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Lost without translation
29.8.2007
By Zvi Bar'el |
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For
$12,000 a book, few works are translated into Arabic
and Kurdish
August
29, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Hundreds of books lie on the sidewalk in
Sulaimaniyah's central square, a city in Iraq's
Kurdistan Region. As in many other Middle Eastern
cities, sidewalks substitute for bookstores and the
crowd is free to gaze at the colorful bindings and
leaf through the text, unencumbered by swift
interference from a peddler who rises to shove them
aside. Most of the books are written in Kurdish -
only a few are in Persian.
"Novels do well," says the merchant, as he lifts
several titles from the pile. "So do sex books.
"Everything is translated. We still don't have
authors for this sort of literature. Here's Homer's,
'Iliad,'" he said. "We have a book about Freud,
too." |
Zvi Bar'el |
Few shoppers examine the books during the relatively
cool morning. Newsstands are more popular. They draw
a young crowd anxious to learn what occurred in the
Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq in the last
day.
"We lack books in university, as well. All that is
left is remnants from Saddam's period," says the
director of the culture center that adjoins Salah
a-Din University, in Erbil, the region's capital
city.
Foreign language books are tough to find in
Sulaimaniyah's large public library. A single copy
of Yehezkel Kujman's "Hebrew-Arab Dictionary,"
published in 1970, rests on the shelf next to other
dictionaries, but the librarian does not know if
anyone is learning Hebrew or how long the dictionary
has been in the library.
"We study from lectures here. Only a few students
bother to read reference books." Several students
passed through the hall next to the library,
reciting material from hand-written notes in
preparation for final exams. A group of 20 students
I met with said they would love to study abroad but
lack the funds to travel.
"They also lack the English to study abroad," added
one professor.
Their command of Arabic is limited also. Arabic has
become a loathsome symbol of Saddam's regime.
Moreover, without significant assistance from
foreign institutions, it may take years before newly
written books, in Kurdish, appear in libraries and
universities in Kurdistan. The situation does not
merely derive from a lack of funds but from a lack
of professional personnel who can competently
translate foreign literature or academic texts into
the local tongue.
But Kurdistan may take solace in the fact that
circumstances are no better in other Arab nations.
Only 1,000 books were translated in Egypt during the
last 10 years, and, according to 2002 U.N.
statistics. Only 330 books a year are translated in
Arab nations, a fifth of the number translated in
Greece alone.
Four months ago, Dr. Jaber Asfour was appointed
director of the National Center for Translation in
Egypt - an institution which achieved independent
status, thanks to the intervention of President
Hosni Mubarak. In newspaper interviews, Dr. Asfour
expressed his hopes to facilitate translation of
1,000 books each year in Egypt. That goal was
quickly slashed in half due to funding, but the
remaining sum is also unrealistic. The annual budget
of the National Center for Translation is $5
million, a sum sufficient to maintain offices, pay
workers and print limited editions, according to
Asfour. Translation alone costs about $12,000 per
book and Asfour requires at least $12 million to
fund his goals.
The problem is not limited to fiscal considerations
- it also involves quality of translation. Syria is
a nation lauded for superb translators, employed by
many publishers not only because of their skill but
because of the meager payment they exact: $400-600
per book. It is hard to find Egyptian translators
who would agree to work for such sums.
Publishers also claim they cannot pay translators
more because of the minimal numbers of books that
they sell. For example, an Arabic translation of "My
Name is Red," by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk sold
only 2,000 copies in Syria, as opposed to 70,000
copies in South Korea. Translated plays and poetry
books are rare because of the limited number of
readers.
It appears that in Arab nations, as in Kurdistan,
pornography, software and self-help are the only
genres that will continue to occupy translators.
haaretz com - Haaretz Daily Newspaper ISRAEL
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