[Susan McLean]

I just had some translations of Rilke, Catullus, and Baudelaire published in Transference (which those of you who translate should consider submitting to). Translators post discussions of their translating choices along with the finished translations.

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Roger Slater (Bob Schechter), whose version of the Rilke poem I translate here sent me back to look at Rilke again and ultimately started me on my current binge of translating his poems. Here is a link to the issue of the journal, which is online and in PDF:

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/trans.../vol6/iss1/17/

Susan

[Andrew Szilvasy]

Some nice translations, Susan!

[Erik Olson]

Congratulations on the fine translations, Susan!

[Julie Steiner]

I enjoyed the translation notes, too. So interesting. Thanks, Susan.

[Gail White]

Congratulations on this!

[Roger Slater]

Congratulations! I'm glad to have played a very indirect role in bringing about your fine translations.

I seem to recall that Transference wanted each submission to be accompaniedby a mini-essay on the translation process, etc., which I always found to be a daunting requirement, especially for older translations where my memory is somewhat dim. But I'm afraid I have no real process other than to look up every word in multiple dictionaries (even if I think I already know it) and then to start writing and do the best I can. The idea of doing a post-mortem where I confess to the compromises I was forced to make, etc., is uninviting. Also, it's a lot of work for the chance to have one's translation accepted. If they asked for it after acceptance, that would be another thing.

[Susan McLean]

Bob, I have been a referee for Transference, as well as being a submitter there, and I'd say that the essay about translating choices helped me decide whether the translator could defend his or her decisions, or whether the translator had not thought much about why one choice is better than another. Different people comment on different things about the translating process, and the essays vary in length. Good translations often are accompanied by interesting discussions. Not all translations deal with form as well as content, but when one tries to serve both, one has to make a lot of difficult decisions.

I think this journal is aimed at a scholarly readership, rather than just a popular one, so that may also explain why the editors think the essay is important. On the other hand, because of Open Access, the translations and essays are available for free to people all over the world. The translators get regular notification of when and where their translations have been accessed. That is kind of cool.

Susan