Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
The Adventures of Augie March (Bellow), 90
After Babel (Steiner), 60–61
El águila y la serpiente (Guzmán), 93–94
Alfed A. Knopf (publisher), 93–94
Against All Hope (Nadezhda Mandelstam), 131
American-Hindi Cookbook (Sollid), 167
American Literary Translators Association, 97
“And Even, Even if They Take Away the Stove” (Bialoszewski), 239, 241
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal, 119
author-translator relationship:
authorship question in the case of folktales, 143–54; Berman on, 70; and complicity, 77–78; Freely on, 118–26; and intellectual property rights, 73–77; Kaplan on, 67–81; marriages and friendships, 77–78; negotiations among author, translator, and editor, 76–77, 121–22; and politics, 123–26; role of personal connections in choice of texts, 87, 118–19; translation fiascos, 68–73; translator as author’s protector, 124–26; Weinberger on, 26, 28
Avec Staline dans le Kremlin (Bazhanov), 131
Berssenbrugge, Mei-mei, 109
Best Translated Book Award, 104n41
Bible translations, 13, 14, 15. See also Old Testament
“Birthday” (Szymborska), 242
Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, 209–10
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), 34–35, 172
Bryant, William Cullen, 90
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), 170
Cecilia Valdés (Villaverde), 84
Celentano, Adriano, 33, 37
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand, 77–78
Center for Inter-American Relations, 97–98
Chinese literature, 18, 19
civil rights movement, 19
Coplas por la muerte de su padre (Manrique), 87
court cases. See intellectual property rights
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), 34
Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (Ortíz), 95–96
de Hostos, Eugenio María, 85
De Institutione Musica (Boethius), 209
Delebecque, Frédéric, 74–75
Devil’s Dictionary (Bierce), 45
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Rosa), 98
Diario de Hepatitis (Aira), 111–12
Don Segundo Sombra (Güiraldes), 95
Los dramas de Nueva York (Rivera y Rio), 86
Durastanti, Sylvie, 64–65
The Eagle and the Serpent (Guzmán), 93–94
Éditions Gallimard (publisher), 79–80
Éditions Payot (publisher), 74
Éloge de la trabison (Durastanti), 64–65
English, August (Chatterjee), 37
English language: “anglogibberish,” 33; choice of English-language form for translation of archaic poetry, 188–207; choice of English-speaking audience for translations from Hindi, 156–68; English-language speakers’ familiarity with French, 35, 37; imported words, 42; as lingua franca, xv–xvi, xviii; ubiquity of, xv–xvi, 32–33
“Epigram against Stalin” (Mandelstam), 127–42
“Essay on Translated Verse” (Earl of Roscommon), 7
ethics, xvii; Aristotle and, 8; Cole on, 3–16; and complicity between authors and translators, 77–78; ethical violations, 8–9; Hellenistic and Hebraic view, 8; and honesty, 14; and loss inherent in translation, 11–12; and politics, 9; and preservation of “foreign-soundingness,” 31, 70–71; and purpose of translation, 4, 8; responsibilities of translators, 6, 7, 11–12, 59, 123–26; and role of falseness and the fictional in translation, 13–15; and sympathy, 7–9; traits of ethical translators, 8; transcendental aspect of, 12–13
Everyday Stalinism (Fitzpatrick), 137
Explosion in a Cathedral (Carpentier), 98
Firmat, Gustavo Pérez, 91
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 79, 174–81, 184. See also The Great Gatsby
folktales, authorship question, 143–54
“foreign-soundingness” of translations, 31–43; Chaplin’s Generic Immigrant Romance, 33–34, 36; d’Alembert on, 31–32; Derrida example, 38–39; and different English-speaking audiences for translations from Hindi, 157–59; and ethics, 31, 70–71; and Kaplan’s French Lessons, 69–70; 19th-century conventions, 34–35; parts left in the original language, 31–32, 34–35, 157–58, 161; and reader’s prior knowledge of original language, 35, 37, 39–40; Schleiermacher on, 36–37
France: legal status of translations, 73–75; publishing industry, 63–64. See also French language and literature
Francis of Assisi, St., 192, 193
French language and literature: and English-language speakers, 35, 37; and “foreign-soundingness,” 31–32, 35, 37–39; influence of translations on U.S. poetry, 109; Kaplan’s experiences with translation of French Lessons, 68–73; Kaplan’s translations of Grenier’s works, 78–79; meaning of traduction, 44; Sieburth’s translation of Scève’s Délie, 209–21; 16th-century French translations of Italian works, 40. See also specific authors
French Lessons (Kaplan), 68–73
Gallimard (publisher), 79–80
García Márquez, Gabriel, 97, 98
Gender in Translation (Simon), 153
