I am Bulgarian and I feel like our literature is not very popular across the world. It's a pity if you think of how many beautiful pieces of writing people are missing. My favourite one has to be "Крадецът на праскови" by Emiliyan Stanev , literally translated " The peach thief". I don't know if it has ever been translated in any foreign language but if it hasn't, that is definitely something I'd love to see :)
This was such an inspiring video, thank you Sanne and Laura! I'm about to start a Modern Languages and Cultures undergraduate course, and I'm hoping to do a Masters either in teaching or translation. I'd love to be able to translate books I love so other people worldwide can experience books from different cultures and share the emotions behind each writer. Translation is tricky, but definitely worth pursuing.
SAME! I'm from Ukraine and I'm really struggling with finding some interesting books in the ukrainian language. That's why I want to become a translator
Poetry is always tricky, but Erich Kästner is my favorite German poet & I'd like to see his work translated. His children's books (ha!) have been and I love them, too. My parents grew up when Germany was still separated and I was raised on a lot of old GDR children's books. My favorite was "Zirkus Tusch", a story about a group of children who decide to open up their own "circus" after seeing one in town.
I have so much respect for literary translators - trying to translate not only the words, but nuance, cadence, style, culture, idioms, etc... that's incredible. Ms Watkinson, you are amazing! :)
I speak irish and I would love an english translation of the play "An Triail". It deals with many important issues that were especially prevalent in 20th century Ireland, such as forced adoptions, an overbearing catholic church and general misogyny.
I have discovered that Swedish children books are very 'educational'... obviously pippi long stocking and all of the other a Astrid Lindgren books are fenomenal! I loved the books about "Kråke" which is about a seven year old boy from a very normal family and in every book he learns about traffic, or how it is to go to school, shapes, how milk comes from the cow in the farm an into the carton in the grocery store an stuff like that.
I speak Spanish (although it isn't my native language) and I would love to see the Geronimo Stilton books translated. They are so fun, not just for the silly stories, but the words themselves are actually illustrations. For example, if the book says that a character is frightened then the word is drawn as if it is shaking with fear. They are so much fun and I think English kids (especially those who have trouble reading because the illustrated words help with working out the meanings) would love them so much!
Hey! I have read some of the Geronimo Stilton books, I'm Spanish, are you studying it? How old are you? :) Maybe I could help you finding some books in Spanish☺
Oh I didn't know it was translated into so many languages but I looked for it on the wikipedia :') It says the books have been translated into 35 different languages, although I supose not all of the books but some(?) I don't know:')
I speak Danish and I loved this video because I really want to be a translator :D I would really like to see Tvillingerne fra Lindegården (The Twins from the Linde Farm) being translated to English because it's such a good book and people deserve to read and the illustrations are great! :D
Lovely video and thanks for answering my question about studying a masters in translation =D I've just finished my degree in German and Scandinavian languages, and have always really loved translating my favourite texts into English- I'm hoping to continue with that! Thanks for an inspiring chat ^^
I just began my education and hopefully, I will be a translator in 5 years - three years languages and two years translation :D Hearing this made me even more sure that I've chosen the right education! Thank you :)
OMG THANK U SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS VIDEO! I'm studying english literature now and I'm planning to take masters for translation which is awesome. I always love your videos because it helps me so much with my passion so thank you so much I've been a subscriber since FOREVERRRR
I studied Auslan for three years in high school. In the first year for one of the assessment pieces we were split up into teams and had to work together to translate children's picture books from English to Auslan. I worked on The Rainbow Fish. It was really fun :D
Thank you for this video, it's really interesting to learn about translation ! Personally, I speak French, and I am just dying to see the works of Pierre Bottero translated.. He was a children's fantasy author, and his books are amazingly imaginative and colorful, and nothing you've ever seen before, but ALSO it's so poetic ! And I don't remember reading any author who manages to put poetry in the writing of their fictional fantasy worlds, and that's just amazing. And I would go with the Ellana trilogy first !
"Every word you're reading was written by the translator" was so beautifully put, really loved this. I'm wondering though, at what point in a translator's career would they have the pull to say "this is a book that needs to be translated and I'm the person to do it"? I'd love to hear more about this too, specifically about translating poetry. There are so many books I'd love to see translated from Bulgarian, but probably my biggest ones would be Patilanci (Troublemakers? Trouble... sufferers?) It's the best, most uplifting and snort-out-loud funny children's book I've read. And then probably a bunch of poetry, especially everything by Smirnenski and Yavorov.
