Thursday, June 16, 2005

Interesting Book on the Italian Translation Market

Gianni Davico has written an interesting book: L'industria della traduzione, Realtà e prospettive del mercato italiano.
This is the first book on the Italian translation market. High spots of the book are interviews with Rodrigo Vergara of Logos, and other players in the Italian translation industry. Also interesting is Davico's analysis of the emerging division of the translation market between high-end and low-end, with a shrinking share of the market left in the middle.
The book is very useful as an up-to-date introduction to a subject that has not been dealt with at book length before.
Even though aimed at the Italian market, most of its contents and conclusions hold true for other markets as well.
Among the trends examined in the book there is the continuing expansion of the translation market, which is closely linked, however, to a trend towards lower and lower rates.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

New York Times' Review of Gregory Rabassa's Memoir

The Interpreter, by William Deresiewicz

An interesting review of "IF THIS BE TREASON, Translation and Its Dyscontents. A Memoir", By Gregory Rabassa.

"If translators are the anonymous heroes of contemporary literature, its anonymous superhero is Gregory Rabassa.
[...]
The contempt for translation partly reflects a desire to keep literature away from the grubby hands of the great unwashed, who don't know how to appreciate it anyway.
It is also a gesture of monumental bad faith. Has there ever been a writer who actually preferred not to be translated?"