The following is an interview with Betsy Wing, a literary translator who has made it possible for those of us reading in English to enjoy works from authors we otherwise would never have had the chance to enjoy.
Dan:
Hello, and thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions. What language(s) do you translate from and to what language(s)?
Betsy Wing:
Hi, Dan. I translate only from French, a language I read well and speak adequately, to English, the language in which I speak and write with pleasure.
Dan:
Which of the languages you translate from and to is your native language? How did you come about learning the other language(s)?
Betsy Wing:
English is my native language. My elementary and secondary school education included French and I could read it well enough to place highly when I went to college. However, nobody had really pointed out that it was a spoken language and I was discouraged by the fact that the college courses were taught in French. I could understand what the prof was saying but never compose a decent answer. So I quit after first semester. I could, however, read well enough to continue actually reading French, which was useful to me in my major—Oriental (as they then called it) Art. The primary works on the subject were all written in French. The real clincher was when I married a French Lit major who went on to get his PHD in French. In order to talk to him about what he was doing I read a lot of the books he was reading and heard a lot of the theories in the air about those books—a sort of second-hand doctoral education. We also spent a number of years in France where I finally learned to speak French adequately.
Dan:
Do you consider yourself bilingual?
Betsy Wing:
Absolutely not.
Dan:
How did you get into translating?
Betsy Wing:
When Feminism began to be a topic people were reading and writing a great deal about (early 70s) I read a wonderful book by two French women, Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement that seemed to me to address the subject very differently from the rather flat-footed manner being employed by most writers in English. I was eager for my American friends to get a taste of what they were saying and could only think of one way to pass the book on to them. Then I sent a bit of the translation off to Cixous who was so complimentary (since she wrote her doctoral thesis on James Joyce I thought she was a good judge of the transition from French to English) that I took a chance and applied for a NEH grant to do the translation. I got the grant and ended up on the list of people asked by presses to do translation.
Dan:
When you are reading material in the original language, are you thinking in English – translating on the fly, or thinking in that original language?
Betsy Wing:
I think it’s really a combination of the two languages at play in my brain. When I read French, just to be reading—no intention to translate, I read and think in French, but when the project is translation I read the words in French and type them in English. I read slowly and use the dictionary quite a lot, because I’m aware that a French reader’s understanding of his/her own words is more nuanced, more influenced by multiple meanings than the first, automatic definition that comes to mind for me.
Dan:
Do you prefer to reading one language over the other(s)?
Betsy Wing:
I love the English language and have to say I prefer to read in English. But there are experiences that are intellectually only possible in other languages. I used to be able to read Italian and German but haven’t tried for years so I only go for these mind-opening experiences to French.
Dan:
Do you find it helps to know the author you are translating? Know their thought processes and beliefs?
Betsy Wing:
I find all this exists in the text I’m translating. I only met Cixous after I had translated her and was greeted as if I were some sort of long-lost sister. I also met Constant after translating THE GOVERNOR’S DAUGHTER and we hit it off. Edouard Glissant, a Martinican writer, was a friend and teacher of mine before I started translating his work. It is conceptually very difficult work and it was useful to have heard him discuss it in advance. I was, in fact, his student when he was composing his POETICS OF RELATION and heard him think through some of the ideas. That was helpful, but, in general, I save all my questions for the final editing process and find the answers to most of them inside the covers of the book I’m translating.
Dan:
Looking back at the works you have translated – how did you determine they were works you wanted to translate?
Betsy Wing:
Curiously, I usually don’t read a book that someone asks me to translate until I am actually translating it. I do those because the author’s work seems interesting. Others, like the Clement/Cixous NEWLY BORN WOMAN, have held some deep appeal for me. I thought American readers should have a chance to read what I was reading. Very rarely have I had to do any work that didn’t turn out to have that appeal, though I occasionally have done things because I expected to learn something I didn’t know I wanted to know about. If that makes sense...
Dan:
Are there some other authors that you would like to translate in the future?
Betsy Wing:
I’ll probably do more Constant and Glissant. They’re very different sorts of writers. As for new people I’ll wait and see. I like to be surprised by what turns up.
Dan:
Are you aware of journals out there like TWO LINES and Absinthe, that are only publishing translated work?
Betsy Wing:
Yes. A piece of mine is in the recent issue of TWO LINES whose theme is Masks. It is a beautiful passage from a novel by Edouard Glissant (still seeking a publisher) called THE OVERSEERS CABIN.