I think it's really interesting that you mentioned the fact that translators often don't get credited on the book. I just recently found out that I book I had been hearing about for a few years now, Red Queen, was not written by an English speaking person and was translated (I don't remember the original language). I have heard this book talked about so many times but never once heard about it being translated, let alone who translated it! I would love to see more translator bios because, like you said, there are essentially rewriting the book.
This was such a great interview about a process I have never given much thought to. Now I completely agree there needs to be more exposure for these translators. Lovely video, thanks for sharing.
This was such a nice one to watch, I'm at the start of my journey to become an English-Hungarian literary translator (I've translated a few books so far, but not specifically literature), so I've found it so inspiring!
That was such a brilliant idea Sanne, loved the video, and thanks to Laura for answering all those questions. I find it so hard even having to translate a paragraph out loud for a colleague, so can't imagine having to translate a whole book. It's really interesting hearing about the process and the challenges of it... This is also a nice video idea - would be interesting to do a series of 'the publishing jobs you don't know much about' type of thing to see how a book actually gets to our shelves!
I just wanted to say, concerning translating names in books, that for me (being 27 years old) the Norwegian translation of Harry Potter was the first time I experienced a discussion on the importance of translation. The Norwegian version also has completely different names and it is interesting talking to people about how translating a book really is writing it anew, not just making a copy in a different language.
I speak Swedish, and a translation that I would really like to see is the post apocalyptic survival-story in a series of books by Sofia Nordin. There are currently three books out, "En sekund i taget", "Spring så fort du kan", and "Som om jag vore fantastisk". The first one would roughly translate to "One second at a time", the second would be "Run as fast as you can" and the third "As if I were amazing". These are wonderful, superbly written stories about relationships and human connection in a broken world, with both a distinctly Swedish but also universal tone.
I'm Brazilian and it's actually interesting that even though we have many amazing writers the majority of todays publication in here is foreig books! So translating is a very important part of our book world! I would love to see so many books translated to english but the first one that popped in my mind is a middle grade series called "Carol e o Homem de Terno Branco" written by Anna Lee Rosa de Freitas and Carlos Heitor Cony which is amaaaaazing! I remember having to read the first book for school and my whole class falling in love with it so much we actually asked the teacher to keep reading the following books! We ended up reading the whole thing because we loved it so much and it was way cooler than some other boring ones!
So interesting! I originally wanted to be a translator but went in a different direction in the end. Seeing Yaiza Canopoli's comment makes me wish I'd done it too. I wish in general we British were better at languages as there is so much to appreciate in foreign language literature. Sadly, my skills are really rusty now but what a great way to earn a living!
Thanks for that video, and for having Laura Watkinson! I loved her translation of The Letter for the King! And translation is such an interesting topic! I'm French and I think books by ... - Oliver Peru (Adult books of the fantasy genre, either "Druide" or "Martyrs"), - Jean Claude Mourlevat (He writes amazing children books like Le Chagrin du roi mort or Le combat d'hiver) and - Pauline Alphen (Les Eveilleurs, or Gabriel et Gabriel, which are also children books) ... deserve to be translated, they are amazing! And also, we have really great graphic stuff (Le Trop Grand Vide d'Alphonse Tabouret by Jérôme d'Aviau et Sibylline is a personal favorite).
Yeah, I didn't pick the most famous, because they get less advertisement ^^ Plus some of my favorite (like Pennac's book) are already translated. But I'm happy to have helped you discover new books! :D
Thank you so, so much for this video!! I am so interested in translating books, and really wish for it to be my job someday, so this video truly was enlightening! There is one particular French series that I would love love love to see being translated into English. It's actually 3 trilogy forming one big series by Pierre Bottero. Many people grew up with the Harry Potter series, but I grew up with this fantastic urban fantasy/sci-fi series that follows a girl named Camille who one day realizes she can travel to an alternate world where she actually come s from but didn't know it, and there she fights for her kingdom along some amazing kick-ass characters!!!Thank you again for this video 😁
+Meet the world I totally agree. These books were so important to me, I really hope they will be translated so that children who aren't French may read them too.
wonderful video! Really interesting to learn more about the world of translating. Also, can I just say that Sanne, you are wearing an amazing outfit!! Love the skirt/blouse combination :D
Maybe this is not much related with the video, but i want to share this thoughts with you because you have been really helpful on my growing up experience, I can tell more about it but could be awkward. Anyway, I'm a philosopher student, I have been lost about what I want to do, watching this video I remember how much I enjoyed when I translated some of the texts I've been studying and all the 'recommendations' that are named in the video are the worries I have while I'm studying (context, the importance of actually translate what the author could be saying); this could be the thing I could dedicate: translate. Life is unpredictable, but at this moment I think this interview inspire me to continue. Thank you so much. Ps: I enjoy so much your interviews, they look so genuine and fresh. You should keep doing it.
