The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-09
NOT A LITERARY AGE.
Why Is Translation a Neglected Art
NOWADAYS?

Why Is Translation Neglected Art
Nowadays?
Calling attention to the fact that the
closing years of the nineteenth century
have made US more cosmopolitan in many
respects than we ever were before and
that politically and socially the same sense
of human solidarity is growing all the
time, leading journal has some peril
nent remarks to make concerning the
inadeouacy of contemporaneous literary
translation and is especially severe
upon slipshod translations into English.
Il saws:
1.-THE simple fact is that the qualifca-
tions of translator are set far too low,
both by his employer and the public. The
long-suffering public, of course, has to
take what it can get, is to apathetic too de-
mand better workmanship, and easily
grows accustomed to the hackwork that
dulls the taste and deadens the literary
sensibility. As for the employer, the pub
Usher, he finds ready sale for the cheap
product, and hence does not offer the COM
pensat ion that good work ought to bring.
Of course, he has moral responsibility
in the matter, but he is not likely to care
for that when his pocket is concerned.
ANY young person with smattering OF
French or German and dictionary to
help him out, feels competent to become
translator, it never occurring to him that
the cultivation of an English style is the
first requisite of all; while the average
publisher shows that he accepts this view
BY refusing to pay for translation any sum
that competent workman, the real mas
ter of two languages, can possibly accept.
OF course honorable exceptions to this rule
may be found here and there, and equally,
of course, good translations will now and
then come from persons actuated not by
self-interest, but by delight in good work
manship for its own sake. But the con-
ditions that fix the existing standard of
TRANSACTIONS are still mainly of the hard
commercial kind, and until they are in
some way modified the standard will re-
main low.
st is possible that the art of translation
may rise from its present disrepute, but
the process will be slow. Cause for hope
fulness may be found in two facts. The
first of these facts is that the copyright act
of 1891 for the first time gave the foreign
writer some measure of control over the
American publication of TRANSACTIONS of his
work. He has 1t in his power to secure an
adequate translation and to pre-empt the
m arket for it. Unfortunately he does not
always know good translation from bad
one, and even if he does, may find it diff
cult to secure an efficient translator for his
work. Possibly he may come to learn by
experience how UNNECESSARILY his reputa-
ton suffers from laundering translations
and take measures to secure himself against
them.
"The other cause for hopefulness is in
the fact that an immenee expansion has
| taken place of late years in the modern
. language departments of our educational
institutions. The languages of Europe are
pursued in the scientific and literary spirit
by an increasing number of students every
year. These students will make most OF
the translations that will be read by the
coming decades. 1t is not too much to be-
lieve that their better methods and fuller
knowledge will make itself felt more and
| more as the years pass, and their efforts
| may cause a marked elevation in the cur
rent standard of literary translations.
| The Dial.