Saturday, April 3, 2021
Who should translate Amanda Gorman's work? - The Gazette - Translation
Aron Aji, a literary translator and professor at the University of Iowa, runs a Facebook group called Literary Translation with more than 4,300 members from 99 countries. For the most part, the group is an active, amiable one where linguaphiles help one another with translator minutia. A post, for instance, asking for the English equivalent of the French word “banlieusard” yielded 177 responses. (There was no real consensus, but suggestions included “the hood,” “projects” and “ghetto.”)
But events last month sent the Facebook group — and the little known, underappreciated world of literary translation — into commotion, resulting in heated exchanges about issues of race and equity in the business.
It stemmed from news regarding the commissioned translations of Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb.” After the young Black poet recited her stirring poem at President Biden’s inauguration in January, the rights were picked up by Penguin Random House, and the poem is set to be translated into more than a dozen languages.
In March, news broke that two of Gorman’s selected translators would no longer be working on the project. The Dutch translator, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, stepped aside after critics questioned why someone with an identity closer to Gorman’s was not selected. Shortly after, Gorman’s Catalan translator, Victor Obiols, was informed his completed translation would not be used, because, as a White man, he “was not suitable to translate it,” he told Agence France-Presse.
“The upper echelon of the translation industry or the translation market quickly fixed the problem, right? Pull somebody out, put somebody in,” said Aji, who translates from his native Turkish to English. “They’re already done with this, but we are now churning inside ourselves.”
On his Facebook group, Aji found himself moderating like he never had before. There were 1,600 comments within a week, a handful toxic enough that he removed them. Debates ensued about whether the choice of a translator should be only merit-based or whether identity should play a part. Another thread was about publisher practices and how translators are chosen. Some White translators who have spent their careers translating writers of color into other languages questioned their own pursuits.
“They asked, am I not supposed to be doing this. Am I wrong?” Aji said.
Achy Obejas, a Cuban American translator said that although there are no easy answers, there is also no question that a translator’s identity has an impact on the translation.
A few years ago, she discovered a Spanish translation of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” published by DeBolsillo and bought the $5.99 Kindle version; the word “slave” is translated as “serviente” — “servant.” The N-word is rendered as “Negros” or “blacks.”
“That is major,” said Obejas. “That is not a detail. That is not a minor point.” Moreover, Obejas found that Morrison’s African American vernacular was completely erased in the Spanish translation.
“There’s no possibility of understanding from hearing these characters talk that they’re Black, and this is so essential to any Toni Morrison story,” she said. The book names no translator, but someone who had more familiarity with the Black communities of the Spanish-speaking world may have better preserved Morrison’s voice, Obejas said.
Obejas, who was sought out by the writer Junot Diaz to translate his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2007 novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” said she thinks carefully before taking on a project, assessing first whether she can do the translation authentically.
“You may be utterly fluent in Spanish, you may be a master speaker, you may be a member of the Royal Academy. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean that you can translate a book featuring Peruvian drag queens,” she said.
Diaz, who is Dominican American and of African descent and reads Spanish fluently, said that he liked the Spanish translation of his first book, a story collection, but he knew he wanted a Caribbean translator the second time around for “Oscar Wao.”
“I said, listen, I want a Caribbean. They can be from Jamaica, they can be from Puerto Rico, but it has to be someone who has lived the Caribbean experience,” he said. “An immigrant, all the better, a person of African descent, all the best.”
While working on the book, Obejas listened to Dominican talk radio daily and consulted both Diaz and Dominican friends about specifics. The translation, Diaz said, was a successful one.
A good translation conveys the “untranslateables,” or what is being conveyed without actually being explicitly written, Diaz said. “What I’m always looking for is someone who has the depth that comes from experience.”
Unlike Diaz, most authors have no control over selecting their translators. The rights are sold, and the publisher abroad handles the rest. The writer R.O. Kwon, who is Korean American, said she loves the idea of people closer to her own identity translating her work, though the task of identifying someone might be challenging.
“Finding a translator who is Korean Polish is less likely,” she said. “That said, I love it. Maybe that’s something with the next book I’ll say, just find someone.”
