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Going the Other Way: Spanish to English Translation

Although translations from English to Spanish are quite common, going in the other direction is not," writes Lindy Scott, a professor at Whitworth University in  Spokane, Washington, USA. 

Scott is one of the contributing authors to Los Evangélicos: Portraits of Latino Protestantism in the United States (2009, Wipf & Stock Publishers), a compilation of essays by church historians covering Hispanic ministries in various denominations as well as themes of concern within Latino Protestant church life such as acculturation, the role of women and social justice.

 "Our book was first published in Spanish by Ediciones Kairos as Iglesias Peregrinas en busca de identidad: Cuadros del protestantismo latino en los Estados Unidos, and has just come out in English," adds Scott. "Hopefully this will be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Latin America to consider getting a few of their publications into English."

Argentina: Support for Translation

In 2010, Argentina will be the country honored at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and to prepare for this, 

... the Argentinean foreign ministry (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto) has launched a funding programme for translations. The "programa SUR" sets out to support the translation of 100 titles by the time of the Guest of Honour appearance in 2010, for which the government has made available a budget equivalent to 250,000 euros.

Varieties of English

If your editor or translator is stumped by a strange phrase in an English manuscript, perhaps the sites below can be of help. If not, they might  serve to bring some light hearted fun to your day!

• World Wide Words - a site on international English from a British viewpoint
• Opentopia – explains the differences of Indian and English languages and goes into the influences and history along with many links to understand it better.
• Dictionary of Indian English – good place for reference material to check the combination of native Indian with the English influence.
• Center for Applied Linguistics resource page on African American English  - explains dialects and the history of African English and the differences it creates.
• English to Pig Latin Translator – link to actually translate whatever you want into Pig Latin.
• Dunglish – shows the combination of German and English and examples of such.
• Chinglish – hilarious examples of pictures of signs lost in translation
• Spanglish - a compilation of terms that mix English and Spanish languages, with emphasis on computer jargon
• South African English - borrows from Afrikaans, African languages, Malay and Portuguese.

McCulture: On Americans' Resistance to Translations

In the Wilson Quarterly, Aviya Kushner writes about Americans' resistance to publishing translations:

Solid numbers on translated books published in the United States are difficult to come by, but in a 2007 New York Times report on the international book market, writer Jascha Hoffman determined that less than three percent of all books published in the United States in 2004 were translated; 3.54 percent of new adult fiction published in the United States in 2005 was translated.

... Meanwhile, the rest of the world is reading outside the lines, as anyone who walks through a European airport bookstore can attest: Twenty-five percent of books published in Spain in 2004 were translations, according to Hoffman’s study. In Italy the figure was 22 percent, and in South Korea 29 percent. Even China, with four percent, had a higher proportion of translations than the United States.

The world has noticed our resistance to translation. The head of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, caused a furor last fall when he dismissed American literature several days before the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to a Frenchman many Americans had never heard of. “The U.S. is too isolated, too insular,” Engdahl told The Associated Press, explaining why he sees Europe, not the United States, as the center of the literary world. “They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature.” Engdahl stated the case too strongly, but I hear his ­worry—­that the way Americans read is making us ­smaller.

Read the rest of the article here.

For Vernacular Languages

Do you feel the work you carry on in vernacular languages languishes in obscurity, while any item published in English or another lingua franca gains immediate recognition? Perhaps you'll enjoy a satirical dialog on the usefulness of Hindi, published in Roots & Branches, a journal on the value of translations and cultural exchange:

"I’ve tried so hard for your Hindi. I’ve sent it out with cultural delegations, packaged it in rich literary heritage, tied it to political amity, always sending it here and there. I’ve tried to publicize it, encourage it everywhere.

... We have surplus export-quality Hindi stockpiled ... Should I have a ‘sale,’ do whatever to break even?"

Read the English and Hindi versions here.

Anne Frank's Diary for Cambodians

What happens when literature crosses borders, and people from one culture learn what others faced? How do readers feel when they recognize the grief, fears, and joys felt by others in similar circumstances?

The Jewish Journal describes the extraordinary impact of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl on Cambodians who survived genocide. Youk Chhang,  a child survivor and genocide researcher whose organization published the Khmer translation, says:

"If we Cambodians had read her diary a long time ago ... perhaps there could have been a way for us to prevent the Cambodian genocide from happening.”

Anne Frank's message, he adds, remains as potent as ever.

"Genocide continues to happen in the world around us even today,”Youk says. "Her diary can still play an important role in prevention.”

Read more here.

Translating a Dutch Theologian

MLive.com, part of The Grand Rapids Press, describes how "a group of scholars formed the Dutch Reformed Translation Society," to translate theologian Herman Bavinck's 3,000-page work, Reformed Dogmatics. The project took 15 years' time and $130,000. The result: a four-volume translation now available in English.

"They had a dream of bringing this into English -- and that's no small thing," said James Kinney, director of Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group. "We really have to stand in awe of that kind of project. It's an impressive achievement. "There's a sense in which students now have access to really one of the brilliant minds."

Do any of your authors have substantial foreign influence? What writers and theologians in your catalog might inspire this kind of investment?

India: Kuduk Bible Controversy

A translation published by the Bible Society of India is being burned by tribal demonstrators, reports Thaindian News:

Tribals in Jharkhand are up in arms against a recent Kuduk translation of the Bible, which exhorts people to destroy trees and places where they worship. The Bible Society of India has apologised for the translation and has promised to withdraw copies from the market.The Kendriya Sarna Samittee (KSS), an organisation of tribals, has announced it will burn the copies translated into Kuduk - one of the local tribal languages - if they are not withdrawn.

Translating Poetry

Writing for The Japan Times, translator Roger Pulvers describes the process of translating poetry:

In translating from languages that are linguistically unrelated, such as Japanese and English, the key to the "how" lies in the word "re-creation." You don't just translate the words. You absorb the poem and assimilate it in a process that can only be described as "organic." Then, to mix the metaphor, you drag it through a wormhole into another universe, one controlled by the laws of your own language. Actually, this is the wrenching and harrowing process one must follow even when translating from and into two related languages...

Most Endangered Languages

In The Guardian, Peter K. Austin, author of One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered and Lost, introduces his selections for the top 10 endangered languages in the world today:

There are more than 6,900 languages used around the world today, ranging in size from those with hundreds of millions of speakers to those with only one or two. Language experts now estimate that as many as half of the existing languages are endangered, and by the year 2050 they will be extinct. The major reason for this language loss is that communities are switching to larger politically and economically more powerful languages, like English, Spanish, Hindi or Swahili.

Austin then outlines four criteria that influenced his choices: geographical coverage, scientific interest, cultural interest and social impact.