Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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Translators,whichgaveliterarytranslatorswhatPhilipStratfordcalleda

‘collectivesenseofidentity’(1977:viii).Fewtranslatorsareabletomakea

livingoutofliterarytranslationalone,eventoday.Mostareacademics,civil

servants,journalists,salariedtranslatorswithincorporations,orfreelancers.One

exceptionworthyofmentionisSheilaFischman(1937–),whohastranslated

overthirtybooksintoEnglish.Theseincludedworksbysomeofthebest

knownQuébecauthors,suchasAnneHébert,MarieClaireBlais,Michel

Tremblay,JacquesPoulin,VictorLévyBeaulieu,YvesBeaucheminandRoch

Carrier.FischmanwasawardedtheC.M.(MemberoftheOrderofCanada)

on27April2000forherservicestoCanadian–FrenchLiterature

Economicfactorshavecontributedtothelowvolumeofliterarytranslationin

Canada.Thegoingratefortranslatorsworkinginthecommercialor

administrativesectoristwicethemaximumratepaidbytheCanadaCouncil.

Initiallyamere5centsperword,thisratewasstillonly10centsperwordin

1993.Nevertheless,theCouncil’sTranslationGrantsProgrammehas

encouragedmanypublisherstolaunchtranslationcollections.TheMontréal

basedpublishinghouseLeCercleduLivredeFrance(knowntodayasles

ÉditionsPierreTisseyre)wasthefirsttolaunchsuchaseries,in1973,underthe

titleCollectiondesDeuxSolitudes(afterHughMacLennan’snovelTwo

Solitudes,1945).ThetwosolitudesrefertoCanada’stwomainlanguage

groups,FrancophonesandAnglophones,wholivesidebysidewithoutreally

understandingoneanother.Oneofthespecificobjectivesofthefederalgrants

programmeistoenableCanadianstobecomebetteracquaintedwiththeother

solitudethroughliterature.In1989,thepublishinghouseQuébecAmérique

launchedanewseriesoftranslationscalledLittératured’Amérique.Les

éditionsBoréalalsopublishestranslatedworks.Englishliterarytranslationshave

beenpublishedprimarilybythefollowingsmallerpresses:HarvestHouse,

HouseofAnansi,NewPress,Porcépic,Exile,CoachHouse,Talonbooks,

Tundra,GuernicaandNCLibrary.

OnlytwoEnglish–Canadianplaysweretranslatedpriorto1970,andveryfew

havebeentranslatedsincethen.ThiscanbeexplainedbytheactivityofQuébec

playwrights,whoseworksarepromptlytranslatedintoEnglish,andalsobythe

preferencewithinQuébectheatrecirclesforAmerican,British,Russianor

Italianplays.InfluencedbythenewstyleofdramaintroducedbyMichel

Tremblayin1968,growingnationalistsentiment,andtheenhancedstatusofa

typicallyQuébecoislanguage,translatorswhoadaptworksforthetheatre

begantonaturalizeforeignplays.ThecharactersofShakespeare,Chekhov,

O’Neill,Lorca,BrechtorGoldoniweremadetospeakQuébecois.Insteadof

selfeffacingtranslationswhichaimtoprovideaccesstotheforeignwork,these

adaptationsprovidedameansofexpressingthespecificityofQuébec(Brisset

1990).

Andfinally,wheretypesofliterarytranslationareconcerned,itisimpossibleto

ignoretheintense,original,evenavantgardeapproachoffeministtranslators.

Thesetranslatorsmeetfrequentlyatconferencesandseminars.Theywork

closelywiththeauthorstheytranslateandpublishbilingualeditionsorspecial

issuesofmagazinessuchasTessera.Theworkstheytranslateareallfirmly

rootedinfeministideology,andthetranslationsarecarriedoutprimarilyfrom

FrenchintoEnglish.Québecnovelists,poetsorfeministthinkerssuchasNicole

Brossard,LoupyBersianik,LiseGauvin,FranceThéoret,MadeleineGagnon

andJovetteMarchessaultaretranslatedbytheirEnglishCanadiancounterparts.

SusannedeLotbinièreHarwood(1991),BarbaraGodard,KathyMezei,

MarleneWildeman,FionaStrachan,YvonneKleinandGailScottareleading

representativesofthefeministapproachtotranslationinCanada.

Onthewhole,thenumberoftranslatedliterarybooksdoubledeveryfiveyears

duringthe1970s.Untilthe1980s,almosttwiceasmanyliterarytranslations(in

thestrictsenseoftheterm)weremadefromFrenchintoEnglishthanviceversa.

In1977,forexample,thestatisticswereasfollows:F



E:380titles;E



F:

190.Fiveyearslater,thegaphadnarrowed:F



E:550titles;E



F:400.