Wonderful video, thank you for sharing! ^_^ I've wondered about book translators, so I found this fascinating, especially since I'm currently working on learning Swedish.
This was wonderful! I can only speak (not read or write) Hindi and Gujarati, and I can speak and read Spanish, although I haven't read much of anything in Spanish. But I just remember my grandfather's tall tales about a mouse with seven tails and such that only make sense in Gujarati because of the rhyme, and I would love to see that translated. Fun fact, when we were little and bored in India, my cousins and I translated the song Baa Baa Black Sheep into Gujarati, and I'd love to see things like nursery rhymes translated from English into different languages to see how they sound.
Oh my god thanks so much for this! I'm in my last year of high school and I'm figuring out if I want to study English, but this video really helped me out! I definitely want to do this too. 😊
I'm from Sweden and a book that I changed me so much when I read it, and I know that a lot of other people feel the same way, is the YA book Linas kvällsbok. It's basically about a 16 year old girl and how it is to be a 16 year old girl. It's about sex and love and mistakes, and it is just one of my favorite books of all time.
Also, I adore your translation videos. You actually inspired me to buy the Dutch version of TFiOS when I went to Amsterdam last year. Haven't gotten the guts to read it quite yet (Duolingo is great, but not that great), but I can't wait to do so.
As a Dutchie I would love to see more Thea Beckman and Simone van der Vlugt children books translated. They are all such great historical fiction books that I would love to share with my international friends :)
Aaaah de brief voor de koning still is one of my favourite books of all time!!! :D thank you so much for this interview, so interesting! And to all non-Dutch people GO READ THIS BOOK. Seriously!
That was a very interesting video! Thanks for this little insight in the world of translation! I remember once reading an article by a French Canadian author and how she was struggling to get her novels published on the American market. She was saying that American publishers would push a lot for their books to be translated in other language, but were way less open to publish translations of foreign language novels. I'm a French native speaker. My favourite French books are mostly classics that have already been translated to English before, like Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers) or Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte-Cristo), both by Alexandre Dumas. As for children literature... I feel bad I can't think of anything... Most of my favourite books are from English authors to start with. I can't really remember any French or French Canadian novels from my childhood...
Hello, I'm from Portugal and this two are my favourite: I loved a portuguese book called "O guarda da praia", meaning "The guardian of the beach" or "The beach's Guardian", from Maria Teresa Maia Gonzalez. As a child I also loved "O meu pé de laranja lima", meaning "My lime orange tree", from José Mauro de Vasconcelos (by 2012 a movie came out inspired by it). This two books we're a must for me. "O meu pé de laranja lima" has a sequel, that is "Vamos aquecer ao sol" (meaning "Let's warm by the sun) and it's also amazing. I hope you like the portuguese/brasilian suggestions.
Earlier this year, I tried to find German translations of Maya Angelou's books for one of my parents - surprizingly, the translation of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" seems to have gone out of print in the late 1990s and I couldn't find the other books in German at all. Given that she was such a famous author (and activist) in the US, I didn't expect to find so few of her works in German... As for German books that should be translated into English, there are a lot of children's books dealing with the Third Reich and the Holocaust that are excellent and make the topics accessible for younger readers without sugercoating or oversimplifying them. I would particularly like to see "Nebel im August: Die Lebensgeschichte des Ernst Lossa" (Fog in August: The Personal History/ Biography of Ernst Lossa) translated, which deals with the life of a Yenish boy who was removed from his family and eventually euthanized.
Anything by Thea Beckman should be translated, because her books are amazing. I also think 'Reis door de nacht' would be very interesting for foreigners, since it's a book set in WW2 from a Dutch point of view. And obviously 'Achstegroepers huilen niet' by Jacques Vriens.
so interesting, I am determined to learn another language at some point in my life so I can understand more about translation and maybe compare a translated text to the original. also your shirt is amazing, love the mermaids!!