One of the major publishers of translated literature is Amazon Crossing which, since its launch in 2010, has published 400 books by authors from 44 countries writing in 26 languages. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
“It’s always wonderful when the translator has a personal connection to the creative project,” said Gabriella Page-Fort, editorial director at Amazon Crossing. The French-English translator Lara Vergnaud, who was born in Tunisia and raised in the United States, connected with her family roots while translating Yamen Manai’s novel “The Ardent Swarm,” Page-Fort said.
Ilan Stavans, the publisher of Restless Books, a small publishing house that focuses on translating world literature for English-speaking audiences, said translators should be selected based on sensibilities, not their identity.
“In fact, to me that seems to be antithetical to the very approach of translation,” Stavans, himself a translator, said. “Translation is an attempt to bridge beyond identity, beyond cultures, bringing someone, something that is very different from us, into our own ecosystem”
Still, he agreed that it is important to provide opportunities to translators from underrepresented groups.
And the very White landscape of literary translation in America is something that no one can deny. A recent survey by the American Literary Translators Association found that, out of 362 responding members, 73 percent of translators identify as White.
“The reasons for that are structural,” said Elisabeth Jaquette, a translator and the executive director of the association, who pointed to an industry that does not tend to pay well. “White translators who are in positions of privilege can take on unpaid work at the beginning to make a name for themselves.”
This puts heritage speakers — those who might acquire language skills informally through their immigrant parents — and translators of color at a disadvantage.
This gap makes itself apparent in the formal pathways to translation. Since 2015, the MFA in literary translation program at the University of Iowa has offered a diversity fellowship but, in the fellowship’s history, only one student — an Asian American — has availed of the fellowship, even though Aron Aji, who directs the program, advertises the fellowship as widely as he can, including on his Literary Translation Facebook group. This coming fall, an African American student will hold the fellowship for the first time.
In the fall of 2022, Aji and his colleagues also will launch a free-standing bachelor’s program in literary translation at Iowa. Currently, most American universities that offer literary translation at the bachelor’s level do so only through a certificate or a minor.
Aji and his colleagues plan to recruit at high schools across Iowa and beyond, where he says there is an untapped market of future translators — the children of immigrants.
“Many of them are first-generation American students,” Aji said. “They have been serving as amateur translators to their families, taking them to the hospital or doctor or driver’s license exam. Translation is not unknown to them, it comes naturally.”
books-translations
Friday, April 2, 2021
A Word, Please: Shined or shone? Shining a light on tricky past tenses - Los Angeles Times - Dictionary
No matter how long you’ve been speaking English, no matter how hard you’ve worked to perfect your grammar, some past tense verbs can stump you.
For example, the day after you decide to grin and bear it, would you say “I grinned and bore it?” Beared? Born?
That shiny car you saw yesterday, would you say it shined as it drove by? Or it shone?
Would you say you weaved baskets or that you wove them?
The questions are frightening, but luckily the answers aren’t far out of reach. Dictionaries list past-tense and past participle forms for every irregular verb. So you can always look them up — if you know how.
Here are four verbs with tricky past tenses.
Bear. When your verb has homonyms, its dictionary entry can feel like a maze. When you look up “bear,” for example, you have to skim past all the entries for the animal before you see “bear, verb.” Under that verb entry you’ll see “bore / borne also born / bearing.” This is how dictionaries list past forms for irregular verbs: first the simple past tense, then the past participle, then the progressive participle. That past participle is the one that goes with “have,” “has” or “had.” The progressive participle is the “ing” form. Sometimes you’ll see multiple options listed, which means you can choose. So now you can see that yesterday you grinned and bore it. In the past, you have grinned and borne it. If you prefer, you can even say you have grinned and born it.
Bare. Skim past the adjective form of “bare” in your dictionary and at the verb entry you’ll see just “bared; baring.” There’s no past participle — just the simple past tense and the progressive participle. This is the dictionary’s way of telling you that the simple past tense and the past participle are the same. So you would say, “Yesterday, I bared my soul” and “In the past, I have bared my soul.”
Shine. Some verbs are both transitive and intransitive. Transitive means they take an object: “I’ll shine a light on this subject.” Intransitive means no object: “That high-gloss paint really shines.” In these cases, you have to read the dictionary even more carefully because past tenses for each may be different. At the entry for “shine,” Merriam-Webster’s says the simple past tense can be “shone” or “shined.” Both are fine. The past participle can also be “shone” or “shined.” But you have to skim down to the definition for the transitive verb to see this note: “past tense and past participle: shined.” That means “shined” is the only option when your verb takes an object: Yesterday you shined a light on something. In the past you have shined a light. But if your verb doesn’t take an object, you have two options: The car’s paint job shone or shined. In the past, the car’s paint job has shone or shined.
