To qualify for the 2009 Rossica Prize, the original work must be written in Russian by any author, present or past and the translation published in 2007 and 2008. The prize is open to works published in any country. The award, totalling £5,000, is to be split between translator and publisher. Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2008.

The Rossica Prize Committee includes distinguished literary figures - Literary Editor of The Independent and founder of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Boyd Tonkin, the publisher Christopher MacLehose, Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation Amanda Hopkinson and Director of Literature at British Council Susanna Nicklin.  The panel of judges consists of three leading academics and translators: Martin Dewhirst, Antony Briggs and Robert Porter.  The award ceremony will take place in London on 24 May 2009, the Day of Sts Kyrill and Methodios, the creators of the Slavic alphabet.

Academica Rossica also invites publishers to apply for our newly-launched programme of grants for literary translation from Russian into English. This programme aims to promote Russian literature internationally. On the whole, priority is given to translation of contemporary fiction and poetry; literary non-fiction titles may also be eligible if they are exceptional in terms of literary or stylistic innovation.

For more information, please contact Ruth Atkinson, Literature Projects Coordinator, at
rossica-prize@academia-rossica.org.

Academica Rossica
Russian Culture and Arts Foundation
76 Brewer Street
Piccadilly Circus
London W1F 9TX
+44 20 7287 5712
+44 20 7287 2614

James, from Brighton, England, was accused of three crimes, including communicating information to the enemy, collecting documents useful to the enemy, and willful misconduct in a public office. He was found guilty on the first charge, the most serious of the three, and the jury is still deliberating on the second two.

The prosecution claimed that James had been caught “red-handed” with secret emails while attempting to pass information on to the insurgents and with incriminating photos in his room. In his defense, James claimed that he remained a loyal British soldier and that those accusing him of spying were “mad.”

In light of the current political climate, trying such cases objectively is difficult, as juries, especially military tribunals, are laced with all sorts of local suspicions and prejudices. Indeed, some of the descriptions of James by the prosecution–that he was flamboyant and that he invited the general to a salsa dance–seem to have little to do with the case. My general feeling is that many translators on both sides of the conflict are suffering a disproportionate share of the blame and the punishment.

U.S. booksellers at the fair, however, were slow to browse non-English texts for possible translation and distribution in the United States. Even the Nobel prize winner in Literature, the French writer JMG Le Clézio, is all but our of print in English, let alone the top German or Turkish authors.

In an article published October 17, 2008 in the New York Times, Motoko Rich suggested that U.S. Publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair spent more time at English-language exhibits than at international ones. Quoting Chad Post from Open Letter Books, out of over 15,000 titles published in the United States this year, only 330, or less than 2 percent, are translations, reminding us of Larry Venuti’s thesis that translation is invisible in the United States. To read the full article, go to “Translation is Foreign to U.S. Publishers.”

Sometimes the economics of not publishing translations makes little sense. David Godine, publisher of Black Sparrow Books, a firm that brought out Le Clézio’s The Prospector in translation, says, “It is ridiculous that more people don’t invest in buying great literature.” He argued that the translation rights for many of the best books abroad can be bought for as little as $2,000. In addition, the publication of famous international writers brings prestige to  U.S. presses.

Often publishers are slow to acquire manuscripts that they cannot read themselves, or are nervous to publish authors they know little about. Here literary translators can be of help. When proposing literary translations, include not just sample chapters, but also help inform publishers about the market and the international prestige of the authors you are proposing. There are very good reasons why Le Clézio won the Nobel prize, and U.S. culture is poorer for not having more of his work, as well as many internationally distinguished writers, available.

The law, known as Senate Bill 853, requires health plans to translate vital documents into the top spoken language among a plan’s membership and to provide interpretation services for any language a member of the plan requests. The law includes the following provisions: if a health plan has more than one million members, it must translate materials into the top two non-English languages spoken by its members; for plans with 300,000 to one million members, translation into only one language is required; and for plans with under 300,000 members, translation is required when 3,000 members (or more or 5 percent, whichever is less) indicate a need for translation services.