German language and literature: and “foreign-soundingness,” 35–37; German translations of Greek, French, and English works, 40; German translations of Shakespeare, 225–27; translation boom at the turn of the 19th century, 18–19; translations as foundation for German Romanticism, 225–26
The Girl with the Golden Parasol (Prakash), 157–67
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, xvii, 76
Google translation service, 100
Grande Sertão: Veredas (Rosa), 98
The Great Fire (Hazzard), 223
Guzmán, Martín Luis, 93–94
The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Murakami), 186
Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words (Rubin), 185
Les Hauts du Hurle-Vent (Brontë translation), 73–75
Herder, Johann Gottfried, 19
Hindi language and literature, xviii; and authorship question in the case of folktales, 144–45; choice of English-speaking audience for translations from, 156–68; and “foreign-soundingness,” 39–40; Hindi literature curriculum in schools, 159–60
Hispanic American Historical Review, 93
history of translation: attempts to defend or improve “small” languages through translations, 40–41; and authorship question in the case of folktales, 146–49; and educated English speakers’ knowledge of French phrases, 35, 37; historically significant translations, 76; and ideology of fluency and transparency in Anglo-American tradition, 61; influence of foreign works on English authors, 110; Japanese translations, 52–53, 183–84; Latin American literature translated in New York City, 83–104; and national purposes, 41; 19th-century conventions for preserving common phrases in the original language, 34–35; and religious texts, 60–61; 16th-century French translations of Italian works, 40; translation booms, 17–21, 96–99; and U.S.’s “good neighbor” policy, 93, 96; and words imported into target language, 42
Hofstadter, Douglas, 58–59
Hollander, Robert and Jean, xiii
Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 110
Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca, 88–89
House of Mist (Bombal), 92
How to Be French (Weil), 64
Hughes, Serge and Elizabeth, 197–99
Hurd and Houghton (publisher), 83
India, 19, 156–68. See also Hindi language and literature; Rajasthani language and literature; Sanskrit language and literature
intellectual property rights, 73–77; and authorship question in the case of folktales, 144–54
Italian language and literature: Dante’s Commedia, xiii–xv; earliest poems, 192; and “foreign-soundingness,” 37; 16th-century French translations of Italian works, 40; translations of Jacopone da Todi’s poetry, 191–207
Japanese language and literature, 53–56; Murakami and the culture of translation, 183–86; Murakami’s translation of The Great Gatsby, 169–82, 185–96; printing and The Tale of Genji, 52–53; words for and meanings of translation, 45–47, 55; writing systems, 55, 183
King Lear (Shakespeare), 32
Knopf, Blanche and Alfred, 94
languages: attempts to defend or improve “small” languages through translations, 40–41; and forms of writing, 53–55; language change, and need for new translations, 170–71. See also “foreign-soundingness” of translations; translation, issues in; word choice; specific languages and literatures
Latin American literature, 20, 83–104; and Bly’s leaping poetry, 107–8; de Onís’s translations, 91–96; double bind of writers caught between languages, 91; impact of multiculturalism, 20; increasing difficulty of breaking into English, 20, 99; influence on North American poetry, 108–9; low number of translations, 20, 87, 100; Mann’s translations, 83, 87–89; Ogden’s translations, 89–91; Rabassa’s translations, 96–100; Spanish-language works published in New York, 83–84, 91; and translation boom of the 1960s, 20, 96–99; and U.S.’s “good neighbor” policy, 93, 96
Latin language and literature, xiv
Les Lauriers du Lac de Constance (Chaix), 77
Leaping Poetry: An Idea with Poems and Translations (Bly), 107–8
legal status of translations. See intellectual property rights
“Letter to Edith” (Walser), 231–33
Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (Hopkins), 88–89
Life and Works of Horace Mann (Mary Mann), 88
Life: A User’s Manual (Perec), 41
Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants; or Civilization and Barbarism (Sarmiento), 83, 87, 88
Lizardi, José Joaquín, 93
Locos: A Comedy of Gestures (Alfau), 91–92
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 87
The Long Goodbye (Chandler), 172
loss, translation and, xvii–xviii, xxi, 11, 22, 35, 116, 171; and archaic Italian poetry, 187–90, 194, 196, 198; and Polish poetry, 234–44; and Russian poetry, 128
Mandelstam, Nadezhda, 131
marriages between author and translator, 77
The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare), 225–27
The Metamorphosis (Kafka), 34–38
meter. See prosody
