An IM with Andrew Sean Greer
Andrew
I heard from my Dutch translator just today. She had sent a number of questions, all very odd, and sent the solution to some language problems she had. There are palindromes in the novel that won't translate. She wrote "The palindrome 'too hot to hoot' kept me busy. I couldn't find a palindrome with hot or cold in Dutch, but I have used one with 'dog' in it. (God red nu 'ns 'n underdog- God, this time please save an underdog). Questions always have to do with a simple misunderstanding. Like a "blind cutting machine" and asking if it is blind, or if it cuts blinds. It is in a corset factory, so of course doesn't cut blinds!
Slice
It's funny that the questions are so mundane, because there are some more involved questions behind the translating process. Do you ever worry that a translation might not be faithful in some way? That it might betray your voice to the Dutch public?
Andrew
Well I actually write a note to translators, when (and if) then contact me. I tell them to feel absolutely free to go with their own sense of voice and poetry and not go for a literal translation. It is more important to me that the tone and spirit of the book translate than the actual words. That's a harder job for them, actually. I send them photographs and things so they get the sense of the book as I wrote it. [I] have a number of photographs of Playland by the Sea in San Francisco, which is in the book, but also one particular photograph of a woman with an umbrella setting by a roaring ocean. That one is not literally in the book, but is in tune with the tone of it. Tells them what I was seeing, as a writer.
Slice
How do you feel that you'll never really have a chance to "grade" translators at their work, since you don't speak the language? It's kind of a disconnect between you and your foreign audience. Does it worry you, or are you content to go with the flow?
Andrew
It does worry me, because language is so integral to my style. And I do know that some books succeed in some countries, some fail, and it is very hard to predict. One never knows! But I know a lot of friends who speak Spanish, French, German, etc. and tell me what they think of the translation. The German of Max Tivoli is supposed to be excellent.
Translators...are fascinating creatures. They translate *as they read* for the first chapter, often, to get the job. Not knowing how the book turns out! They really work in a rush. THAT is what worries me. One hopes that one can inspire them, that would be the key. I love meeting them. They are never what you expect!
Andrew
I heard from my Dutch translator just today. She had sent a number of questions, all very odd, and sent the solution to some language problems she had. There are palindromes in the novel that won't translate. She wrote "The palindrome 'too hot to hoot' kept me busy. I couldn't find a palindrome with hot or cold in Dutch, but I have used one with 'dog' in it. (God red nu 'ns 'n underdog- God, this time please save an underdog). Questions always have to do with a simple misunderstanding. Like a "blind cutting machine" and asking if it is blind, or if it cuts blinds. It is in a corset factory, so of course doesn't cut blinds!
Slice
It's funny that the questions are so mundane, because there are some more involved questions behind the translating process. Do you ever worry that a translation might not be faithful in some way? That it might betray your voice to the Dutch public?
Andrew
Well I actually write a note to translators, when (and if) then contact me. I tell them to feel absolutely free to go with their own sense of voice and poetry and not go for a literal translation. It is more important to me that the tone and spirit of the book translate than the actual words. That's a harder job for them, actually. I send them photographs and things so they get the sense of the book as I wrote it. [I] have a number of photographs of Playland by the Sea in San Francisco, which is in the book, but also one particular photograph of a woman with an umbrella setting by a roaring ocean. That one is not literally in the book, but is in tune with the tone of it. Tells them what I was seeing, as a writer.
Slice
How do you feel that you'll never really have a chance to "grade" translators at their work, since you don't speak the language? It's kind of a disconnect between you and your foreign audience. Does it worry you, or are you content to go with the flow?
Andrew
It does worry me, because language is so integral to my style. And I do know that some books succeed in some countries, some fail, and it is very hard to predict. One never knows! But I know a lot of friends who speak Spanish, French, German, etc. and tell me what they think of the translation. The German of Max Tivoli is supposed to be excellent.
Translators...are fascinating creatures. They translate *as they read* for the first chapter, often, to get the job. Not knowing how the book turns out! They really work in a rush. THAT is what worries me. One hopes that one can inspire them, that would be the key. I love meeting them. They are never what you expect!