Is a Translator’s Name That Scary?
/by Mark L. Levinson
A recent column in The New York Times, by Pamela Paul, says there’s no good justification for omitting the translator’s name from the cover of a translated book. See? I mentioned the columnist’s name just now, and you probably never heard of her, but it didn’t stop you from reading further. So is a translator’s name so much bigger an obstacle?
And by the way, if you want to read the article, click here. If you click and the site tells you that you have to subscribe, or sign up, then that’s what I’d call an obstacle.
But back to the issue at hand. Of course if anything deters the reader, it’s not the name of the translator. It’s the very indication that the book is a translation. Whoa, this book is not written by someone who shares my background. It may refer to a lot of stuff I don’t know about. Or care about. It may be written in awkward English, because that’s what comes out when thoughts that weren’t thought in English are written in English. It may measure distance in versts. The names of the characters and places may be impossible to remember.
Pamela Paul doesn’t deny that books translated into English are a harder sell than books in native English. But she does say “The rest of the culture doesn’t operate this way,” pointing out that some foreign TV programming does okay in the English-speaking world and that readers of English aren’t so xenophobic as to shrink from writers with names like Kazuo Ishiguro. Still, I suspect she knows that those successes are more the exception than the rule.
Her primary argument is that translators are skilled and hard-working and deserve the credit. She also appeals to political correctness by saying that “It’s about encouraging English speakers to acknowledge and embrace a global culture.”
How is that supposed to happen? Paul cites Jennifer Croft, who translated Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk from Ukrainian, as announcing that next time if her name won’t be on the cover, she won’t be translating. And together with novelist Mark Haddon, she started a petition. Paul believes that better visibility for translators can also lead to better pay.
I’m reminded of the time the Israel Translators Association was advised that it can’t discuss pay rates even internally. It’s a funny thing, someone remarked. If we were salaried employees, the government would say yes, by all means, unionize and press your noble case. But because we’re self-employed, the government says no, by no means, you must not cartelize and press your extortionate demands.
What do you think? Is a credit on the cover too much for a translator to ask? Would it really mean fewer sales of the book, and is that a price that the publisher should pay if so? Please use the space below for responses. And thanks to Eitan Greenberg for raising the issue.