Weave. This verb also has both transitive and intransitive forms, but there’s no note saying their past tenses are different. So just use the past tense forms listed right after the entry word: “wove or weaved; woven or weaved.” That first pair shows your options for the simple past tense. Yesterday I wove a basket. Yesterday I weaved a basket. Yesterday my car wove in traffic. Yesterday my car weaved in traffic. Those are all fine. For the past participle, you could use “have woven” or “have weaved.” But there’s one catch. Merriam’s has a second definition for “weave.” It’s an intransitive verb meaning “to move waveringly from side to side; sway.” Personally, I don’t see how swaying is so different from the zig-zagging your car does when it weaves, so it’s hard to understand why this “weave” has a separate dictionary entry. But for the record, that “weave” has only one option for the past tense or past participle. In every instance, it’s “weaved.”
June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.
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Free 'School Newsletter' Translation Service for Immigrant Mothers Introduced in Seoul - The Korea Bizwire - Translation
Students focus on a worksheet during a beginner-level Mongolian-language class at the Seoul Global Center in central Seoul on Nov. 10, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A new service for immigrant mothers who are struggling with the language barrier translates Korean newsletters that their children bring from school into the mother’s native tongue for free.
The Happiness Foundation, a charity foundation run by South Korean energy and telecom conglomerate SK Group, said Thursday that it is currently receiving applicants through schools and other institutions frequented by multicultural families in Seoul.
Immigrant mothers often struggle with reading school newsletters, which often include information about their children’s homework and other school duties, due to the language barrier.
Consequently, children end up submitting wrong projects or fail to bring necessities to school, resulting in lower grades or even bullying by their peers.
Most government policies on multicultural families focus on immigrant women’s safe settlement in the country, and often fail to assist them in the birth or rearing of a child, as well as education.
The foundation, jointly with social enterprise ODS Multicultural Education Research Institute, tested the new translation service at four elementary schools which resulted in a 40 percent rise in the completion rate of school projects and 30 percent improvement in behavior of once passive multicultural students.
Immigrant mothers with children going to elementary school in South Korea are assumed to have stayed in the country for seven years or longer, many of whom don’t have enough time to study the Korean language due to homemaking.
That’s why this new translation service will be useful, foreign residents say.
The translation service will be introduced in Seoul on Monday.
It currently provides translation services for English, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian speakers. Any other languages with more than five applicants will also be added, the Happiness Foundation said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
QUIZ: Can You Recognize Famous Lines from Literature Translated 20 Times? - Book Riot - Translation
The other day, I found myself where I regret to inform you I end up most nights: scrolling through YouTube endlessly. There, I discovered a Tasty video where a cook attempts to make a recipe that was run through Google Translate 20 times. I enjoyed watching them try to make sense of the word salad (puns!) that resulted, and as always, my mind immediately went to: “How could this be bookish?” Which brings us here! I’ve taken eight lines from famous authors and run them through Google translate 20 times, from English to Catalan to Hebrew to Japanese and so on until I translated the resulting line back to English. I’ve also included two gibberish lines of my own creation to throw you off. Your job is to match the line with the author.
This is just a silly way to spend a few minutes and test your literary knowledge, but it also shows just how difficult a translator’s job is. Translating the literal meaning of a word into another language is only one small part of publishing literature in another language. The connotations of each word have to be considered: a cottage in the forest and a cabin in the woods have an almost identical literal meaning, but the connotations are very different. A cottage in the forest is a cottagecore dream. A cabin in the woods is a horror story waiting to start.
Each language has its own nuances and viewpoint. Some emphasize gender more than others: when translating a fantasy novel into a language which has gendered nouns, how do you decide the gender of each invented object? Languages structure their grammar in different ways, and there may be missing information to make those connections. For example, if a language uses a different word for maternal grandmother versus paternal grandmother, but the English source material doesn’t specify, which decision should the translator make?