In year 6 2 years ago as a class we got books that hadn't been published before and we got the letter to the king one time and so we were one of the first people to read the new version I guess it hadn't even been proof read ❤️
Really interesting, thanks Sanne! I thought about being a translator at one point but you don't really hear much about what it's actually like being in the career!
Beside the French children series by Pierre Bottero that have already been mentioned by some people in the comments, I would really love to see a translation (in English preferably, so I can read it) of "La horde du contrevent" by Alain Damasio . Although it's probably going to be a hell of a book to translate because it's very dense and the author plays a lot with the sound of words and their rythm ^^.
Hello! I'm French and I would love to see 'Les fiancées de l'Hiver" translated into English because this book is like a treasure for me and I feel sorry for all these English speakers that cannot read it... ;-) I really like your video, the subject was perfect for me as I study English to become translator as well!
Though I'm not a native French speaker, I would absolutely love to see La Fille Laide by Yves Thériault translated. It's a Québécois book from the 1950s so it's kind of understandable that it's flown under the radar but it's so incredible- the tone sort of reminds me of Jane Eyre
Studying Classics makes you think about translation issues A LOT because there are so many different things you can be aiming for in a translation, and most classics texts are 2000 years old (at least) so there are a multitiude of different translations you could choose to read, ranging from trying to retain the best sense, to the best evocation of the grammar and style, to best evocation of poetic metre, to how to render different dialects eg Ionian and Doric Greek might become English and Scottish - also a lot of classics texts are in poetic metres that don't work well in English so there are questions of whether to translate in prose, or pick an English metre as a substitute.
So weird to actually hear my question in your video, thank you! Other dutch books that need to be translated are 'de koning van katoren' like someone already said in the comments and almost every book of flemish author Marc de bel, especially die Blinker-books.
I'm in my last year of highschool and the career I want to study is Modern Languages in English. My native language is spanish and although a lot of people think I want to become an author what I really want to do is translate books. They often think I'm crazy cause I don't want to write stories but to share the ones already written to the rest of the world.
Such and inspiring video :D I'm a literary translator too. Spanish > English and I found this interview amazing :D As you said, It's a shame that translators are sometimes invisible to the public's eye, but in the end I think that if people didn't notice the book is actually a translation, you're doing a great job! thumbs up for this video!
My first language is spanish, but most of what I read is either in english or translated. There are two books though that I'd love to see translated, those are "Un haiku para Alicia" and "Persona normal". Greetings from Argentina!
My favorite book when I was a kid was Blinker en het Bagbag Juweel by Marc de Bel. He was a Belgian author and the book was actually a part of a series, but I never read the rest of it because they didn't have it in the library. I wanted to buy the book a while ago but I can't find it anywhere. It's very underrated, even in Belgium and the Netherlands.
+Molly Gunn He still is an author, he still writes new books. I also loved the Blinker series and I was also thinking that it would be great if his books got translated, although my first thought was Het Ei van oom Trotter en De Kracht van Ajajatsoe. Those were my favourite books for a long time!
I love this video. Books that should be translated from German to English - "Die Teeprinzessin" = The Tea Princess by Hilke Rosenboom. I loved it, even though there are some really improbable coincidences. Also Cornelia Funke wrote a series about a group of girls called "Die Wilden Hühner" = The Wild Chicks, which I don't think have been translated even though they are almost classics here. But I would love to become a Literary Translator, and I already try my hand at translating stuff like fanfiction. Which has lead me to automatically think about how I might translate parts of texts I read for fun ^^
I'm a native Croatian speaker and I translate into English. We have a lot of really interesting children lit. here, like for example Anto Gardaš who wrote a lot of sci-fi/fantasy books for kids.
I'm German and I don't read many German books but there is one called "wir kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" which I believe is not yet translated. it's a real story written by a woman who has experienced lots of awful things with drugs and the scene around it. it's a really interesting book and I wish more people could read it...
Hi! I'm Dutch and I think 'Je Blijft' by Anna Drijver would do really well in the english speaking world if it were translated. It's a young adult book and I'd say that if you like The Fault In Our Stars of The Perks of Being A Wallflower you'd like this.
