Since we’ve already posted about Weaver today, it only seems appropriate that we should write up

AARON WESTERMAN: What糖心传媒檚 your particular process like and is it ever difficult to separate the way you feel about a piece when you read it from the actual work of translating it for another audience?

ELIZABETH HARRIS: My process of translating is ridiculously slow and perhaps reflects the fact that I don糖心传媒檛 earn my living at translating. Up until only a few years ago, I didn糖心传媒檛 have any deadlines, either, because I糖心传媒檇 chosen the works and had no publishers for them (this was the case with the Rigoni Stern and also with Mozzi糖心传媒檚 This Is the Garden). So I could take my time. And I definitely did. Now I actually have a contract for the Tabucchi and a deadline, but I糖心传媒檓 still very slow. A good workday for me will be an eight-hour session starting at around eight in the morning. I糖心传媒檒l take a look back at what I translated in the previous few days, do some revising of that, and then move on to the new material (this is with a novel; if I糖心传媒檓 translating a story, I糖心传媒檒l start from the beginning of the story before moving on to new work). I might translate two pages or so a day. This is too slow糖心传媒擨 know it. But what I come up with isn糖心传媒檛 rough; it糖心传媒檚 worked and reworked, has gone through numerous drafts. And then, of course, I revise it yet again when I get started the next day, as I ease myself back into the book. Perhaps it would be better to get through a very rough draft糖心传媒攕kip over the tough stuff, just keep going, and then go back. But for me the real pleasure of translating is finding a voice for the work and really laboring over the nuances of the sentences, and creating the piece糖心传媒檚 characters, its imagery, and so on. If I were to rush through in a very rough draft, I just wouldn糖心传媒檛 get the same pleasure out of the work糖心传媒擨 don糖心传媒檛 think I could work that way, and lucky for me, I don糖心传媒檛 have to.

As for the second part of your question about reading the text versus translating it, I think you might be asking if I sometimes read something that I don糖心传媒檛 like but have to translate anyway; the answer, so far, is no. I have had the experience, however, of reading things that have disturbed me and then translating them: disgusting moments in a text, sad passages糖心传媒擨 recently translated the suicide of a character. My goal with these passages is to recreate the upsetting experience that糖心传媒檚 there in the original. Is that upsetting for me? Absolutely. But it糖心传媒檚 exciting, too, and tremendously moving.

Your question has got me thinking about how translators approach reading the original text. I糖心传媒檝e heard some translators say that they don糖心传媒檛 read a work ahead of time; they read it as they translate, perhaps because they find there糖心传媒檚 a freshness to the prose if they糖心传媒檙e discovering it along the way. Other translators read a book carefully ahead of time, take notes, get through to the end so they know how the entire book informs all its parts. I think I might fall somewhere in between. I read the book I糖心传媒檓 going to translate ahead of time, but, honestly, until I糖心传媒檓 translating the book, I糖心传媒檓 not really reading it at all. Let me explain. Some say that translation is the closest form of reading. But the act of translating, of writing a text as you read a text, is much more than reading. It involves going over every last nuance of the original, down to the punctuation. It糖心传媒檚 more like swallowing the book. I don糖心传媒檛 feel that I really know a book until I糖心传媒檓 actually translating it. I might know what happens in the work, the basics of the plot and character, but I only discover the book, its voice, its music, its characters, its meaning, as I糖心传媒檓 creating the book in English.

[. . .]

AARON WESTERMAN: Mozzi糖心传媒檚 writing has been described as 糖心传媒渃risp and straightforward糖心传媒� (Kirkus). Did his particular style and use of language help or hinder the translation process in any way?

ELIZABETH HARRIS: That Kirkus Review quote is something to linger on. The reviewer attributes this 糖心传媒渃risp and straightforward糖心传媒� style to Mozzi. But the collection is in English, and I糖心传媒檓 the one who wrote it in English. So the style isn糖心传媒檛 Mozzi糖心传媒檚. It糖心传媒檚 my interpretation of Mozzi. I took what I found in the Italian and interpreted it, created a style in English. Really, when a reviewer comments on style in a translated book, he or she shouldn糖心传媒檛 just refer to the author; that author has been interpreted and rewritten by a translator, so the 糖心传媒渟tyle糖心传媒� is now the work of two authors: the original writer and the translator. As for your question: Mozzi糖心传媒檚 original style is what made me want to translate the book in the first place. Did his style hinder the translation process? His style was challenging because it was so beautiful and precise, and so I wanted to get it right. I hope I did.

It all started when I asked a simple question on Twitter yesterday. Why in the HELL do the GoodReads Choice Awards not have a category dedicated to allowing users to vote for their favorite literary translation of the year? There are twenty categories. TWENTY. Yet translations are completely ignored. Thus the first ever Typographical Translation Award is born. Lovers of international fiction, this is your chance to be speak up and be heard! You tell us, what was the best translation published in 2013? Here糖心传媒檚 how it works:

I糖心传媒檝e started the ball rolling by officially nominating 20 titles that appeared in English translation in the United States for the first time in 2013. Some of these we糖心传媒檝e reviewed on the site, others we have not. While no list can ever be all encompassing, I糖心传媒檝e done my best to select quality works spanning a wide variety of publishers, languages, countries, and subject matter. In the interest of fairness, I糖心传媒檝e linked each title below directly to its publisher糖心传媒檚 informational page and NOT, where applicable, to our review. I糖心传媒檝e also included an 糖心传媒渙ther糖心传媒� field as part of the poll where you can write-in a vote for your favorite novel if it didn糖心传媒檛 make the list. Any write-ins that are received will automatically be added to the poll so that others can vote for them as well. I reserve the right to remove a title if it doesn糖心传媒檛 qualify as an original work that was published in 2013. Confused about what糖心传媒檚 eligible? Three Percent糖心传媒檚 translation database is a great resource.

Voting is limited to one per IP address. The polls will close on the evening of November 28th at which time I糖心传媒檒l reveal the results and the top 8 titles will move on to a final round of voting, with your overall champion being crowned on December 19th.

Below you’ll find the entire list of 20 nominated titles, but really, you should only be voting for one of these two books:

by Sergio Chejfec, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary

by Arnon Grunberg, translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett

But if you insist on for something that wasn’t published by Open Letter, here’s the rest of the nominated titles:

All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo de Souza Leao, translated from the Portuguese by Zoe Perry

My Struggle: Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett

Cold Sea Stories by Pawel Huelle, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones

Under This Terrible Sun by Carlos Busqued, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

The Whispering Muse by Sjon, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

The Fall of the Stone City by Ismail Kadare, translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson

The President糖心传媒檚 Hat by Antoine Laurain, translated from the French by Jane Aitken

The Infatuations by Javier Marias, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

Seiobo There Below by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet

The Elixir of Immortality by Gabi Gleichmann, translated from the Norwegian by Michael Meigs

A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Ten White Geese by Gerbrand Bakker, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

The Devil糖心传媒檚 Workshop by Jachym Topol, translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker

The Black Lake by Hella Haasse, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke

The Jew Car by Franz Fuhmann, translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole

Kafka糖心传媒檚 Hat by Patrice Martin, translated from the Dutch by Chantrell Bilodeau

The Fata Morgana Books by Jonathan Littell, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan, translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt