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D’après des propos recueillis par Isabelle Croix.

Inquiet face aux transformations du secteur de l’édition dans un contexte de mondialisation économique, il œuvre pour la promotion de la traduction littéraire et la défense des droits des traducteurs, en particulier au sein du British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), dont il est directeur depuis près de trois ans. Membre actif de l’Institute of Translators and Interpreters (ITI) et de la Translators’ Association (TA) au Royaume-Uni, il a été élu membre du Conseil de la FIT par le Congrès de Melbourne, en est vice-président depuis le Congrès de Mons et préside le Comité Traduction littéraire.

What is the BCLT?

The BCLT is the UK Centre which is part of the European network of literary translation Centres (like the Collège in Arles), which are financed by national cultural organisations and by the European Commission to promote literary translation and the status of literary translators in Europe.

The role of the BCLT is slightly different from that of its European counterparts. The situation in the English-speaking world is that very little is translated. The whole world is dominated by the hegemony of American culture in particular and part of that hegemony is reflected in the imbalance between the number of books translated from English and that of books translated into English. Therefore, the work of the BCLT in the UK and in the English-speaking world as a whole is to promote the translation of the literature of other countries into English and promote the reading of translations so as to persuade publishers to contract for more translations.

The BCLT works in collaboration with other organisations, particularly with the TA and the ITI.

We also have a grant from the Arts Council of England, for instance to promote the readership of literary translation in partnership with the book chain Waterstones which is currently involved in the creation of a paperback with extracts from translations in print. This booklet will be sold at a nominal price by Waterstones and we will organise events around literary translation. In all Waterstones bookshops there is a display of the books that are in the booklet and of other literary translations.

We have also worked with librarians in order to develop their consciousness about the necessity to buy literary translations for their libraries.

We have worked in partnership with the British Council, which commissionned the BCLT to develop a website on literary translation (http://www.literarytranslation.com/).

What is the view of FIT in respect of literary translation?

There is a tendency to think of literary translation as being something slightly eccentric, done by academics in their vacations. The FIT Literary Translation Committee (LTC) is very much opposed to that view and very much involved in promoting the professional status of literary translators. It also wishes to stress the centrality of literary translation, which is an art, to human culture but at the same time the centrality of literary translation to a very large industry.

The FIT LCT tries to put forward the view that literary translation is a professional activity that takes place within a multibillion dollar publishing industry. There has been a rapid development of transnational publishing companies. Individual literary translators are working for transnational publishing industries that have global policies, and that has implications on work schedules, contracts, deadlines…

This underlines the need for individual literary translators to belong to literary translation associations and the need for those associations to fight for proper contracts and professional conditions for their members. That also means that there is a need to educate publishers. Transnational publishing companies are involved in diversification and will not be interested in what a literary translator does. Literary translators’ associations have to make an impact on the executives who manage the publishing part of these industries.

The FIT LTC also believes that when we talk about literary translation we are not only talking about the translation of great works but also about the translation of bestsellers. One of the things that we discussed in Mons is that it would be interesting to organise a meeting of translators of books, because in the end, they would probably work for the same company, whether they are translating a book of Verlaine’s poetry or a book on computers. All the aforementioned industrial changes and their implications are common issues for all translators of books.

Could you give a few concrete examples of what the FIT LTC actually does?

For example, at the Melbourne Congress, the members who represent European associations within the LTC agreed that they would work together and try to get funding for training for literary translators. When we came back to our respective countries, we planned a bid to the European Commission and received a grant of 50,000 Euros which we put into a series of seminars that were held throughout Europe in the following year. Afterwards, we got two further grants for in-service training. This money actually enabled the members of literary translators’ associations in Europe to meet in their different countries and have professional dialogue. This happened because of FIT.

But clearly, the FIT LTC is a world committee and we are very keen on working with literary translators’ associations throughout the world. Actually there was a presentation by the European network of literary translators (the ARIANE Network) in Dallas, to a conference of the American Literary Translators' Association (ALTA). As a result of this dialog that was opened between European and North American literary translators, the ALTA joined FIT in Mons.

But it also is a question of resources. We have an impact in Europe because we got funding from Europe to do that. It’s very important for all FIT committees. The Executive Council of FIT has agreed that all committees have to be reformulated. Each committee now has to have an action plan to be more organised and show that there is a long term strategy. I am hoping that the new constitution of committees will mean that the national associations that back the individual members will support them more actively as well and that there will be more interaction. As for the LTC, we are in the process of reformulating ourselves. One of the things will be to make a really good Website that will immediatly enable a kind of international communication.

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Traducteur littéraire, traducteur d'édition

La promotion de la traduction littéraire

Les droits de traduction

La traduction littéraire en questions

L'expérience d'une traductrice de polars

Le Centre National du Livre

Les modestes aventures du traducteur qui propose son manuscrit

Entretien avec Florence Herbulot

Traducteur littéraire : témoignage de Cécile Nelson