Middle East, American view of, 9
The Middle East Under Rome (Sartre), 63
The Museum of Innocence (Pamuk), 117–18
music: jazz, 184; and Sieburth’s translation of Scève’s Délie, 209–21
“Mysticism for Beginners” (Zagajewski), 243–44
Nabokov, Vladimir, 68, 223
National Book Award in Translation, 97, 99
Native American religious texts, 61
“New Year’s Page” (Walser), 227
Obras completas (Martí), 85
One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez), 97, 98, 100
original language, use of in translations. See “foreign-soundingness” of translations
Ortega y Gasset, José, 115
The Other Side; or Notes for the History of the War between Mexico and the United States (ed. Ramsey), 85
Peden, Margaret Sayers, 97
PEN Translation Committee, 97
El Periquillo sarniento (Lizardi), 93
Piano Music for Four Hands (Grenier), 79
Le Pierrot noir (Grenier), 78–79
poetry translations: and Bly’s leaping poetry, 107–8; Cavanagh on, 234–44; and choice of English-language form for translation, 188–207; Gander on, 112–16; and goals of translation, 115–16; Hall’s warning on, 11–12; impulse to translate, 235, 244; influence of translations on U.S. poetry, 108–10; issues in translations of archaic poetry, 187–221; Polish poetry, 234–44; Pound and, 189–91; Sieburth’s translation of Scève’s Délie, 209–21; time required for, 6; translations of Jacopone da Todi’s poetry, 191–207; translator’s need for knowledge of the literature of the translation language, 23–26; Venuti on, 187–208. See also specific poets
politics, 110; and choice of texts to translate, 9, 97–99, 101; Italian religious politics and Jacopone’s poems, 193–94; and Mandelstam’s “Epigram against Stalin,” 130–42; Turkish politics and translations of Orhan Pamuk’s work, 118–26
Porter, Katherine Anne, 93
Postwar Polish Poetry (Milosz), 238–39
Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni, 140
Qu’est-ce qu’un Français? (Weil), 64
Rajasthani language and literature, 144–45
retranslation, 6, 30, 34, 36, 46, 68, 73–76, 108, 170–71, 199
rhyme, 24–25, 188, 194, 195, 197, 199, 201, 210, 211, 216–19, 232–33, 235–36, 240, 242
Robinson, James Alexander, 93
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 93
Rosenzweig, Franz, 13, 15
Russian language and literature: and “foreign-soundingness,” 35–36; Prieto’s translation of Mandelstam’s “Epigram against Stalin,” 127–42
Sanskrit language and literature, 19
Santa y Seña (López Colomé), 114–15
The Satanic Verses (Rushdie), 28–29
Schlegel, August Wilhelm, 225–27
Septuagint (Torah translation), 23, 60
“She Cried That Night” (Baranczak), 237–38
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 238
Shentalinsky, Vitaly, 127, 142
Shikibu, Murasaki. See The Tale of Genji
Siglo de las luces (Carpentier), 98
Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 26
The Singer of Tales (Lord), 147
Singin’ in the Rain (film), 32
“Song on Porcelain” (Milosz), 239–40
source language, use of in translation. See “foreign-soundingness” of translations
Spanish language and literature: and “foreign-soundingness,” 37; Prieto’s translation of Mandelstam’s “Epigram against Stalin,” 127–42; status of Spanish vs. Latin American literature, 84–85; word choice and location of agency, 111–12. See also Latin American literature
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 39
statistics on number of translations in United States, 99
storywriting, and folktales, 145–54
Summers, Lawrence H., xvi
syntax, 230. See also word choice
Tales of the Alhambra (Irving), 84
Things Fall Apart (Achebe), 37
300th Military Intelligence Brigade, 29–30
translation, act of: as betrayal or treason, xviii, 21–22, 60; bridge metaphor, 49–50; complications due to publishing industry practices, 63–64; and computers, xix, 100; ghost metaphor, 50–51, 56; goals of translation, xvi–xvii, 36, 42, 115–16, 198–99, 229–30; impossibility of exact equivalence, 14, 22, 119, 128, 175, 219, 234–44 (see also translation, issues in); need for knowledge of the literature of the target language, 23–26; Philippi on, 48; preparation for, 5, 9; psychology of translating, 4, 7–9, 72–73; purpose of translating, 4, 8, 23–24, 52, 194–95; revision process, 223–33; translation as act of kindness, 171; and translation as scholarship, 62–63; translation as writing practice, 28, 80; and translator as novelist, 173–74. See also specific translators
translation, issues in: annotation, 125, 128, 130–42, 158, 164, 167n2; archaic foreign poetry, 187–88, 209–21; choice of English-speaking audience for translations from Hindi, 156–68; grammatical characteristics of original language, 111–13, 119–20; preservation of “foreign-soundingness,” 31–43; readers’ knowledge of text’s cultural context, 122–23, 130–42, 156–58, 184–85, 187–90; rhyme, 24–25, 188, 194, 195, 197, 199, 201, 210, 211, 216–19, 232–33, 235–36, 240, 242; rhythm, 174–75, 184, 212–13, 226, 229; time, 6, 49, 174, 189–91, 196; voice, syntax, and style, 95, 96, 119, 223, 230–33. See also “foreign-soundingness” of translations; politics; word choice
