Translate These!

[Mirabell]

I started to make a list of German books/writers who deserve to be translated into ENglish what with all the dross that IS translated, would be nice if a few writers made it who are, y'know, good.

Posted Part 1 today

Translatables! (Part 1) shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/translatables-part-1/)



with

Hartmut Lange's Das Konzert
Reinhard Jirgl's Abschied von den Feinden
Patrick Roth's Christus Trilogie
and Thomas Stangl's Was KOmmt.


There is a short summary, and a few links to each of the books.


I have no idea if anyone gives a flying fuck, but Bj?rn told me to go ahead with it so here I am.

Second part, dead/classical writers is due tomorrow or the day after that.

[Mirabell]

Posted Part 2 today

Translatables! (Part 2) shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/translatables-part-2/)



The books are

Hans Henny Jahnn, Perrudja
Rudolf Borchardt, Jamben
Christoph Martin Wieland, Geschichte des Agathon
Alfred D?blin, Berge, Meere und Giganten

[Eric]

What you ought to do, Mirabell, is send word of the Shigekuni reviews of the eight books you think ought to be translated to Chad Post at Open Letter, as mentioned on another thread. He might take umbrage that you have dismissed a forthcoming novel by Andreas Maier as "mediocre", but might value some tips.

Your efforts to spread the word about worthwhile German literature that ought to be translated into English are commendable. But you have to contact concrete publishers and translators, not just send out a Shigekuni message in a bottle in the hope that some publisher might regard your advice as sound. Here on the WLF, your efforts are, to an extent, pearls before swine, as few if any of us here would have the capability of translating or publishing such books. But you could advise Dalkey, Open Letter, Dedalus and those publishing houses that are serious about translated literature.

What would be interesting to know is how many of the authors and works you mention are translated into other languages. French and English are not the only languages that count. Most people here laugh at Estonian as a literary language into which things are translated, but seven stories by Jahnn were translated into that language back in 1969 (!). Jahnn's translator Aina Kaalep quotes Hans Erich Nossack as saying that had Jahnn been born centuries earlier he would have ended up burnt at the stake and that if our era didn't do the same, it was only because they have found a more effective method: totschweigen.

Exile Estonian critic Ivar Ivask mentioned that Borchart was "one of the most interesting poet-critics". Jirgl will be appearing at the international festival in Berlin next year, which might give him international visibility, even in English.

For me personally, the D?blin, Jahnn and Roth books look particularly interesting, though the first of these is a little breathless, by your account.

For the Roth, you would need a particularly sensitive and educated translator. I can see immediately that there would be a need to make clear to an English-reading audience that he is playing with language registers, as when you say:



Roth manages to call up two very different registers: he writes in a very archaic kind of German, meant to imitate Lutheran tone and voice, and at the same time, in a very clear and modern kind of German. Miraculously, this really works, and envelops the reader in a linguistic tapestry that seems biblical, and yet filled with an easy, glittering suspense.

[e joseph]

Interesting list; thanks for posting. The Jahnn and Doblin books sound particularly appealing.

As for the message in the bottle approach, I'd say you've armed everyone fairly well should any of us choose to make publishers more aware of the suggestions. Perhaps it might mean even more should some of us that don't read in German express an interest in English translations.

Sorta related, any novels that are translated into English that are unjustly ingnored in your opinion?

[Mirabell]

Sorta related, any novels that are translated into English that are unjustly ingnored in your opinion?


sure........

[Stiffelio]

What you ought to do, Mirabell, is send word of the Shigekuni reviews of the eight books you think ought to be translated to Chad Post at Open Letter, as mentioned on another thread. He might take umbrage that you have dismissed a forthcoming novel by Andreas Maier as "mediocre", but might value some tips.

Your efforts to spread the word about worthwhile German literature that ought to be translated into English are commendable. But you have to contact concrete publishers and translators, not just send out a Shigekuni message in a bottle in the hope that some publisher might regard your advice as sound. Here on the WLF, your efforts are, to an extent, pearls before swine, as few if any of us here would have the capability of translating or publishing such books. But you could advise Dalkey, Open Letter, Dedalus and those publishing houses that are serious about translated literature.

What would be interesting to know is how many of the authors and works you mention are translated into other languages. French and English are not the only languages that count.

I concur in full. Word must be carried to the powers that be in the translating/publishing word and not only for the English language. Are any of the eight mentioned writers published in French, Italian or Spanish?

[Mirabell]

I concur in full. Word must be carried to the powers that be in the translating/publishing word and not only for the English language. Are any of the eight mentioned writers published in French, Italian or Spanish?


I didn't check Spanish or Italian, but where I found French versions, I entered them under the "additional links" below.

[Daniel del Real]

and Thomas Stangl's Was KOmmt.


He was here in Guadalajara a month ago with a few other Austrian writers. There is one short story of him translated into Spanish that comes in an anthology titled New Young Austrian writers or something like that. They gave the book for free. Haven't read it, but I'll let you know when I finish.

[Mirabell]

Oooh yes, do. I find it hard to imagine how his style would work in the short form.