Thursday, September 14, 2006

Which country is preferrable for literary translators?

My impression is that translators are recognised to a greater extent in Norway than they are in the UK. What I mean by that is that people realise translators exist, which is a step in the right direction, although a lot of the attention they get is presumably the usual:

'look, I found a mistake made by the translator, look, there, MISTAKE'. I guess it's easy to overloook the rest of the text, where you didn't spot any notable errors, and which you may even have enjoyed; the author writes so well, in such a rich and descriptive language. But then the stupid translator went and interfered with the reading experience. Some people even claim that some translators are bitter, and that they express this through sarcasm. That's simply not true.

I guess we can thank Oversetteraksjonen 2006 (see link for explanation in English) for the column inches dedicated to translators in Norwegian newspapers this spring and summer. This even means that the issue discussed is more often than not something as vulgar as money. Well, I don't know. Your name on the cover of a book AND money? Whatever next? Wouldn't surprise me if they demanded an indoor swimming pool.

I have a strange habit of reading the Sunday Times on a Sunday, and I have developed a little game for myself for reading the book reviews; I guess whether a book has been translated from another language. I usually use the author's name as a clue, but it's not a simple task in today's world, where not all British authors are called something Smith (though admittedly, that would be confusing too). But I don't have any other clues, so I guess on. It's possible that they are planning to include this information, and even go to the extreme length of naming the translator, one of these days.

As I'm known for my vulgarity anyway, I'm going to mention money (arty, sensitive types may want to skip this brash paragraph). In the UK, The Translators Association, a subsidiary group of the Society of Authors, recommend a minimum price of £70 per 1000 words. Oversetteraksjonen are demanding a minimum fee of NOK 244 per page. It's not a lot, considering that nobody works continuously (it's usually contracts per book, maybe a series of books if you're lucky), and that you have to make your own arrangements for pensions and other things.

If somebody with a head for statistics can work out how the figures relate to each other (considering general salary situations in the two countries), feel free. I got stuck trying to figure out the basis for comparison, as one is quoting per 1000 words and one per page.

My conclusion: if you're a translator, you'd probably prefer to live in Norway (if nothing else, then just because books are actually translated into Norwegian in decent numbers). If you're a publisher, you'd probably prefer the UK, at least with reference to your relationship with translators. They're so insolent in Norway, but over here it's not even likely that you'd have to deal with any of them.

Lastly, I would like to point out that I am not attempting to express that Norwegian translators ought to be grateful, I'll leave that opinion to the publishers. I've never thought it was much of an excuse that other people have worse conditions, there's always somebody suffering worse conditions.

Oversetteraksjonen 2006 has my full support (and they struggle to hold back their tears of gratitude; without my support, the whole campaign would obviously fail).

No comments: