PAC Postscript Krick-Aigner: Hearing the Voice 1

Philological Association of the Carolinas

2018 Keynote Address

Hearing the Voice of the Other: The Art and Value of Translation

Kirsten Krick-Aigner
Wofford College

“It goes without saying that literary translation is a deeply political act, one that makes
particular texts accessible to particular readers by transporting them across linguistic
boundaries.” – Chenxin Jiang1

As a student at a public high school on the East Coast in the 1980s, I read

transformative novels in my English classes, among them All Quiet on the Western Front

(1928), Anna Karenina (1878), and Siddhartha (1922). My teachers never mentioned that

the authors of All Quiet on the Western Front and Siddhartha, Erich Maria Remarque and

Herman Hesse respectively, were German writers; it was a connection I only made when

I became a German major in college. At the same time, the names of the translators of

these works were never mentioned, neither in high school nor in college, where I read

many other works of global literature in translation.

In the spring of 2018, in an informal survey of students who attended a translation

workshop at our institution’s Sandor Teszler Library at Wofford College, situated in

Spartanburg SC, they cited works in translation they had read more recently in high

school, among them Albert Camus’ The Stranger from 1942, Franz Kafka’s The

Metamorphosis from 1915, The Diary of Anne Frank, published in 1947, Cervantes’ Don

Quixote from the early 17th century, and Gabriel García Márquez’ 1967 100 Years of
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Solitude. After some discussion it became apparent that students had not fully considered

that these works in translation had originally been written in another language, that Frank

had written her diary in Dutch or that Kafka had written his works in German while

residing in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s city of Prague. It was also of note that the

works the students had read in high school had largely been written by authors who were

no longer living. But what about the voices in global literature from the 1960s and 1970s

through today? How can we as academics of global languages, literatures, and cultures be

the bearers of these voices, especially those who write about contemporary global issues

such as environmental concerns and migration? How can we transmit to our students the

transcendence of the written language, and the scope of despair and hope of the human

experience? How can we as scholars and teachers become more aware of and access

contemporary literature in translation?

When co-hosts of the translation workshop, Rachel Hildebrandt, a local translator

of German to English, Kim Rostan, my colleague in Global Literatures, and I further

pressed students to find out what contemporary translated literature they were reading in

their courses at Wofford College, they could barely recall any titles other than texts by

Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Immanuel Kant taught in general education

classes. However, when encouraged with examples of recent novels of commercial

acclaim, many nodded when we asked if they had read Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the

Dragon Tattoo (2005; translated by Reg Keeland) from the Millennium Trilogy, or Jo

Nesbø’s The Snowman (2007; translated by Don Bartlett), both works adapted more

recently as popular films. Many students had not realized that The Girl with the Dragon
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Tattoo was originally written in Swedish nor The Snowman in Norwegian. Interestingly,

Larsson’s novel was originally entitled Män som hatar kvinnor (men who hate women)

and published posthumously, a year after Larsson’s death in 2004. Regarding the

translation, Larsson’s lifetime partner Eva Gabrielsson was upset “by some of the

changes that have been made to the books, including the original title being dropped in

the international editions.”2 She stated that calling Lisbeth Salander "the girl with the

dragon tattoo” diminished Salander’s character. Furthermore, she continued: "And the

actual tattoo, well, in the original book, that's huge – it runs from her shoulder, along the

spine, and ends somewhere on her buttock. Even that image is changed in the English

version. It's changed to a small tattoo on her shoulder, because that's the cover they had in

mind. You shouldn't be able to do that."3 By way of translation, Larsson’s novel had

morphed into a text whose nuanced differences were even considered at odds with the

original intent of the novel.

So, why am I here today, talking to you about translated literary works? Because,

despite the fact that these works are transformative, these voices are underrepresented on

the US market and, especially for educators of foreign languages, almost impossible to

access for the librarians who are tasked with building collections of global literature. I

want to share with you what this challenge means for us as educators and scholars and,

foremost, what we can do about it. Reading global literature in translation instills

empathy, builds cultural and intercultural knowledge, illuminates diverse perspectives,

and, ultimately, builds global citizenship.

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For our purposes, we might also briefly consider young adult (YA) literature that

serves readers aged 12-18, whether in the target language or in English, especially given

the fact that our students, particularly those in their first and second year, are emerging

adults. Most YA texts do not get translated, and those that do become popular are not

marketed as having been written in a foreign language. One example is the widely

published YA fantasy series by German author Cornelia Funke, which include works

such as Inkheart (Tintenherz, 2003) and Ghosthunters (2006). Despite Funke’s success,

there are many other transformative and timely works of literature that are not translated

and therefore not read outside of their country of origin or linguistic region.

According to a conversation with translator Hildebrandt, the publishing output of

literary translations from anywhere in the world in a given year in the US market (which

is a little higher on the UK market) is roughly 3%, from the Spanish, French, German,

and Italian languages, and of that, only about 0.7% represents literary works.4 That means

that 97% of the books published in the US are books originally written in English. This is

astonishing considering the multicultural and multi-linguistic society in which we live. In

France, by comparison, 27% of books are translations, in Spain 28%, in Turkey 40%.5

Underrepresentation is seen in particular with texts published in Africa (and, at that,

typically only Francophone texts are published). Of all Anglophone translations

published, only 30% are by women authors.6 If one visualizes this, on a table of 100

books - of any genre and published anywhere in the world – only one of roughly four

books will be by a woman. It is of note, however, that women writers publish 40%-50%
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of all texts across genres, which makes apparent that the voices of so many women go

unheard.

A further discussion with Hildebrandt recalled a recent meeting of the American

Library Association, during which Amy Stolls, Director of Literature for the National

Endowment for the Arts since 2013, reported that a bottleneck exists between

international literature and US libraries and their patrons. This bottleneck affects higher

education not only in terms of student access to global works in translation, but also in

instructor access to translated works, both literary and non-literary, that might be

included in course syllabi in language, literature, and culture courses of foreign

languages, as well as courses in global literatures and the humanities. The question then

is how can American reading habits be globalized and internationalized in order to foster

empathy and understanding of contemporary global issues through the channel of

literature? As educators, we have the power to be advocates for literary translations (and

their translators) and the voices of authors who are able to transmit to our students the

knowledge about the cultures of the target languages we teach and in which we conduct

our scholarship.

In the hope of promoting translated literary texts at Wofford College, some

organized events have brought students of diverse language programs together in one

room with the mission of teaching students to appreciate a work of literature and its

author, as well as to explore the art and craft of translating. This past fall 2017 and spring

2018, Hildebrandt and I worked together with Dean Kevin Reynolds and staff of the

Sandor Teszler Library at Wofford College to identify appropriate excerpts from

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contemporary works of fiction in Arabic, Chinese, German, French, and Spanish, the five

languages taught at Wofford College, for a workshop on translation. During this event,

students sat grouped by their language, copies of excerpts from the original works of

fiction in front of them. After Hildebrandt, in her role as a literary translator, briefly

introduced the concept of the art and craft of translation and the importance of hearing

the voices of people from other cultures, students tried their hand at translating a few

pages of the given texts, the majority of which were taken from YA novels. Students used

dictionary apps on their smart phones or printed dictionaries we had brought to help

identify unknown vocabulary. After about 20 minutes, we regrouped and discussed the

students’ experiences with the act of translating. After students compared turns of phrases

and words they had struggled to translate, we then handed out the equivalent excerpt of

the English translation. In comparing their own translations to the published ones, many

seemed pleased and surprised by the play, flexibility, and nuance of language, the

challenges of translating word play, and the cultural specificity of humor. Last year, when

we also worked with Chinese poems, the Chinese professor claimed that her students had

done a better job in translating the poem than the official translator, boosting the

students’ sense of accomplishment and appreciation for poetry. The aforementioned

workshop lasted 90 minutes and students were given extra credit for participating by

some professors.

In another such workshop on translation, we watched the 18-minute documentary

on the Cuban Science Fiction writer Yoss of the novel Super, Extra Grande (translated

by David Frye and published in 2016), and gave the students of Spanish two pages from
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the introduction to translate.7 Following this task, the students compared their own work

to the published translation. We then discussed the challenges of translating and how, in

this case, the translator Frye had made thoughtful choices when transforming Yoss’ work

in Spanish into an English-language novel with Cuban roots. From discussions that

followed it become clearer to students that a translated literary text really is a new

creation, born from the original; essentially the translator is interpreting the work while

writing a new text that transmits the values, flavors, hidden meanings, double meanings,

language registers, humor, and nuances of the culture and cultures from which its author

originates.

Many instructors already do this, but a few years ago I began introducing

contemporary short stories and poetry, both in German and in English translation, in my

first and second-year German courses, teaching these works alongside my textbooks. In

two cases I even corresponded by email with the contemporary Austrian poet Judith Nika

Pfeifer on student literary and scholarly output on her whimsical and pop culture poetry

collection from 2012, nichts ist wichtiger. ding kleines du (nothing is more important.

thing little you) and with German writer Zoe Beck about her short story “Rapunzel,” in

her collection A Contented Man and Other Stories (translated by Hildebrandt in 2016).

Having an author laud the students’ own efforts at literary production brought literature

to life for them. My colleague in German, Beate Brunow, has had students read, in

addition to a majority of texts in German, the English translation of WWI veteran Erich

Maria Remarque’s 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues;

translated by A. W. Wheen) in an intermediate German course, which led to discussions

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in German about the work and kindled an interest in German-language literature in

general. This effort led me to include Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella Die Verwandlung (The

Metamorphosis) in its English translation during my first-year German course,

introducing students to Kafka’s legacy, the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

growing anti-Semitism during this lifetime, and interesting discussions in both German

and English about the text. Kafka also wrote a few very short parables, such as “Kleine

Fabel” (a little fable) that students read concurrently in German. As an example of the

unique text that is created in the process of translating, it is interesting to note that there

have been at least a dozen different English translations of The Metamorphosis between

1933 and 2014, the most recent two, both from 2014, by translators Susan Bernofsky and

John R. Williams. The Metamorphosis begins with one of German literature’s most

recognized opening lines: “Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen

erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.”

This well-known line is yet interpreted differently by each translator, creating parallel

works of fiction to Kafka’s. For example, Bernofsky writes: “When Gregor Samsa woke

one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed right there in his bed

into some sort of monstrous insect.” Williams chooses to focus instead on redirecting the

reader to the insect’s harmful nature, possibly to Gregor, to his family and to his

employer, with his line: “One morning Gregor Samsa woke in his bed from uneasy

dreams and found he had turned into a large verminous insect.”8

With ideas such as these for integrating literary translations in our language,

literature, and culture courses, we, as instructors and scholars, can become advocates not
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just for literature and more so contemporary literature, but also for underrepresented

voices, such as those of women or writers of indigenous and non-colonial languages.

Ultimately it is up to us to search for these voices, by reaching out to small and

independent presses and keeping an eye out not just for what is commercially acclaimed

but also critically acclaimed.

The Global Literatures in Libraries Initiative (GLLI) serves to be such an advocate

for smaller international presses to connect with US libraries who wish to expand their

world literature selections, especially in communities such as ours in Spartanburg, SC,

where there are large communities of Russian, German, and Spanish speakers.

Hildebrandt, one of the founding members of GLLI, and I plan in the next few years to

work with local libraries and Wofford College to create a catalog of children’s and YA

fiction that targets local communities where English is the second language. At Wofford,

Rostan and I will work with students through summer research funding in 2018 and 2019

to catalog fiction and nonfiction works written by non-US authors. Hildebrandt also

created a book list of contemporary fiction, some of it YA literature, with the idea of

connecting literary fiction in translation to Wofford students’ study abroad experiences.

For example, with the help of translators from Italian into English, Hildebrandt compiled

a short list of Italian novels in English that students studying abroad in Florence, Italy,

might read as pre-departure work and intercultural training, especially since students do

not take Italian at Wofford and usually only take an introductory class in Italian once in

Florence. In the fall of 2017 GLLI has also explored new models of engagement for

library patrons and displayed works in translation in shelves by the front door with flashy
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explanatory cards that prompted students to stop and peruse the reading selections. In

spring of 2019 the Sandor Teszler Library will host an exhibit of works in translation that

will coincide with other related events. We are hoping to draw in international

participants from our culturally diverse community, such as the Spartanburg Hispanic

Alliance and the German-American Club of the Upstate. In mid-May of 2019, the Sandor

Teszler Library, the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and the

Global Literatures program, in collaboration with local translators, will co-host a

workshop on literary translation for students, translators, librarians, and educators.

My own interest in the art and value of translation in my discipline of German but

also in literature in general, taught during January terms and Humanities courses, has

more recently introduced me to two works of literary translation that underscore the art

and craft of translation and its transformative social and political power. Living and

teaching within multiple languages led me to read Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2015 autobiographic

novel, In Other Words, translated in 2016 by Anne Goldstein from the Italian original, In

altre parole (Although most translators find their names in tiny font on the copyright

page, Goldstein’s name, though not on the front cover, is at least on the title page). Lahiri

chose to leave behind her craft of writing in English, spending over two years in Rome,

penning literary texts and her “linguistic autobiography, a self-portrait,” not in Bengali,

her mother tongue, nor in English, the language of her upbringing, but in Italian, the

language of her longing.9 She also chose not to translate her Italian writing into English

herself, stating that she did not want to move between languages and that the process had

made her observe her limitations in Italian, leading her to “question the value of the
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experiment” she had undertaken.10 She writes that her relationship to Italian “takes place

in exile, in a state of separation”11 in which she communicates her complex feelings

about writing and demonstrates how Italian resonates with her perception of language.

She further explains: “When I discover a different way to express something, I feel a kind

of ecstasy. Unknown words present a dizzying yet fertile abyss. An abyss containing

everything that escapes me, everything possible.”12 Later she writes of the thrill of

finding words in Italian of which there are no exact counterparts in English yet which

express precisely what she would like to describe: “I am like a beggar who finds a pile of

gold, a bag of jewels.”13 She cites, for example, the word in Italian “formicolare” that

translates roughly as “to move about in a confused fashion, like ants.”14 She says she

writes “on the margins, just as I’ve always lived on the margins of countries, of cultures.

A peripheral zone where it’s impossible for me to feel rooted, but where I’m

comfortable.”15 It is perhaps from within these margins that we can catch a glimpse of

our shared humanity, revealing a kind of Venn diagram of cultures in which our shared

experiences lie.

In another memoir, Translation as Transhumance, from 2012 by Mireille Gansel,

translated by Ros Schwartz in 2017 and published by Feminist Press, Gansel traces her

own experiences as a translator and captures the essence of her work: why the voices of

those authors she translates are of value to readers. Lauren Elkin, in her Foreword,

explains the term “Transhumance” as a fitting description of what translators do: “the

seasonal movement of a shepherd and his flock to another land, or humus.”16 As

educators, works in translation offer us a means to shepherd students to such other lands.
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In closing, while there are so many individual interpretations by which to translate

texts and shape language, there will always be words or phrases that defy compact word-

to-word translation. Recently, I received a wonderful book on such words from a dear

friend who shares my love of literature. The author, Yee-Lum Mak, describes these

words as “other wordly,” or as “other worldly: bigger, stranger, and fuller than the words

we use every day. It was a word for a feeling I’d felt, but had never been able to name.”17

She calls these newly discovered words “names for the odd and wonderful, for the

unexpected things that have meaning, for the parts of our lives that are other-wordly.”18

My favorites were “Komorebi,” a noun in Japanese that means “the sunlight that filters

through the leaves of trees.”19 Or, something that many of you, like myself, experience:

“Tsundoku,” a noun in Japanese that means “buying books and not reading them; letting

books pile up unread on shelves or floors or nightstands.”20 Two additional words stand

out to me: “Hoppípolla,” an Icelandic verb phrase meaning “jumping into puddles,”21

and, finally, one way in which I enjoy showing affection to my daughters, “Cafuné,” or

“running your fingers through the hair of someone you love.”22 What descriptions in

words from around the world that capture the joy, the unique, and the possible of the

complex human condition!

As educators and scholars of world languages, let us share the wondrous words

and the tales they form from the cultures and languages we teach, by sharing our love of

the written word through reading assignments in and outside of the classroom, through

translation work and scholarship, and in ongoing conversations with one another.

Engaging in the dissemination of global literature in translation allows readers to explore

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the diverse perspectives of our shared humanity, understand the concerns and possible

solutions regarding global issues, and ultimately strive to become more empathetic and

inclusive.
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Hearing the Voice of the Other: The Art and Value of Translation
References and Resources

Novels and articles:

 Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta. Tears of Salt. Translated from Italian by Chenxin
Jiang. (Lacrime di Sale, 2016) W. W. Norton & Co., 2017.
 Jenny Erpenbeck. Go, Went, Gone. Translated from German by Susan Bernofsky.
(Gehen, ging, gegangen, 2015). New Directions, 2017.
 Mireille Gansel. Translation as Transhumance. Translated from French by Ros
Schwartz. (Les Fugitives, 2012). Feminist Press, 2017.
 Chenxin Jiang. “The Political Power of Translation: On Bringing the Stories of
Refugees into English.” Jan. 8, 2018. http://lithub.com/the-political-power-of-
translation/
 Merle Kröger. Collision. Translated from German by Rachel Hildebrandt and
Alexandra Roesch. (Havarie, 2015). 2017. Along with film Havarie, Director
Philip Scheffner, 2016.
 Jhumpa Lahiri. In Other Words. Translated from Italian by Anne Goldstein (In
altre parole, 2015). New York: Vintage Books, 2016.
 Yee-Lum Mak. Other-Wordly: words both strange and lovely from around the
world. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2016.
 Yoss. Super Extra Grande. Translated from Spanish by David Frye. Restless
Books, 2016. See review: http://www.sfintranslation.com/?p=186
(Film: A Portrait: Yoss (by poet, filmmaker, editor, and translator David Shook of
Phoneme Books): https://vimeo.com/117932844 (18 minutes)
Note: “Not only is he Cuba's most lauded living science fiction writer, published
both in his home country and around the world, Yoss sings in heavy metal band
Tenaz, holds black belts in multiple martial arts, and nurtures the next generation
of Cuba's genre writers. In David Shook's 18-minute portrait, Yoss discusses
recent developments in US-Cuba relations, the science fiction genre's relevance in
contemporary Cuba, and his vision for the Cuba(s) of the future.”)

Internet Sites on Literary Translation:

 American Translation Society: http://www.atanet.org
 Global Literatures in Libraries Initiative: https://glli-us.org
 Literary Hub: http://lithub.com

Select Publishers of Translated Literary Works:

 Feminist Press: Feministpress.org (some translation)
 New Directions: www.ndbooks (some translation)
 New Vessel Press: http://newvesselpress.com (mainly European literature in
translation)
 Open Letter: Openletterbooks.org (mainly European literature in translation)
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 Phoneme Books: http://phonemebooks.com (poetry and fiction)

 Restless Books: http://restlessbooks.org (mainly Spanish literature in translation)
 Swan Isle Press: swanislepress.com (poetry)
 Tilted Axis Press: www.tiltedaxispress.com (mainly Asian literature in translation)
 Weyward Sisters Publishing: https://weysis.com (women’s crime fiction in
translation)
 White Pine Press: http://www.whitepine.org (poetry)
 Zephyr Press: http://zephyrpress.org (poetry)

Endnotes

1 Jiang, Chenxin. “The Political Power of Translation. Chenxin Jiang on Bringing the Stories of
Refugees into English.” 8 January 2018. http://lithub.com/the-political-power-of-translation/.
Accessed 10 October 2018.
2 Cochrane, Kira. “Stieg Larsson's partner: 'It's odd to have to prove our life together existed,'”

The Guardian, 4 October 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/04/stieg-

larsson-partner-eva-gabrielsson. Accessed 10 October 2018.
3 Cochrane.
4 This and the following information on literary translation is taken from an informal interview

in the spring of 2018 with translator Rachel Hildebrandt. She referred to the following online
sources: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140909-why-so-few-books-in-translation;
https://www.economist.com/prospero/2012/07/02/stories-from-elsewhere; and
https://theitalianaccent.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/italian-books-translated-in-the-usa-the-3-
issue/
5 Interview with Rachel Hildebrandt.
6 Information taken from an informal interview with Hildebrandt. She cited the following article

by Danek, Theodora. “Women in Translation month, an opportunity to celebrate international

writing by women.” 11 August 2017. https://www.englishpen.org/translation/women-in-
translation-month-2017/. Accessed 10 October 2018.
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https://www.englishpen.org/translation/women-in-translation-month-2017/.
7 Poet, filmmaker, editor, and translator David Shook of Phoneme Books filmed this

documentary, which can be accessed online: https://vimeo.com/117932844.

8 Information taken from: Gooderham, W. B. “Kafka’s Metamorphosis and its mutations in

translation.” 13 May 2015.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/13/kafka-metamorphosis-
translations. Accessed 10 October 2018.
https://www.englishpen.org/translation/women-in-translation-month-2017/.
9 Lahiri, Jhumpa. In Other Words. Translated by Anne Goldstein, Alfred A. Knopf, 2016, 213.
10 Lahiri xiii.
11 Lahiri 19.
12 Lahiri 45.
13 Lahiri 47.
14 Lahiri 47.
15 Lahiri 93.
16 Gansel, Mireille. Translation as Transhumance. Translated by Ros Schwartz, Feminist Press,

2017, ix.
17 Mak, Yee-Lum. Other-Wordly. words both strange and lovely from around the world.

Chronicle Books, 2016, 1.

18 Mak 1.
19 Mak 3.
20 Mak 13.
21 Mak 9.
22 Mak 53.