Translation and Taboo (Robinson), 60–61
translation as a profession: anonymity of translators, 25–28, 59, 92; and computers, 100; dangers to translators, 28–29; double bind for folklorists, 149; double bind of translating, 59, 98, 234; and intellectual property rights, 73–77, 144–54; low status of translators, 59–61; notice reserved for failures, 5–6; pay issues, 26, 27; and tenure, 59; translation as a safe way for 19th- and early 20th-century women to channel intellectual and creative impulses, 92; translation as scholarship, xix–xx, 58–66
Translation Committee of the PEN American Center, 26
translation organizations, 26, 97
translations: choice of texts (see translations, choice of texts); and cultural inferiority complexes, 18–19; historically significant translations, 76; influence on national literatures, xviii, 17–18, 225–26, 235, 238; lack of inevitability of, 100–101; legal protection of, 73–77; misconceptions about, 100; need for retranslations, 6, 30, 170–71; and prevention of terrorist acts, 29–30; as “problematic necessities,” xviii, 17, 21, 30; quality of (see translations, quality of); reading as a translation into one’s own experience and knowledge, 22; and rebellion against social norms, 18–20, 98; statistics on, 99; translation booms, 17–21, 96–99. See also history of translation
translations, choice of texts, 61, 82–101; de Onís’s translations, 91–96; factors influencing choice, 82–83; and increasing difficulty of breaking into English, 99; Mann’s translations, 83, 87–89; Murakami’s translations, 172; Ogden’s translations, 89–91; Rabassa’s translations, 96–100; role of personal connections, 87, 118–19; role of politics, 9, 97–99, 101
translations, quality of: bad translations, 10, 24, 70; and computer-assisted analysis, 95–96; double bind of translating, 59, 98, 234; good translations, 11; need for multiple translations of works, 30, 170–71; translations judged according to criteria of fidelity, 23–24, 59, 95–96, 121, 234, 242; translations judged according to whether they sound as if they had been written in English, 31; and voice, 95
translators: anonymity of, 25–28, 59, 92; and the “art of loss,” 234–44; best mind-set for, 4; character of, 5; double bind of translating, 59, 98, 234; foreign-language academics as, 25; habits of, 5, 223–33; low status of, 59–61; murder of, 12, 28–29; need for knowledge of the literature of the translation language, 23–26; as novelists, 184; organizations for, 26, 97; relationships with authors (see author-translator relationship); responsibilities of, 6, 7, 11–12, 59, 123–26; rights of (see intellectual property rights); traits of ethical translators, 8; traits of good translators, 10, 25, 26, 78, 225, 230; vices of, 8. See also translation, act of; specific translators
The Translator’s Invisibility (Venuti), 61
True Stories (Razgon), 141
Turkish language and literature, 117–26
La última niebla (Bombal), 92
United States: decline in publication of translations due to rise of multiculturalism, 20–21, 99; “good neighbor” policy, 93, 96; impact of 9/11, 21, 29–30; influence of translations on U.S. poetry, 108–10; Latin American literature translated in New York City, 84–104; and terrorism, 29–30; translation booms, 19–21, 96–99; translations into Spanish, 85
The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of Music in English Poetry, 1500–1700 (Hollander), 209
Vialatte, Alexandre, 75–76
Voyage au bout de la nuit (Céline), 77–78
War and Peace (Tolstoy), 49
Watchword (López Colomé), 114–15
Williams, William Carlos, 29
Wishnieff, Harriet. See de Onís, Harriet
women: translation as a safe way for 19th- and early 20th-century women to channel intellectual and creative impulses, 92
word choice, 14, 64–65; and cultural differences, 161–67; dangers of mistranslation, 28–29; and different English-speaking audiences for translations from Hindi, 157–67; and Gatsby’s pet phrase “old sport,” 181–82, 186; input from translator, author, and editor, 95; and location of agency in Spanish, 111–12; and Prieto’s commentary on Mandelstam’s “Epigram against Stalin,” 130–42; and revision process, 223–33; and sound/sense unity, 229–30; and tenses and degrees of evidential investment in Aymara language, 112–13. See also poetry translations; translation, issues in; specific authors and translators
World Trade Center bombing of 1993, 29
writing, material forms of, 53–55
writing, translation as excellent practice for, 28, 80
Wuthering Heights (Brontë), 73–75
Yourcenar, Marguerite, 77