California has some of the most progressive laws in the country regarding providing translation and interpreting services to limited English-speaking and non-English-speaking patients. The success of the implementation of this law, its enforcement, its success in improving health care, and its overall costs, merits close attention. For more information, see the full article at Earth Times.

Lenita Esteves (Brazil) is on sabbatical from her job as Professor of Translation Studies at São Paulo and will spend her fall semester with us at the Translation Center. She received her PhD from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (1999) with her thesis on the translation on Finnegans Wake. She will be conducting research on ethics and translation while here, including issues raised in community encounters and in international situations of conflict.

Yonjoo Hong (Korea) is a new graduate student in the MA in Translation Studies Program here at UMass. She did her undergraduate degree in English at the University of Sheffield, and her MA in Translation from the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea.

Grazia Trentini (Italy) is an undergrad exchange student at UMass, coming here from the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Bologna at Forlì (Forlì, Italy). She is the first translation student to arrive under our newly signed educational exchange agreement with Bologna/Forli, one of the top translation schools in Italy.

Xin Hongjuan (China) is a Fulbright scholar from the School of Foreign Studies, Central South University in Changsha, Hunan, China. She received her PhD in Translation Studies from Nanjing University in 2006. Her research project is on the Tao-te-ching in English, focusing on the imagery of the text and how texts travel.

Right now Spanish, French, and German are up an running, and other langauges such as Catalan, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian are open for translation. See facebook translation for more information on the program. Right now there are a lot of bugs, especially in the new languages, and there are lots of errors. Many of the discussions, i.e., using the tu or Vd. form in Spanish, are details professional translation companies have worked out year before. I am sure that the quality of the translations will improve as the amateurs are weeded out through the rating system.

But the larger question of soliciting free translations vs. paying for translation services remains. As director of the Translation Center, I have been fighting to get the rates up for translation services. We find that amateur translations end up costing more to fix in the long run, cost your business much prestige in terms of how it represents itself professionally, and cost valuable time for employees who could be working productively on other things. And the fact that Facebook is a multi-billion dollar company resorting to such exploitative tactics contributes to the insult.

The discussion online seems mixed. Criticism exists: CNN on Facebook Translations cites an Ana Torres from Madrid who calles the translations in Spanish “extremely poor,” citing “outrageous spelling mistakes” such as “ase” instead of “hace” (for “makes” or “does”) and usage of the word “lenguaje” for “language” rather than the correct “idioma.” Other reviews are positive, such as FaceReviews, where Rodney Rumford writes, “I love it. There are already 839 people translating the site to Spanish. All for a whopping cost of ZERO Dollars. Users also vote on translations (up or down). This just might be the first high visibility use case of a facebook application for mass collaboration. Hello Wikipedia.”

I am greatly interested in how other translators feel about crowdsourcing and translation. For better or worse, the trend is here to stay.

In an essay titled “Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History” published in the Monthly Review (July), Camayd-Freixas offered a personal account of a raid by Immigration and Custums Enforcement (ICE) on a meat-packing plant in a small town in Iowa near Waterloo. In one of the largest raids in history, over 400 immigrants were arrested, and over 26 federally-certified interpreters, including Camayd-Freixas, who is a professor at Florida International University, were rushed to an Iowa district courthouse for an immediate “trial.”

The story is significant because it was picked up by the NYTimes. In a July 11 article titled “An Interpreter Speaking up for Migrants” Julie Preston describes how the defendants, most of the villagers from Guatemala, did not understand the charges they were facing or the rights that they had waived. She also reports on how Professor Camayd-Frexas expressed surprise at the pace of the proceedings and the pressure placed upon the defendants to waive their rights to lawyers and interpreters. It is unusual in such cases for prosecutors to press criminal charges instead of merely arguing for deportation.

Of further significance, the editorial page of the NTTimes picked up the story and ran an outspoken editorial in their Sunday, July 13 paper titled “The Shame of Postville, Iowa” condemning the raid as “abusing and terrorizing undocumented immigrant workers.” The editorial quotes Dr. Camayd-Freixas as saying, “Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10.”

