Book Recommendation: Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman

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Book Recommendation: Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman

“Where literature exists, translation exists.” Edith Grossman - 2010

In line with one of our recent posts, we present Why Translation Matters, a short yet fundamental piece by the late Edith Grossman. Interestingly enough, this book came to be thanks to three lectures she gave at Yale in 2008, with the chapter “Translating Poetry” added for the publication. Grossman was a highly esteemed Spanish-to-English literary translator from the U.S.A. who translated works by García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, and Cervantes, among others. Because of her work, Grossman was a recipient of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and the 2022 Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation.

Why Translation Matters

In this book, the renowned translator highlights and advocates for the cultural significance of literary translation and translators, who often go overlooked and underappreciated. Grossman, as we did in our article, exposes that translation grants readers access to diverse voices and enriches their understanding of the world. Essentially, she argues that translation is a necessity due to the vast number of languages and the impossibility of learning all of them, and through it, new worlds open up before readers. The fundamental impact translation has in creating meaningful connections between cultures and broadening perspectives is difficult to ignore.

“Translation expands our ability to explore through literature the thoughts and feelings of people from another society or another time. It permits us to savor the transformation of the foreign into the familiar and for a brief time to live outside our own skins, our own preconceptions and misconceptions. It expands and deepens our world, our consciousness, in countless, indescribable ways.”
Page 14 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Not Afraid of Speaking up

To begin with, it is important to highlight a curious phenomenon associated with this small publication. Across reviews, online and in person, it is possible to find opposing standpoints regarding this book; some regard it as pedantic, while others continue to reread it, seeking the wisdom that comes from second-hand experience. It is interesting to see this divide and to wonder why it exists; some of the praise comes from translators themselves, whereas its harshest critics are editors.

The Often Overlooked Role of Translators

The general unapologetic and passionate tone of this piece proposes that dismissive attitudes among reviewers, agents, and publishers who overlook translation as a whole contribute to a widespread disregard for this profession. Moreover, Grossman also suggests that there’s a lack of understanding of literary translation as a literary art form, and that there’s a need for critical methods and vocabulary to discuss translation, to describe better and appreciate translations in reviews, for example.

“Putting to the side for a moment the dire state of publishing today or the lamentable tendency of too many publishers to treat translators cavalierly or dismiss them as irrelevant, the fact is that many readers tend to take translation so much for granted that it is no wonder translators are so frequently ignored.”
Pages 26, 27 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Default Omission

There’s no denying that translators are often the forgotten figures in review pieces. If mentioned at all, it is very briefly to acknowledge their participation, but most typically take for granted their craft and words. Even now, fifteen years after the publication of this book, it remains uncommon to read a review where the translator takes a leading role. In all fairness, Grossman takes the omission of translators personally, and in her words, it is easy to read urgency in her plea for recognition:

“Reviewers seem to care about translation even less than publishers do. I admit to a somewhat jaundiced attitude toward most book reviewers. In overwhelming numbers they tend not to speak substantively about translation or its practitioners, even when the book they are reviewing is a translated work. Their omissions and distortions are extraordinary, and certainly as wrongheaded as the publishers’ pretense that the translator’s name not only is of no importance but is likely to be a serious impediment to the success of the book.”
Pages 29, 30 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Opposing Views

Later on, she begins “Translating Cervantes” with a reproachful tone, describing how bastardised translators have been by the vast majority of the literary world, with the exception of writers.

"Translation is a strange craft, generally appreciated by writers (with a few glaring exceptions, like Milan Kundera, whose attack on his French translator was so virulent it achieved a sour kind of notoriety), undervalued by publishers (translators’ fees tend to be so low that agents generally are not interested in representing them), trivialized by the academic world (there are still promotion and tenure committees that do not consider translations to be serious publications), and practically ignored by reviewers (astonishingly, it is still possible to find reviews that do not even mention the translator's name, let alone discuss the quality of the translation)."
Page 54 - Translating Cervantes

Expectedly, Grossman’s idea of how others collectively see translators is the diametric opposite of her own views. Not unfounded, she believes the translator is a praiseworthy professional, whose undermined and underappreciated work remains unfairly in the shadows.

"By now it is a commonplace, at least in translating circles, to assert that the translator is the most penetrating reader and critic a work can have. The very nature of what we do requires that kind of deep involvement in the text. Our efforts to translate both denotation and connotation, to transfer significance as well as context, means that we must engage in extensive textual excavation and bring to bear everything we know, feel, and intuit about the two languages and their literatures."
Page 62 - Translating Cervantes

A Key Moment

Throughout the book, Grossman draws on her own experience as a professional and a translator to illustrate various concepts, and the result is effective. One of these examples occurs when Grossman pinpoints an essential moment in her life that would then change its trajectory.

“Neruda’s Residencia en la tierra in particular was a revelation that altered radically the professional direction I followed and actually changed the tenor of my life. It elucidated for me, as if for the first time, the possibilities of poetry in a contemporary environment. Above all, it underscored the central position of Latin America in the literature of the world, its impact made possible and even more telling by means of translation.”
Page 4 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

 This encounter was fundamental to her developing the concept of broadening one’s perspectives through literature and understanding the interconnectedness of literature, thanks to translation. She goes on to describe how Cervantes influenced Faulkner, and how Faulkner’s writing subsequently deeply affected García Márquez’s, illustrating how a cycle of influence comes to be through translation. 

"We read translations all the time, but of all the interpretive arts, it is fascinating and puzzling to realize that only translation has to fend off the insidious, damaging question of whether or not it is, can be, or should be possible."
Page 12 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Defining Good Translation

Throughout history, translators and academics have pondered what makes a good translation, or even a respectable one. Unfortunately, there’s no definite consensus after all the discussions and debates. As for Grossman, she has her own perspective on the matter, and in several instances across the book, she also discusses the role of translators and what they do, as well as how misunderstood the role is.

“I believe that serious professional translators, often in private, think of themselves—forgive me, I mean ourselves—as writers, no matter what else may cross our minds when we ponder the work we do, and I also believe we are correct to do so.”
Page 6 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

So, What is a Good Translation?

And while describing what translators do, she also hints at what she deems a good translation.

“...the most fundamental description of what translators do is that we write—or perhaps rewrite—in language B a work of literature originally composed in language A, hoping that readers of the second language—I mean, of course, readers of the translation—will perceive the text, emotionally and artistically, in a manner that parallels and corresponds to the esthetic experience of its first readers. This is the translator’s grand ambition. Good translations approach that purpose. Bad translations never leave the starting line.”
Page 7 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

When, later in the book, Grossman describes her experience as a translator, she expands on that notion:

"Good translations are good because they are faithful to this contextual significance. They are not necessarily faithful to words or syntax, which are peculiar to specific languages and can rarely be brought over directly in any misguided and inevitably muddled effort to somehow replicate the original."
Page 60 - Translating Cervantes

General State of English Translations

Grossman comments on the reality of translations in the English-speaking world. Generally speaking, according to her, translation has a hard time getting published, as publishers are hesitant to venture into what’s not well-known and reluctant to invest in a book readers might not want to read simply because of its otherness. Compared to other markets, it is indeed true that the percentage of titles translated into English is quite low — only 3% of titles published are translations, whereas in places like France, Germany, Italy and the Spanish-speaking market that number ranges between 25 and 40%.

"The impact of the kind of artistic discovery that translation enables is profoundly important to the health and vitality of any language and any literature. It may be one of the reasons that histories of national literatures so often seem to exclude supremely significant connections among writers. “National literature” is a narrowing, confining concept based on the distinction between native and foreign, which is certainly a valid and useful differentiation in some areas and under certain circumstances, but in writing it is obviated by translation, which dedicates itself to denying and negating the impact of divine punishment for the construction of the Tower of Babel, or at least to overcoming its worst divisive effects."
Page 17 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Too Many Books?

