Children’s Literature in Translation: The Last Frontier?
Posted by Erin Brown in Children's literature translation world literature on June 1, 2010
Literature in translation is becoming increasingly visible in the United States these days (emerging, that is, from near-total darkness), especially with the recent announcement of Amazon Crossing, a new publishing imprint that will be devoted to publishing works in translation. (For some useful insight into how Amazon’s latest publishing initiative might affect other publishers of literature in translation, and the market for these books in general, see Chad W. Post’s comments on Three Percent).
Here at TRC we’ve been wondering lately about children’s literature in translation. What are the unique challenges of translating for a young audience? Might children’s imaginative and flexible minds be more receptive to stories from other cultures? In the era of globalization, is it not vital for our children to empathize with and understand a great diversity of stories?
As it turns out, there is not a lot of information out there about this niche-within-a-niche in American and British publishing. I did, however, find a fascinating article in Publisher’s Weekly from 2008 about the history of French children’s literature and the state of French-English and English-French translations. Not surprisingly, the French are translating a lot more of our children’s books than we are translating theirs. A relative trailblazer in this respect is American publisher Harry N. Abrams, which has had found success with a number of carefully selected illustrated books from France, particularly 365 pingouins (365 Penguins) by Jean-Luc Fromental (with acclaimed illustrator Joëlle Jolivet), which outsold expectations by 350 percent in two years. Abrams president and CEO Michael Jacobs remarked, “There’s an innovation in French children’s picture book publishing that’s missing here [in the United States]. It’s really refreshing.”
Another valuable perspective (Guardian 2006) comes from Sarah Adams, the award-winning translator of Daniel Pennac’s beloved tale L’oeil du loup (Eye of the Wolf). Originally published in 1984, the book was continuously in print in French and translated into numerous other languages—including Dutch, Finnish, and Basque—before it was finally translated into English in 2002.
Adams describes the work of translating as a “peculiar literary ventriloquism” that is all about finding the right voice:
I’m a parrot, a bridge-builder, an undertaker, a midwife and an editor all rolled into one. I’m bent on bringing original words back to life in a new context, owning them to some extent and backing off again, making them real and familiar without diluting where they’ve come from.
She goes on to cite some notable children’s titles in English translation, from fairy tales to coming-of-age novels (translated from Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, French, German . . .), making a compelling case for the idea that more works in translation would give English-speaking children access to a vast wealth of stories and voices that they have never heard before.
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