed manuscript was not up to snuff, that my level of Portuguese was insufficient, and that he would have to rewrite every line of my translation. What happened?" she asks, drawing us into the messy tale that follows.

Her account is a rare instance of a translator parting the curtains to reveal behind-the-scenes dealings with an editor and a publisher over a contested translation. While Edwards goes on to make a larger argument against Moser, giving instances of his borrowing from the work of others, almost all women, without giving credit, I'm especially attuned to the "wrongs" of this particular translation project and wondered what conditions made such a situation possible. Based on Edwards' account and my own reading between the lines, I understand the following: Yes, there was a contract, and it was strictly between the translator and New Directions. No, it had no provisions setting the terms of the working relationship between the translator and the outside series editor, who appears to have been given carte blanche in overseeing the series. No, there were apparently no revisions made to the contract to reflect the fact that the outside series editor (Moser), not the publisher (New Directions), would deem the manuscript acceptable or not. No, there were apparently no specific provisions about what an acceptable translation would be, giving the publisher, or rather, in this exceptional case, the outside series editor, lots of wriggle room. Barbara Epler of New Directions seems to have deferred to Moser's judgment in offering Edwards a "kill fee" i.e., thank you for your trouble, good-bye. But before offering the kill fee—something not in the contract and improvised by the publisher as a way out— did Epler ask Moser for some justification? Was any outside reader asked to look over the translation and weigh in? Or was it simply a matter of Moser's word and his steamrolling vision of how Lispector had to read in English?

After experiencing typical translator shame ("I was flustered and apologetic") after Moser trashed her translation and Epler sent her an email with the offer of the kill fee, Edwards wisely consulted a lawyer and began to push back hard against the steamroll.

So yes, there's a legal side to this, and Edwards’ informed resistance most likely kept her from being completely erased on the title page upon the book’s publication. In the end, Edwards was credited as “co-translator,” with Moser’s name first (they’re not even in alphabetical order). I see it as a perverse kind of credit, a non-thanks for her work, to be joined there with the person who wanted her kicked off the project.

Pure speculation: if Edwards had agreed to such an absurdity as a kill fee, what would have happened next? Would Moser have in truth retranslated every line of the original, starting from scratch? Or would he have leaned on Edwards' existing translation? The second half of Edwards' article makes the latter seem plausible.

If there was any doubt about Moser’s overstepping his role as editor, consider the bio-note he submitted to the New York Times to run with his review of Kate Briggs’ This Little Art. Since his takedown review attracted unusual interest among translators, many noticed that he’d given himself full credit for translating The Chandelier and hastened to alert the New York Times via Twitter, myself among them. (The Times quickly corrected it, as Edwards notes).

By way of comparison, I recall another multi-volume project that involved several translators working under a series editor to translate a single author: the massive retranslation of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu/In Search of Lost Time. In her "Note on the Translation,” Lydia Davis, who retranslated Swann’s Way, depicts a radically different working atmosphere for the crew of Proust translators:

“At the initial meeting of the Penguin Classics project, those present had acknowledged that a degree of heterogeneity across the volumes was inevitable and perhaps even desirable, and that philosophical differences would exist among the translators. As they proceeded, therefore, the translators worked fairly independently, and decided for themselves how close their translations should be to the original—how many liberties, for instance, might be taken with the sanctity of Proust's long sentences. And Christopher Prendergast [the series editor], as he reviewed all the translations, kept his editorial hand relatively light.” (emphasis mine) Swann’s Way, xxi-xxii.

It’s true that no two translation series are alike, and for sure no two editors are alike, but as a translator it was profoundly disturbing to read Edwards’ account. In a brave move, she stopped being a “nice girl” going along with the flow and stood up to the bully in this scathing public indictment. One wonders if there will be any response.

—Margaret Carson

[womenintranslation]

The trigger was a review of one of those miraculously self-translated novels. You know the kind. They appear in English apparently by themselves, and are quoted as 'what the author wrote' as if he or she didn’t write them in Arabic or French, and as if there wasn’t a translator who gave a year of his or her life on those words 'the author wrote'.

Michele A. Berdy, “If I Were Queen of Translation Reviews,” The Moscow Times (Aug. 14, 2019).

[womenintranslation]

Yoko Ogawa Conjures Spirits in Hiding: ‘I Just Peeked Into Their World and Took Notes’

The Japanese writer, inspired by Anne Frank’s diary, sought to “recompose” that experience for her new book “The Memory Police,” a dystopian novel about surveillance and erasure.

NB: although we celebrate the attention this book is getting, we have since learned—thanks to information shared at the Aug. 22 PEN WiT event in NYC—that this book is problematic from the translator's standpoint. First, because translator Stephen Snyder's name isn't on the cover; second, because the author holds the copyright for the translator’s English-language work. 

[josedemariaromerobarea]

Juan Ignacio Guijarro selecciona diez voces pioneras de la poesía afroamericana en Revista Quimera, verano de 2024

“¿Qué hago soñando aquí, a resguardo en mi hogar, / Cuando vivos y heridos yacen allí, en el barro, bajo la lluvia?“ “Sentarse y coser” (“I

“¿Pero de qué #raza soy yo?/ Soy de #muchas en una sola“ #JosephSeamonCotter #JuanIgnacioGuijarro de @FFilologiaUS #selecciona #diez #autores #afroamericanos Mi #traducción en @QuimeraRevista #FelizMiércoles @martacamnu @gemis46 @masleer @FernandoClemot

[josedemariaromerobarea]

27/10/2023: participo en las IV Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura, Traducción y Género (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

Un honor haber sido invitado a participar en las IV Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura, Traducción y Género de la Universidad Pablo de O

“Leales #traiciones actos de #creación al #traducir #poesía #norteamericana” #Participo en #IVJornadas #Internacionales #Literatura #Traducción #Género #Universidad @pablodeolavide #Sevilla #FelizDomingo @martacamnu @AlveaAna @gemis46 @masleer @PacoToskano