The NYTimes editorial does not deny that some workers were breaking the law; it does take issue with denying defendants their rights and the inhumane treatment such paid employees and family breadwinners received.

For me, as a translation teacher, Erik Camayd-Freixas’s stand raises significant questions regarding the ethics of interpreting. Normally interpreters are trained to remain neutral in such proceedings and not take sides; additionally, they are trained to keep such proceedings confidential. By going public, Erik Camayd-Freixas violated those rules and will probably never work as a federally certified interpreter again.

At what point do alternative sets of ethics take over, such as a personal desire to see justice carried out? At what point do acts of cruelty and injustice override a set of professional ethics? Interpreters, after all, are paid by the state. To whom does their loyalty lie? What are our ethics as US citizens when we see such abuses being committed? What about questions of interpreter abuse is such situations? Did Professor Camayd-Freixas cross a line or can his speaking out be justified?

My sense is that similar abuses are being committed frequently in the United States during the current socio-political situation, yet conducting research on such events is difficult. Cameras are generally forbidden in the courtroom, and although transcripts are available, only the English serves as the official record. Certainly attorney/client records are off limits. Perhaps universities in collaboration with the government and granting institutions, would be allowed to witness such proceedings and in their own way document such hearings with the goal of figuring out ways to improve the delivery of j

This is good news, as the earlier restrictions of 50 such visas per year barely addressed the problem. Under the Kennedy-Lugar legislation passed in August 2007, that number was increased to 500, but was still woefully inadequate. While the number of Iraqis and Afgans employed as translators and interpreters is difficult to estimate, some suggest that over 20,000 have served in such a capacity. In 2007, according to the Dept. of Defense, 5,490 Iraqis worked as interpreters for the coalition forces alone.

Those working as translators and interpreters face numerous threats, including assasination, death threats to their families, bombardment of their homes, kidnappings, beatings, and various forms of social and psychological abuse. Some estimate that up to 300 translators have been killed. Despite such conditions, many continue to work, demonstrating a high degree of loyalty and dedication.

The Kennedy-Lugar legislation helps, as does this recent expansion of the program. But many problems remain, including the complicated bureaucracy surrounding the program, making it difficult for applicants to figure out the process. Frustration with the Bush administration, including the Office of Homeland Security and the Department of State, continues for not doing more to make the process easier. Some of the bureaucratic hurdles are outlined in a May 14, 2008 NTTimes article titled “Offices Battle Hurdles for Iraq Aides.”

At UMass Amherst, we have some experience with the visa process, as two of our Iraqi students, graduates of our MA in Translation Studies Program, have been granted special visas. One of the bureaucratic hurdles includes a mandatory letter of recommendation from a general rather than the translator’s commanding officer or direct employer.  Senator Kennedy’s office has been very helpful, as have administrators in the UMass Graduate School, including John Mullin, Dean of the UMass Graduate School.

Successful applications invariably require a network of support. Over 2,000 translators have applied for such status already, and the numbers are growing. It is difficult for many of our brave officers abroad to leave such loyal employees behind, but the bureaucracy is intimidating.

For me, as an educator, I find it very difficult to spend several years working with students, helping them develop their linguistic and cultural skills, build their repertoire of translation documents, improve their technological abilities, and prepare for a professional career, only to send them back to Iraq and put their lives and those of their relatives in jeopardy. The Iraqi and Afgan translators and interpreters serving our troops have demonstrated great degrees of loyalty and patriotism, and deserve better.

It is good time to enter the translation business. In 2007, the average growth rate of the the companies being tracked was over 26%, reaching over US$12 billion in total sales. Some companies, such as Xerox Global Services, Transperfect/Translations, and SDL, are growing at a healthy 35-45% clip. In the next five years, Common Sense Advisory predicts that the revenue from translation will reach US$24 billion, a growth rate of over 14% annually.

Here is a quick list of their top five translation firms:

For a full list, please see the Common Sense Advisory website. From my perspective, such growth well illustrates the need for universities to not reduce but to increase the number of foreign languages offered and to expand their translation programs to better prepare students for this exciting new industry, especially by including courses in translation technology, localization, and the globalization.