These nuances are difficult when translating any text, but literature — and poetry in particular — adds another layer of complexity. Part of the appeal of any book is the author’s unique writing style. How can you properly communicate that in another language? It might involve choosing between communicating all of the literal meaning or effectively mimicking the style. In poetry, every word is carefully chosen, and that includes not only the meaning, but also the syllable count, the rhyme structure, and more. Translators must use their own discretion and artistic skills to create a work that keeps the feeling of the original work, which always involves choices and sacrifices. They are unsung heroes of the literary world!
Try this quiz to test your translation skills and your literary knowledge!
Words to the Wise 1765 dictionary's definitions illuminate the present - Voices of Monterey Bay - Dictionary
The definition of “plague” from 255 years ago. | Photo by John Jett
| FEATURED
By Jeana Jett
Photos by John Jett
A new wave of urgency comes over me as more people are getting vaccinated and we’re on the path to greater freedom: I have not completed the “to-do” list I made in March 2020 when staying at home became the norm for the unforeseeable future. A whole year to get a lot of unglamourous but necessary house-related chores completed, and still a slew of undone tasks.
Purging books on the shelves and in boxes was on the list long before lockdown. There is no excuse for not tackling this seemingly straightforward task before I resume pre-pandemic activities. If I don’t tend to this chore now, I may not get around to it before the next cataclysm.
I breeze through the shelves and set aside the books I may someday re-read: “A Brief History of Time,” “Things Fall Apart,” and “The Dallas Symphony Orchestra Cookbook.” A bag of books for my daughter and grandchildren and a generous box of books for Goodwill. I re-read and re-shelve the book that always makes me cry, Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.”
Then, on to opening a sealed box hauled in from the storage area. From the box I lift something enveloped in yellowed crinkling-with-age plastic wrap. It appears to be an old and fragile book.
Purging books and speeding through the “to-do” list just came to a screeching halt. I am pleasantly distracted by the find. I carefully remove the plastic wrap and reverently open the deteriorating thick leather-bound cover. What I have in my hands is a 3-inch-thick book published in London in the year MDCCLXV.
That would be 1765 A.D.
Unbeknownst to me until now, this 255-year-old book has been in my possession since my mother’s death in 2016. It resided among some other books in a sealed box we did not get around to opening following my mother’s move from Texas to Monterey. My mother probably purchased it when she was out “junking around,” as she called antique shopping. It certainly is not a family heirloom, but it might become one in the future.
The old reference book is entitled:
A New General Englifh Dictionary; Peculiarly calculated for the Use and Improvement Of fuch as are unacquainted with the Learned Languages.
(I won’t delve into the grammar of the era, but the “f- likeness” is really a “s” in Old English.)
And the 1765 Dictionary’s subtitle?
Together with a Supplement of the proper Names of the most noted Kingdoms, Provinces, Cities, Towns, Rivers ETC. throughout the known World.
“Throughout the known World.”
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Now that is a phrase that resonates 255 years later when my “known World” suddenly seems to be very Unknown.
Slowly I leaf through the dictionary, curious to know if I will find definitions that inform the most trending 2020 words. Suspecting that I will not find “pandemic,” “asymptomatic” and “virus” in a 1765 dictionary, I am not surprised.
Being a lover of words, I begin researching synonyms and related words, and how the 1765-ers explained their “known World.” In the 1765 dictionary, here are words and definitions I found.
PLAGUE — Any sort of trouble, vexation, or affliction whatever; but particularly means any general, contagious, and pestilent distemper that affects any particular country, city, ETC. and occasions the inhabitants thereof to die in great numbers, and very speedily.
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EPIDEMIK — In physiks, is sometimes used for a contagious or catching disease, communicable from one to another, such as the plague, pox, ETC. but it is more particularly meant of a general or spreading disorder by means of a contagious or infectious corruption of the air, whereby people are universally affected without communicating with others.
QUARANTINE — A custom observed at Venice, by virtue whereof all merchants, or others, coming from the Levant, are obliged to remain 40 days in the house of St. Lazarus, before they are admitted into the city; but if the passengers bring letters of health, this time is frequently shortened; but without such testimonial, or if the plague happens to be in the place from whence the ship came, then the whole company are obliged to stay the whole time in the house of health, to be purified, though not one of them be sick, and likewise all the cargo, which they fancy capable of infection from the air, ETC. and if any of the quarantineers fall sick of the distemper within the 40 days, the time is doubled. This house is built in the water, and surrounded with a wall, in which there are several apartments; some are shut up, and restrained in their conversation, and those whose time is nearly finished, are not permitted to talk with those who are but just come in: If any person is desirous to see a friend shut up in this Lazaretto, he must stand at some distance; and if any visitor touch a person that is performing quarantine, he must be confined, and stay as long as the director shall please to appoint to be thoroughly purged; all manner of provisions are brought hither from the city, and every person may have his food dressed as he please. In the times of the plague, England and all other nations, oblige those that come from infected places to perform quarantine with their ships, ETC. a longer or shorter time, as may be judged most safe; also the privilege allowed to the widows of landed men, to stay or remain 40 days after their decease in their chief mansion-house or messuage; also the time of Lent, or abstaining from flesh 40 days, according to the church appointment annually.
