December 17, 2007
Students learn the art and business of literary
translation
kathleen.mcgarvey@rochester.edu
Rhea Lyons ’08, who is majoring in English and Spanish, goes over a manuscript with Chad Post, director of Open Letter, the University’s new publishing house dedicated to international literature.
When Susannah Snider ’08, a Spanish and
comparative literature major, translates a text, rendering Spanish words
into English is only one part of her task.
As an intern with Open Letter, the University’s
new publishing house dedicated to international literature, Snider reads
books in Spanish and writes reader reports for the press to be used in
evaluating what to publish.
While translating an excerpt from the Spanish book ¡Otra Maldita Novella Sobre la Guerra Civil! (Not Another Damned Book about
the Civil War), Snider quickly realized she
would need to deviate from literal translation. There were references in
the book that American readers wouldn’t recognize, such as the civil
war reference in the title, and so Snyder decided to insert the modifier
“Spanish” in her translation of the title.
That was a minor adjustment, but the content of the
book presented trickier issues.
“The book talks about clichés of Spanish
Civil War literature—and it was really hard to get across that those
are clichés,” she says, for an audience unfamiliar with works
the Spanish author assumes readers will know.
“The biggest challenge is trying to get not just
the words but the tone and the style,” Snider continues.
“It’s a balance between faithfulness to the original text and
capturing the tone of the work, because sometimes you sacrifice one for the
other.”
Understanding that balance—and building the
skills necessary to achieve it—is the focus of the College’s
new Certificate in Literary Translation Studies, an interdisciplinary
program for undergraduates. A graduate certificate program and a
master’s degree in literary translation are also in development.
“A group of very dedicated faculty were involved
in getting this off the ground,” Dean of Arts & Sciences Joanna
Olmsted says, noting that the program draws on the interests of people in
departments such as English, modern languages and cultures, and religion
and classics.
Rochester’s program is unique among university
translation programs because of Open Letter. Internships with the press
will provide students hands-on experience in translation publishing.
“This partnership is part of what generates the
excitement of
students and faculty in the program,” Olmsted
says.
And the partnership is off to a running start,
according to Thomas DiPiero, senior associate dean of humanities.
“Chad Post, the director of Open Letter, began working with students
from the day he arrived on campus,” he says.
Through the program students learn not just about
translation but also about their role as translators. “They’re
cultural ambassadors,” says Post. Students’ work with the press
can also help establish connections to publishers, booksellers, authors,
and other translators, relationships that will be valuable for students who
choose to pursue translation professionally.
“That’s something the program can expose
students to that I don’t think is possible at any
other translation program in the country,” Post
says. Students will leave the program with experience both in “the
practice of translation and the business of publishing,” he adds.
To earn the undergraduate certificate, students are
encouraged to participate in an internship with Open Letter or another
international literature press. They also are required to produce a
portfolio of translations and to complete coursework in international
literature, advanced literary studies, translation, language, and the craft
of writing.
The core course for the program, Studies in
Translation, has been taught this fall by John Michael, chair of the
Department of English.
“It’s a hybrid course that combines
theoretical issues with the practice of translation,” he says.
Class members each produce a final translation
project. This semester those projects include translations from Chinese,
Japanese, Bosnian, Spanish, Latin, and Italian.
Translating, those involved in the program say,
involves continually reconciling competing priorities. There’s always
a question at the center of translation, Michael says, one “that you
can’t really answer but instead need to keep negotiating: when
you’re translating, are you trying to present a text that will be
foreign to its readers or to produce a text that will be familiar to
them?”
The question involves both aesthetic and ethical
issues, he explains.
Rhea Lyons ’08, an English and Spanish major, is
pursuing her certificate as a student in Michael’s course and will
intern with Open Letter in the spring.
In the course, she says, students read various
translations of a single text, as well as the original. “It’s
cool to see which problems each translator chooses to tackle,” she
says. “I personally prefer the ones that preserve the metaphors.
“Making an author’s voice available in a
different language is the biggest challenge in translation, I think,”
Lyons adds. But it’s one she relishes.
“You don’t know how much fun translation
is until you do it,” she says.
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