Who’s the author?

There is an interview in the Boston Globe of March 7th with Edith Grossman, translator and author of a book called “Why Translation Matters”. She argues in the interview and in her book that when you read a translated book the author of that book is not the only author but that the translator has a great part in the language of the book and how the book is understood for its foreign readers. Go read the article and see if you agree with me that she is arguing the case very well. Literary translators are rarely seen. And if they are seen it’s mostly because of real or imagined mistakes. Well, it’s time to see translators as the English, French, Portuguese or Spanish writers of the original book.

Tips for speakers

One of my research colleagues Anna-Riita Vuorikoski says that the responsibility for understanding a message does not only lie with the interpreter. It is a mutual responsibility between the speaker and the interpreter. Hence we need to educate our speakers as well. The blog Translating and Interpreting has a very good post on Tips for working with interpreters. I cannot say it better myself.