Unsurprisingly, her book focuses mainly on the state of affairs in the USA; at least one of the four sections is heavily focused on the reality in her home country. She begins the second section with a reflection on the impossibility of reading the overwhelming number of books being published in English each year, which may seem counterintuitive to her cause of promoting and expanding the availability of translations. According to Grossman, translated literature remains crucial, as neglecting literature from other cultures means a greater loss for society as a whole. Moreover, she argues that the upsetting rise in jingoistic attitudes in the USA equates to a disdain for anything foreign, and emphasises how dangerous it can be for any culture or country to isolate itself.

"Translation is, in fact, a powerful, pervasive force that broadens and deepens a writer’s perception of style, technique, and structure by allowing him or her to enter literary worlds not necessarily found in one national or linguistic tradition."
Page 22 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

A Translator’s “Simple” Task

In “Translating Cervantes”, Grossman delves into the notion of whether translation is even doable and explores how different literary figures have perceived translation and its meaning. She argues that translation, often deemed as a utopian or impossible endeavour, is actually possible. Translators engage with the text in such a way that they become the author’s voice in this new language.

"Translators translate context. We use analogy to recreate significance, searching for the phrasing and style in the second language which mean in the same way and sound in the same way to the reader of that second language. And this requires all our sensibility and as much sensitivity as we can summon to the workings and nuances of the language we translate into."
Page 60 - Translating Cervantes

A Monumental Task

Ultimately, her intention with this preface was to create the foundation of her telling; she shares her experience of translating the monumental Don Quixote and how her process of facing that immense task was for her.

"Cervantistas have always loved to disagree and argue, often with venom and vehemence, but I concluded that my primary task was not to become involved in academic disputation or to take sides in any scholarly polemic but to create a translation that could be read with pleasure by as many people as possible.
I wanted English-language readers to savor its humor, its melancholy, its originality, its intellectual and esthetic complexity; I wanted them to know why the entire world thinks this is a great masterwork by an incomparable novelist. In the end, my primary consideration was this: Don Quixote is not essentially a puzzle for academics, a repository of Renaissance usage, a historical monument, or a text for the classroom. It is a work of literature, and my concern as a literary translator was to create a piece of writing in English that perhaps could be called literature too."
Page 72 - Translating Cervantes

Translation in the Making

The last section of the book is perhaps the most practical of all; Grossman discusses the intricacies of her translation process by providing poems and her translations, and commenting on the differences between Spanish and English in terms of metre and rhythm. Furthermore, the general tone of this chapter is that of a practical lecture as she imparts knowledge to the reader, sharing her methods and thought process while translating poetry.

Conclusion: Translation’s Quiet Power

"And so we come back to the first question: why does translation matter, and to whom? I believe it matters for the same reasons and in the same way that literature matters—because it is crucial to our sense of ourselves as humans."
Page 32 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Why Translation Matters is Grossman’s powerful testament to the fundamental role that translation has in literature and culture as a whole. As a translator, Grossman’s forte lies in her creativity and domain of language; she fully believes in her words and by doing so, she compels the readers to think about their stance on the subject — whether that is the role of translators, as creators and writers, or the importance of translation in the literary realm, and by extension in culture.

In summary, this book is a concise yet powerful read for translators looking for inspiration and motivation to continue the sometimes-misunderstood labour they undertake. With translation, the way people connect broadens, and in recent times, more than ever, it is evident that translation is crucial in that profoundly human connection we seek.

"It has been with us almost from the beginning of our history, and despite profound changes in culture, customs, and expectations, it remains with us all over the world in a variety of guises. Where literature exists, translation exists. Joined at the hip, they are absolutely inseparable and, in the long run, what happens to one happens to the other. Despite all the difficulties the two have faced, sometimes separately, usually together, they need and nurture each other, and their long-term relationship, often problematic but always illuminating, will surely continue for as long as they both shall live."
Page 33 - Introduction: Why Translation Matters

Something Extra

Por qué la traducción importa Edith Grossman
My own physical copy of the Spanish version, translated by Elvio E. Gandolfo, filled with flags

Bibliography

Grossman, E. (2010). Why Translation Matters. New Haven & London: Yale University Press

Grossman, E (2011). Por qué la traducción importa (Elvio E. Gandolfo. Trans.). Madrid: Katz Editores

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Ayelen Lapettina Benito

English > Spanish Literary Translator

AATI and FIT member

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