The written word
The shelves of Hibernian Books, a second-hand English bookshop in Gràcia, are full of the names of the usual literary suspects such as Dickens, Joyce and Dostoevsky. However, few translated works by Catalan authors grace the shelves—and if one is unable to find an English translation of a Catalan masterpiece here in Barcelona, then where?
The difficulty in finding Catalan texts in English is due to various reasons, but perhaps the most important is simply competition. Not only are Catalan books competing against one another for translation and publication into English, they are also competing against scores of books in other tongues. “There’s tremendous competition to be translated into English as a gateway language to the rest of the world,” Richard Davies, publishing director at Parthian Books, an independent Welsh publisher, told Metropolitan.
Not all that much gets chosen. Only three percent of what is published annually in English is in translation. Publishers perceive the English public as reluctant to read foreign authors. “US and UK publishers have an entrenched view that works in translation don’t sell,” said Haarlson Phillipps, an author and translator living in Barcelona.
Publishing executives seem to confirm this. “English readers are notoriously closed-minded to foreign literature,” said Michael O’Connell, sales and marketing manager at Peter Owen Publishers. “For instance, in Germany you could have 40 percent of books of foreign-language origin available in bookshops, and in the UK it would be a fraction of that, with books from a literary elite making up that fraction of published literature.”
The Institut Ramon Llull is an organisation run in part by the Catalan government, which offers grant money to aid in translations as part of its efforts to promote Catalan culture abroad. Of the 102 Catalan texts their grants helped to translate in 2009, only eight were in English. By comparison, 13 were published in French and 12 in German.
Then there are the two ever-present constraints of the business world—money and time. It costs an average of €10,000 to translate, produce and market a foreign text. “Why pay for translation when there are many hundreds of native English writers who will supply content for a pittance?” asked Haarlson Phillipps. Richard Davies, whose Parthian Books has published two Catalan-to-English translations since 2007 and is set to publish a third next month (Look Me in the Eye by Silvia Soler), estimated that with a novel it takes about two years to go from green-lighting a translation to the bookshelves. Two years and m10,000—that’s a significant bet for a publisher to place on a book that may garner little attention from readers.
So how exactly does a Catalan author get his or her text translated to English? As the old adage goes, it’s not what you know—it’s who you know.
Parthian’s foray into Catalan literature began with Under the Dust, a novel by Jordi Coca, and it started with a dinner invitation rather than a literary agent’s phone call. One of Parthian’s previously published Welsh authors was living in the little village of Rabós in Alt Empordà, as was Coca, and was invited to dine with the Catalan author one evening. Two years later, Under the Dust made its English debut with Parthian. Of the publisher’s small stable of Catalan translations, all have found their way into English via personal recommendation: Black Beach & Other Plays (another Coca-penned text) was suggested by the chairman of a Welsh theatre company, while Silvia Soler’s Look Me in the Eye was recommended by the translator of Under the Dust. As Richard Davies explained, “Our editorial policy is to work with people, ideas and suggestions on translations”— so oftentimes a serendipitous suggestion is preferable to a submission found in an inbox.
Michael O’Connell, of Peter Owen, prefers developing projects through interaction with institutes, and the cultural departments attached to foreign embassies. The company’s translation of Quim Monzó’s The Enormity of Tragedy was recommended to them by the Institut Ramon Llull and gained momentum internally when a member of the Peter Owen staff who had read the novel backed the proposal. Peter Bush, the translator of such books as Teresa Solana’s A Not So Perfect Crime, and Empar Moliner’s I Love You When I’m Drunk, has developed substantial credibility, to the point that publishers rely on his recommendations when navigating the unexplored oceans of Catalan literature. “I suggest works to publishers that sometimes leads to a translation. This is the case with The Last Patriarch by Najat El-Hachmi. I proposed it to the publisher at Serpent’s Tail and he asked for a report, and my translation will be published in May.”
Once a book has emerged from the fray of selection, the march toward English is a fairly straightforward one. After a translator is contracted—Parthian has worked with the same translator, Richard Thompson, on their three Catalan-to-English projects, while Peter Owen takes recommendations for each book—they’re generally left alone. “As translators are usually on a very tight schedule, we give them a deadline and leave them to the work. Constant queries and updates in either direction can be counter-productive,” said Michael O’Connell.
What follows is marketing. “We did an author interview and tour with Jordi Coca [Under the Dust] but with Look Me in the Eye we’ll probably just release to the trade with basic advance information and hope for a good reception to the book,” said Davies.
“What is sorely needed is a prize for the translation of Catalan literature into English. Prizes give visibility,” said translator Peter Bush. That would certainly shine a spotlight on the work of Catalunya’s authors, as well as their translators, and hopefully this is something the Institut Ramon Llull is working toward.
In the meantime, if you enjoy a book by a Catalan author, why not drop an e-mail to the publisher? If the Parthians and Peter Owens of the world know readers are out there enjoying these authors, that might give them the impetus to keep Catalunya in their publishing sights.
Books mentioned in this article are available directly from the Parthian and Peter Owen websites: www.parthianbooks.com and www.peterowen.com. For titles on the Top 10 lists below, compiled by two scholars with expertise in Catalan literature, refer to amazon.co.uk or abebooks.com. Books marked with an asterisk appear on both lists.
Stewart King, Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies—Monash University
The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda*
The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó
Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez
The White Knight, Tirant lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba*
The Towpath by Jesús Moncada*
The Virgin of the Railway and Other Stories by Pere Calders*
A Not so Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana
The Doll’s Room by Llorenç Villalonga
I Love You When I Am Drunk by Empar Moliner
Verse Translations of 30 Poems by Ausiàs March
Emily Bergmann, Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese—University of California, Berkley
The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda*
The Towpath by Jesús Moncada*
O’Clock by Quim Monzó
The Last Patriarch by Najat El-Hachmi
The White Knight, Tirant lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba*
The Virgin of the Railway and Other Stories by Pere Calders*
Solitude by Victor Català
Natural History by Joan Perucho
Selected Poems by Salvador Espriu
When I Sleep, Then I See Clearly by J.V. Foix