I'm not much into brazilian literature and I've read very few brazilian authors (I know shame on me, but I'm working on it)! But one of the few books I read was De tanto bater meu coração se cansou by Marcia Kupstas and it was incredible, I really liked it and I think it should definitely be translated to English (and every other language in the universe) so everyone could enjoy it as much as I did. Also Os Porquês do Coração by Conceil Corrêa da Silva was one of my favorites from when I was a child (actually still is).
Oh, there are many German books I would like to see translated, for example the "Uralte Metropole" series by Christoph Marzi, it is AWESOME. I'm sure there are many others but those are the ones that come to mind. I found this video so interesting since becoming a literary translator would be my biggest dream in my life. It's just that in Germany you can barely make a living off it, which is a crying shame, and so I will probably have to turn away from literary translation and go into economy/business :(
Hi! I do speak English and I think I may study translation (?) it all depends on my last year of high school, I'm from Spain and I speak Spanish (of course), English and a little bit of French I wish I knew more... We'll see :) Well here in Spain there are lots of well written books but if I had to choose for a book to be translated I would like to choose any by Laura Gallego who is a well-known author here, my favourite by her this far is Donde Los Árboles Cantan which in English means something like Where The Trees Sing, it is a YA novel with a female protagonist who goes through a lot and its medieval fantasy themed, also I'd like if they translated her Memorias de Idhun Trilogy also YA and fantasy, I would reccommend these to anyone who knows Spanish or studies it who has a standard level at least I think
I'm Dutch and I remember loving De reis van de dwerg by Henny Fortuin, and would love to see it translated to English! However I don't think they even sell that one in the Netherlands anymore so I'm afraid that will never happen..
I speak fluent Italian and French but English is the language I prefer to use. There is a series called "la ragazza drago" that I would love to see translated into English. I've read the back and it sounds amazing. My lack of Italian reading ability has unfortunately stopped me from understanding it properly.
I speak Arabic and I'd like to see many ancient litrature books translated to other languages but I also want more YA books to be translated from English or any other language into Arabic because we don't have so many translations for some really good book series
My native laguage is Arabic, I would like to see a translation for "In the Presence of the Phoenix and the Loyal Comrade" by Ismael Fahad Ismael. He is a Kuwaiti Author with a brilliant technique in storytelling. The original title is "Fee Hadrat Alanqa' wal Khell Alwafi" في حضرة العتقاء و الخل الوفي
One of my favourite writes when I was a child was Jan Terlouw, and I especially liked "De kloof", "Briefgeheim" and "Koning van Katoren". It would be great if those were translated into English :)
I am from Poland. We've got some really good fantasy here! Wiedźmin (The Witcher) has already been translated, but we also got other great books. I wish the World would hear about "Pan Lodowego Ogrodu" (The Master of Icy Garden) and "Kłamca" (Liar) and Dom Wschodzącego Słońca (The House of Raising Sun) and many, many more! I know that some Polish books are translated into English but they are mosty classics (i.e. Bruno Schultz) and crime fiction...
This video was so incredibly interesting! This is a little off topic, but I adore your outfit in this. Where did you find that top? It is so unique and pretty.
I love the books by David Safier, especially "Jesus liebt mich" and "Mieses Karma" but I actually don't know if they have been translated into English, if not that would truly be a shame!
Translation is so important. I never realized before but I had tried to read The Brothers Karamazov many years ago and found it impenetrable. But then I happened to try again, unknowingly with a new translation. It was honestly a different book. Now I refuse to read Russian lit if it isn't translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. (Husband and wife pair. So cute.)
Everything from the Austrian writer Christine Nöstlinger should be translated. The German authors Wolfgang Herrendorf and Joachim Meyerhoff are also fantastic.
I don't know if it's been translated yet but Koning van Katoren by Jan Terlouw would be great to let the world know about, and also the Kinderen van Moeder Aarde series by Thea Beckman. Oh and how could I forget De torens van Februari (I don't remember the author, help). Basically I'd want to become a translator just to translate all my favourite childhood books O:)
I would love to know how much veto power an author has when it comes to changing names or other big changes. Also, it sounds like those choices can be made freely by the translator? I always imagined that more than one person would be involved in the bigger decisions of the translating process - how much of a say does the publishing house have, and do they propose changes before the book gets printed? To think how much power the translator has over the final result - especially if it's more stilised or literary language...
Oh i really want to be a translator too but where i live that is not very common, and the reason I want to be a translator is because I want to bring books that are written in English into Spanish