APOCALYPSE — A discovering or revealing something, particularly applied to the Revelation of St. John: Some have affirmed Cerinthus the heretick to be the author of it; and in the first centuries many churches disowned it to be canonical; but since the fourth century it has been generally received. There are many spurious books under this name, which have had their abbetors, and been affirmed to be wrote, some by St. Peter, others by St. Paul, ETC.
RESILIENT — The quality of leaping up, rebounding, or recoiling backward.
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HOPE — Expectation, trust, affiance in, and dependence upon another; The Ancients represented Hope by a beautiful child in a long robe hanging loose, standing on tip-toes, holding a trefoil in its right hand, and a silver anchor in its left.
I did not expect the 1765ers to concern themselves with what now preoccupies me, that is, how our Democracy will survive.
From the dusty pages of the 1765 dictionary:
DEMOCRACY — A form of government, wherein the supreme authority is in the hands of the people.
How beautifully and reassuringly documented 255 years ago.
DEMOCRACY will guide us through the PLAGUE, EPIDEMIK, QUARANTINE, and the APOCALYPSE, given a healthy dose of RESILIENCE — I HOPE.
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Why Quality Management Is Important in Translations - seattlepi.com - Translation
One of the great aspects of taking your business online is the fact that you have the potential to reach an international audience but you need to reach each customer on a level and in a language that speaks to them. The ability to do business around the world requires translation services that are up to the task.
Keep reading to learn more about why quality management in translations and communications is key to taking your business global and providing stellar customer service no matter where the consumer is from or what language they’re speaking.
Creating an International Brand Name
If you want to reach the masses you need to have a marketing strategy that connects with everyone and that means ensuring you don’t lose anything in translation. Some words, phrases, commercial jingles, and brand names don’t work well for international campaigns because they don’t translate well into other languages.
You’ll want to ensure that nothing will tarnish or hurt your brand when overseeing translation quality assurance for your brand name, website, social media, and product packaging or marketing materials.
Don’t Leave Quality Management to Chance
You don’t want to leave international translations for your site up to third party platforms like Google Translate. While this is a wonderful service it doesn’t always get it right and can lead to miscommunications, lost sales, and even cause harm to your brand.
While translation services for documents or websites are created with quality controls in place to try to provide the most accurate and effective translation service they don’t have the quality assurance that you need to provide the best possible customer service possible.
Quality controls will provide the reader with an accurate translation that is correct but does not take into account the intended meaning. Quality assurance looks at the fine details and makes sure it is not only accurate words but the most effective and the intended message is shared. Check out this article on more about the importance of not only having quality controls but quality assurance as part of your success plan.
Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say
Quality management is not only important but critical when it comes to company policies, contracts, and company communications with customers, contractors, investors and the general public. You don’t want to have legal issues or policies brought into question over inaccurate or unclear translations.
If you don’t have an in-house team to handle quality management then you can always outsource it to experts in the field. There are many freelance and contract translators out there if you want a person to do the physical translations. Your IT department may be a crucial part of your quality management team and be able to provide you with software and programs that can accurately handle all your translation needs.
You’ll want to make sure there are internal quality assurance audits performed by humans and computers to provide the best service and most accurate communications possible.
Your Brand Depends On It
Your brand depends on you developing the best quality management possible for all aspects of your business. This includes ensuring you have quality controls and oversight measures in place to create the best international brand possible.
The right quality management can translate into international success for your business.
Don’t forget to bookmark our site for more articles and tips on living your best life and bringing your business to greater success than you ever imagined.
June Potter wrote this article on behalf of FreeUp. FreeUp is the fastest-growing freelance marketplace in the US. FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of freelance applicants. Click here to get access to the top freelancers in the world.
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