The Rocky Three Percent

[Eric]

Come on, let's get back to the subject of this thread. You could maybe start a new one for people born in Scotland.

My point is, why can't translators get off their arses and get things published? It doesn't require endless effort to hawk your ideas or manuscripts. Why is it so difficult? But why, also, are British publishers so indifferent to European literature, while the Yanks are slowly becoming aware of it?

Why are British cultural institutions so vaccinated against the germ of Europe?

[hdw]

Come on, let's get back to the subject of this thread. You could maybe start a new one for people born in Scotland.

My point is, why can't translators get off their arses and get things published? It doesn't require endless effort to hawk your ideas or manuscripts. Why is it so difficult? But why, also, are British publishers so indifferent to European literature, while the Yanks are slowly becoming aware of it?

Why are British cultural institutions so vaccinated against the germ of Europe?

Some years ago when Per Wästberg commissioned me to translate extracts from his new quartet of novels set partly in Africa, I took it on myself - without his asking me - to hawk them round some likely publishers. I mean British publishers of good standing who published literary fiction. I was lucky if I got as much as a one-line rejection. The owner of one very well-known firm which bears his name sent me a handwritten rejection that was barely legible or coherent. It looked as if he had been drunk when he wrote it.

'Tain't easy.

Harry

[Owen]

Hi, all. Sorry, but I didn't know about this conversation until now. Would have posted earlier otherwise.

It’s the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” or “LDS Church”. “Mormon church” is just a nickname. It isn’t offensive (at least anymore), so no worries. Most of your observations about the church are more or less correct. I’d be happy to respond to any direct questions in that regard, although I like to think it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with my work.

Yes, there are plenty of people who haven’t figured out that translators should translate into their native language. Yes, it’s ridiculous that this is the case. At least two Finnish literary translations were published last year where the translator was not a native English speaker. Both totally bombed, unsurprisingly. Bad news for our business.

I won’t rehash the essay. It was emotionally charged for me, and yeah, there are plenty of things that could have been said differently. I hoped it would be funny, but I’m obviously not a professional comic...

I’ll just add one bit of background to tell you where I was coming from. This is an honest admission, so please don’t tell me how wrong I am. It’s just how I feel, and maybe I’ll feel differently in the future.

My first thought when I read an enjoyable translation is, "I wonder what editor made this good." (An exaggeration, of course. I thought this once specifically, but it keeps nagging at me. Sorry to anyone disappointed in me for not making every word I write be the absolute truth...)

That's totally unfair to the many really excellent translators out there, and I hate that I think it. It’s illogical and prejudiced. I need my editors too. But just like similar things any other jaded professional might say, it’s based on what I’ve seen (and continue to see), a magnification of experiences that aren’t really the norm, but still loom large. I don’t really want to say much more than that—Finnish translation is a very small community. I wrote the essay as if it were a general commentary, but ultimately I wrote it for myself and the exhortations in it are meant first and foremost for me.

If anyone still has specific questions or issues they would like to discuss from the essay, I’d be happy to respond, assuming we can keep it light.

I’ll post another message in a minute about some of the other practical questions raised about Norvik etc.

[Owen]

Maybe this has already been covered sufficiently, but here is a snippet from an email from Neil, who is happily spending his time translating Swedish crime fiction these days:

Norvik Press will now be based entirely within the Department of Scandinavian Studies at University College London, where it will be managed by four directors:
- Dr Claire Thomson (Head of Department; Danish specialism)
- Professor Janet Garton (co-founder of the Press; Norwegian specialism)
- Professor Helena Forsås-Scott (Swedish specialism)
- Dr Sarah Death (editor of Swedish Book Review; Swedish specialism)
The generic email address - norvik.press@ucl.ac.uk - will also be active again shortly, once the post of office manager has been filled.


On other fronts, I know that The Other Press in the US bought the rights to both of Riikka Pulkinen's books. Ilkka Remes commissioned a translation of one of his adult novels to try to pitch to publishers, and the second in his Luke Barron series will be published by Andersen later this year. The first book hasn't gotten much reception and was translated anonymously. I delivered The Human Lot two months ago, and MacLehose is working on copy editing it. That crucible was one of the main proximate causes of the essay (plus a long summer of translating and editing and then going to Frankfurt for the book circus). I'm still editing my Aho translation. It was supposed to be done months ago, but Norvik has pushed back all of their publication dates, so they told me to take my time. In the mean time I translated Leena Lehtolainen's most recent Maria Kallio detective novel, which is currently being offered to publishers. Next up for me is a sort of memoir/novel, The Call of the Sagas, by a sailor, Pekka Piri (he's self-publishing it), a book of children's poetry, and then most likely another crime novel (contract still being negotiated). David Hackston recently had his translation of Johanna Sinisalo's Birdbrain published--really looking forward to getting my hands on that one. David H. has other projects ongoing as well.



All of the Finnish literary translators I have regular contact with have work and to spare, although there are frequent rumblings about remuneration, contract terms (what's a 'royalty'? says the publisher), and editorial processes (mainly the lack thereof).

[Eric]

OK Owen, it's a truce. I did find those Mormons in Hämeenlinna a bit pushy back in 1977, but as you say, religion doesn't affect our work as translators. I'm a Christian but I don't insist that everyone I chat with about literary translation is.

Anyway, as I wasn't saying but you were, people should always translate into their mother tongue when it comes to literature. Even translating for the Americans, something I'm doing now, entails a small element of risk for a Brit like me. One problem is that people from smaller countries learn English to a high standard and then naively believe that you can then bridge what they think is a small gap to fully idiomatic English at native speaker level.

Owing to some recent e-mail correspondence, I am fully aware of the Norvik situation. Good luck to Neil with his crime novels. I have also worked with Christopher MacLehose. Thanks to him, my first Estonian translation, back in 1995, was published with Harvill: "The Conspiracy and Other Stories" by Jaan Kross.

On the contracts and remuneration front, people are beginning to wake up now the digitalisation factor has come into play. The basic problem is that once you have published something on the internet, anyone can steal it, alter it, etc., and you don't get the credit for your work, or the money. This problem has to be addressed. On the one hand, we all want to see our work published, whether on paper or online. On the other, we don't want to be ripped off by greedy middlemen who produce nothing themselves but cream off the profits.