The art of translation
Book covers of Jacques Poulin’s
La traduction est une histoire d’amour, translated by Sheila Fischman. Jacques Poulin and Sheila Fischman are both past winners of a Canada Council for the Arts’ Molson Prize and Governor General’s Literary Award.
Artist Profiles and Success Stories
They are essential to our literary lives and their work is a fine balancing act. Yet, most of us know little about Susan Ouriou* (Pieces of Me), Nigel Spencer* (Augustino and the Choir of Destruction), Hugh Hazelton* (Vetiver) and myriad other talented artists who toil discreetly behind the scenes.
Literary translation is much more than a word-for-word rendering of an author's text; literary translators need to have a deep understanding of the work. They must grasp its every nuance, hear its music, and transpose all this into another language.
Author Jacques Poulin (Volkswagen Blues) said that his translator, Sheila Fischman, “curled up inside his words.” Poulin described this approach in La traduction est une histoire d'amour (Translation is a Love Affair). This title neatly sums up the bond between a translator and the text, and the new relationships between the author and his readers that a translation creates.
Just recently, a similar love story made the news when the novel Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler*, won CBC Radio One's Canada Reads contest. Together, our country's literary translators build bridges between English and French Canada, helping us to discover each other's cultures.
* Winners of Governor General's Literary Awards.
See for yourself the butterfly effect of translation.