The PEN Translation Fund Awards (I know, I know, more awards -- but if ever there was a good reason for awards...this is it!) were handed out last week and I'm ever-so-curious to check out the works in translation -- many of which are new to me. I'm also over the moon that the translators are getting the nods...not just the writers of the works they translated. An occupational hazard, I realize (and one that fascinates me endlessly...this sort of ghostwriting, but not really, but sort of; i would like to write a novel in which two characters - a writer and his translator - wrestle with this relationship for many difficult and hilarious pages; i am guessing it might only be hilarious to me...) but it's good to see props given out where due. Many of the translated works haven't yet found publishers and perhaps the attention will make this a non-issue in rather short order.
Here are the works that you'll be able to get your hands on soonish:
- Susan Bernofsky's translation from the German of Robert Walser's The Assistant -- Due out in July, this book chronicles the life of a penniless young man who becomes an inventor's assistant - a job that requires him to live with his employer in a spectacular villa. Hilarity, melancholy and self-examination ensues. Must. Order. Now.
- Katherine Silver's translation from the Spanish of Horacio Castellanos Moya's Senselessness. A friend of a friend who completely respect read this in the original Spanish and said this book is quite serious, quite intense and very bold. "Such ambition!" were her exact words. Forthcoming from New Directions. When oh when oh when?
- Bill Porter's translation from the classical Chinese of Wei Ying-wu's anthology of poems. Ying-wu is one of the only T'ang Dynasty poets to remain untranslated in English. Forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press.
Here are the works that still need a home:
- Jennifer Hayashida's translation from the Swedish of Fredrik Nyberg's Clockwork and Flowers: Explanations and Poems. "Fine, delicate, and exact renderings of poems that simultaneously invoke Carl Linnaeus, the “Father of Taxonomy,” and the anarchic spirit of punk rock." - PEN
- Wen Huang's translation from the Chinese of Yang Xianhui's collection of short stories Farewell to Jiabiangou. "Combining the passionate realism of fiction with the political outrage of journalism, these stories recount in devastating detail the experiences of intellectuals and former government officials shipped to Jiabiangou, a gulag in the desert region of northwestern China." - PEN
- Ha-yun Jung's translation from the Korean of Shin Kyong-sook's A Lone Room -- Which "vividly evokes the life of an intellectually ambitious young girl struggling to survive as a sweatshop worker in the 1970s." - PEN
- Sara Khaili's translation from the Farsi of Shahriar Mandanipour's collection of short stories Season of Purgatory. "As if the ghosts from the Arabian Nights had come to life among freeways, high-rises and fiber-optic networks, these stories embody the fierce clash of modernity and traditionalism in Iran today." - PEN
- Paul Olchváry's translation from the Hungarian of Ferenc Barnás The Ninth. "The story of the nine-year-old ninth child of a poor Catholic family in the Communist Hungary of the 1960s, the novel was hailed by critics as portraying “the unmistakable, throat- and gut-wrenching quality of distress that everyone remembers from his or her own childhood...” - PEN
- Christopher Southward's translation from the Japanese of Hitonari Tsuji's short story collection Acacia. "Tsuji has been awarded the Prix Femina Etranger (1999) and the Akutagawa Prize (1997) for his writing, and the International Critics Prize at the 56th Venice International Film Festival for one of his films. This is the first English translation of any portion of his extensive body of work." - PEN
- Alyson Waters' translation from the French of Egyptian writer Albert Cossery's The Colors of Infamy. "This short, densely baroque novel echoes the meandering streets and wild variety of Cairo itself, and has been praised for its “characteristic blend of Olympian detachment and fine-grained moral inspection.” - PEN
Ah, yes. I see a trend emerging, don't you? Translated works that still need homes! It is here that I begin to get grand visions of using my dot-com baggage for good (because all that skate-boarding around the office and spending loads of non-existent money should mean something after all) by setting up an angel investor network -- partnering translated works with potential publishers. The ugly term for this: middleman. Or: middle-gal. But the end result would be decidedly beautiful -- works we are unable to read otherwise. But alas, that is what the PEN Grants are all about. Let us cross our fingers...
I'll continue to track these titles down and report back as they find (please, please, please) homes.