ThreequartersofallCanadianliterarytranslationshaveappearedsince1972,

andmorethan80percentofthesetranslationsweresubsidized.

In1974,theCanadaCouncilestablishedaprizeof$2,500tobeawardedeach

yeartotwooutstandingtranslations:oneFrenchandoneEnglish.Thisprize,

whosevaluedoubledto

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$5,000in1976,hasbecomeoneoftheGovernorGeneral’sestablished

LiteraryAwards.TherecipientsincludeJeanParé,SheilaFischman,Yvan

Steenhout(allthreeofwhomhavewontheawardtwice),PatriciaClaxton,Ray

Ellenwood,ColetteTonge,FrankScott,GillesHénault,PhilipStratford,

CharlotteMelançonandJaneBrierly.The2007prizewaswonbyNigel

Spencer.In1981,theAssociationofLiteraryTranslatorscreatedtheJohn

GlasscoTranslationPrizeinmemoryoftheeminentwriterandtranslator.The

prizeisawardedannuallytothebestbooklengthtranslationbyanew

translator.

Bycontrastwithinterpreting,thefirstprofessionpractisedinCanadafollowing

thearrivaloftheEuropeansin1534,literarytranslationhasashorthistory.

Wereitnotforgenerousgovernmentsupport,itmightneverhavebecomea

prominentactivity.Nevertheless,therelativelysmallgroupofliterarytranslators

isasimportantandactiveasthewholeprofessionoftranslationinCanada,a

countrywhichunquestionablyranksamongtheworld’sforemosttranslating

nations.

Furtherreading

McLean1890;Shipley1966;Erasmus1976;Ellipse1977;Meta1977;

Stratford1977;Inuktitut1983;LaBossière1983;Toye1983;Delisle1984,

1987;Fardy1984;Simon1989;Brisset1990;Delisle1990;Lotbinière

Harwood1991;Brisset1996.

JEANDELISLE

TranslatedfromFrenchbySaraC.Lott.

Chinesetradition

Chinese,aSinoTibetanlanguage,isanofficiallanguageoftheUnitedNations

andisspokenbymorepeoplethananyotherlanguageintheworld.Itisthe

officiallanguageofthePeople’sRepublicofChinaandTaiwan,oneofthe

officiallanguagesinHongKongandSingapore,andisspokenbyalarge

sectionofthepopulationinThailand,MalaysiaandVietnam.

TheChineselanguageofhighantiquity,whichgoesbacktothefirstmillennium

BC,hasremainedaccessibletoeducatedspeakersofChinesebyvirtueof

havingbeenrecordedintheformofcharacters,i.e.ideographs.Unlikea

phoneticscript,ideographsarenotaffectedbyphonologicalevolutionandare

thereforelargelyimmunetochange.Inevitably,however,thespokenlanguage

developedalongitsownlines,andthegapbetweenthewrittenandspoken

wordgrewwiderandwider.Bythetimealiteratureinthevernacularemerged,

thespokenformwasalreadyquitedistinctfromclassicalChinese.The

vernaculardidnotreplaceclassicalChineseasthemediumofformalwritten

discourseuntilthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury.

ClassicalChineseischaracterizedby

(a)itshighdensity,oftencomparedtothestyleoftelegrams,

(b)itsgrammaticalversatility,wherebythesamecharactercanfunctionasa

noun,verb,adjectiveoradverb,

(c)itssparinguseoftenseandnumber,and

(d)itstonality,afeaturewhichisparticularlyrelevantinliterarycompositionand

henceinliterarytranslation.

Thesecharacteristicshavetraditionallyledtowidedifferencesininterpretation,

particularlyevidentinthecaseoftranslation.Thevernacularlanguage,now

knownasMandarinorputonghua,isheavilypolysyllabic,hasmoredefinite

wordclasses,andmakesmuchmoreuseofgrammaticalmarkers,thoughbyno

meansasextensivelyorobligatorilyas,say,FrenchorGerman.Translation

fromEuropeanlanguages,predominantlyEnglish,hasprogressivelybrought

modernChineseclosertothoselanguages,atleastintermsofwritingstyles.

Avastcountrywithscoresofregionallanguages,Chinahasprobablywitnessed

translationandinterpretingactivitiessincethefirsttribalbattleorproduce

exchange.EarlyhistoricalworkssuchasthefirstcenturyBCRecordsofthe

GrandHistoriancontainmanyreferencestotranslationinthecontextof

diplomacyandcommerce.AsearlyastheZhouDynasty,intheninthcentury

BC,therewerespecialgovernmentofficialsinchargeofinterpretingand

translationwork;theirtitlesvariedaccordingtothegroupoflanguagesthey

covered.Anintegralpartofprotocol,theywerealwayspresentatmeetings

withforeignemissaries.Thetermforagovernmentinterpreterofthisperiod