Dan:
Can one make a living as a translator?
Betsy Wing:
Not Me.
I think most literary translators have to have a day job. Usually this turns out to be in academia, but it doesn’t have to be. The people who can churn it out and are willing to translate lawyers’ documents, or medical papers or correspondance for oil companies can manage, but they’re probably not going to get rich. One fascinating way to make a living translating is to learn simultaneous translation—a totally different skill—taught at Monterey, maybe some other places now. Then you can travel around with people and translate for them, or work at the UN, etc.
Dan:
What is the typical number of pages you get through in a day? Or, how long would it take to translate a couple hundred pages of work?
Betsy Wing:
This varies enormously. In some of the more difficult texts I’ll be happy for a page a day. Constant is fairly easy and I do about 5 pages a day when translating her novels. I can’t do it but so many hours because my brain begins to hurt.
Dan:
What is your translating process? Do you read the whole work first in the native language and then begin? Do you discuss it with the original author? Do you just start translating from word one?
Betsy Wing:
I used to be embarrassed to admit that I translate from word one until I read an interview with Gregory Rabassa (translator of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE) that he translates that way as well. Doing it that way keeps me excited by the text and I can make corrections about misconceptions at a later stage.
Dan:
Frequently when reading a translated work, I’ll come across words left in the native language – what is your typical reason for doing this?
Betsy Wing:
Usually I will only do this when the word is so time and place specific that there simply is no other word. Sometimes a French word has come into the English language and exists there already, but even there I’ll go for a different translation occasionally because the overtones will be different in French and in English. Translating Glissant I have to leave his Creole words and phrases because the French reader doesn’t understand them any better than an English reader and I’m striving to create the same effect on the reader with my translation as the French text has on the French reader.
Dan:
Do you also write your own material? If so, in which language?
Betsy Wing:
I do write—in English. My novella and short story collection LOOK OUT FOR HYDROPHOBIA was published in 1990 or 91, I forget which. I’ve just completed a novel about World War II on the home front that’s about to go off to my agent.
Dan:
Do you belong to any organizations of translators? If so, what benefits have you found by having joined up?
Betsy Wing:
I belong to ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) and have found the conferences interesting though I don’t often go. Their publication TRANSLATION REVIEW is always interesting. I think a beginning translator in search of conversations and contacts in the translation world would benefit greatly by attending their conference.
Dan:
Well, I’d like to thank you, both for taking the time to answer these questions, and also for making the efforts that have allowed me to read some fantastic works that I’d never have been able to had you not done so.
Betsy Wing:
I’ve enjoyed doing this Dan and love my work. Don’t intend to retire. Check out some of the other things I’ve translated—I think they’re all terrific books!
I'm grateful to Betsy Wing for her translation of the "College of Sociology" (early works of Bataille and Caillois, etc)--what a stupendous resource! I can't wait to check out "LOOK OUT FOR HYDROPHOBIA."
Posted by: Will Schofield | Nov 13, 2007 at 10:04 AM
http://www.batterylaptoppower.com/hp/pavilion-zt1120.htm hp pavilion zt1120 battery ,
Posted by: batteries | Oct 09, 2008 at 07:23 PM
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/asus/m3.htm asus m3 battery,
Posted by: herefast123 | Oct 25, 2008 at 08:02 PM
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/acer/aspire-5920.htm acer aspire 5920 battery,
Posted by: herefast123 | Oct 27, 2008 at 10:26 PM
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk laptop batteries
Posted by: herefast123 | Oct 28, 2008 at 08:21 PM
http://www.batteryfast.com/uniwill/un243.htm uniwill un243 battery,
Posted by: herefast123 | Oct 29, 2008 at 07:03 PM
http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/apple/a1185-white.htm apple a1185 white battery,
Posted by: herefast123 | Oct 30, 2008 at 10:40 PM
I read her book!
Posted by: laser pointer | Oct 25, 2010 at 11:22 PM
I think that this post is very good because has useful information.
Posted by: Inversiones en petroleo | May 24, 2011 at 08:51 AM
I think that it is great that there are people that they are bringing that kind of literature to english.
Posted by: Online pharmacy reviews | Nov 07, 2011 at 12:12 PM
I'm very grateful too with Betsy Wing because I'm totally sure that a lot of people in the world wanted to read these literary jewels and finally we could get it thanks to Betsy Wing.
Posted by: xl pharmacy | Nov 18, 2011 at 10:27 AM