Translation, Taste, and
Literary Reputation
Perhaps it is better to read a bad book than no book at all.
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Translations into English open new worlds. Often writers and translators become literary stars. Some may not be regarded as first-rate in their own languages, yet receive extraordinary acclaim in the English-language world. How should we understand this phenomenon? Does it distort the way literary merit is assessed across languages?
Anonymous
There are three related themes here, and a whole book could be written in response (but I shall control myself). i) which books ignored originally became successful after translation? ii) what makes a work ‘literary’? iii) is merit hostage to changing tastes?
i) No one in Brazil took Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” too seriously when it appeared in 1988. The publishers, having sold very few copies, returned the rights to Coelho. Five years later, Alan R. Clarke translated it into English and the book became a global phenomenon and the writer a spiritual guru full of sayings that balanced on the edge of meaning (without falling into it), like, “One is loved because one is loved.” In Brazil, a literary magazine called it “a gelatinous synthesis of teachings...”
In 1993, “Kirkus Reviews” said, “this is… a bag of wind.” And “Americans should flock to it like gulls.” They did, partly influenced by President Bill Clinton who was photographed with it.
In Britain, Coelho faced condescension and outright scorn before the sales phenomenon was acknowledged. “They’re tosh, of course,” “The Guardian” said of Coelho’s books, and asked, “But are (they) enjoyable tosh? Coelho is to tosh what Pele was to soccer.” But the cult grew, and the book sold 85 million copies. Perhaps it is better to read a bad book than no book at all. It was loved by readers, and hated by critics, which is preferable for a writer than the reverse.
Translation into English has been the lifeblood of even the finest writers, from Marquez and Kundera to Murakami and Erpenbeck, all of whom have won international awards too, giving their works additional boost.
Banu Mushtaq’s books in Kannada sold modestly before she won the International Booker for “Heart Lamp”. From 5,100 copies pre-Booker to 85,000 is a significant leap, and these are early days yet.
ii) Sales, of course, do not imply literary merit, or Dan Brown would be a literary giant. So what is literature? The critic Terry Eagleton has pointed out that there cannot be a definition since there is nothing verbally peculiar to a literary work, and no set of features is shared by all literary theories. And we’ll leave it at that.
iii) Great books are probably great in all languages. The reverse isn’t necessarily true because taste (which decides merit) is a complex issue. Determining factors include education, temperament, society, class, cultural shifts. And since these are not homogeneous, neither is taste. As Geoff Dyer (a personal favourite) said, “Caution: Your tastes in four years will be dramatically different than they are now.” Does anyone read Somerset Maugham today? Yet, a century ago, his “Of Human Bondage” was praised as a “work of genius” and compared to a Beethoven symphony.
Tastes change, and works are constantly being reassessed with or without translations. Definitions of ‘literature’ vary. Translation into English is sometimes the making of even an average writer especially when translation becomes interpretation too. To that extent literary assessment may become distorted.
