The Translator’s Invisibility

As Figures 1 and 2 indicate, British and American book production increased fourfold since the 1950s, but the number of translations remained roughly between 2 and 4 percent of the total—notwithstanding a marked surge during the early 1960s, when the number of translations ranged between 4 and 7 percent of the total.[8] In 1990, British publishers brought out 63,980 books, of which 1625 were translations (2.4 percent), while American publishers brought out 46,743 books, including 1380 translations (2.96 percent). Publishing practices in other countries have generally run in the opposite direction. Western European publishing also burgeoned over the past several decades, but translations have always amounted to a significant percentage of total book production, and this percentage has consistently been dominated by translations from English. The translation rate in France has varied between 8 and 12 percent of the total. In 1985, French publishers brought out 29,068 books, of which 2867 were translations (9.9 percent), 2051 from English (Frémy 1992). The translation rate in Italy has been higher. In 1989, Italian publishers brought out 33,893 books, of which 8602 were translations {13} {14} (25.4 percent), more than half from English (Lottman 1991:S5). The German publishing industry is somewhat larger than its British and American counterparts, and here too the translation rate is considerably higher. In 1990, German publishers brought out 61,015 books, of which 8716 were translations (14.4 percent), including about 5650 from English (Flad 1992:40). Since World War II, English has been the most translated language worldwide, but it isn’t much translated into, given the number of English-language books published annually (Table 1 provides the most recent data).

Table 1. World translation publications: from selected languages, 1982-1984

	1982	1983	1984
English	22,208	24,468	22,724
French	6,205	6,084	4,422
German	4501	4818	5311
Russian	6,238	6,370	6,230
ltalian	1,433	1,645	4,544
Scandinavian*)	1,057	2,176	2,192
Spanish	5	847	839
Classical, Greek, Latin	839	1,116	4,035
Hungarian	703	665	879
Arabic	298	922	536
Japanese	208	222	204
Chinese	189	148	163
World totals	52,198	55,618	52,405

*) Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Islandic

Source: Grannis 1991, p. 24

These translation patterns point to a trade imbalance with serious cultural ramifications. British and American publishers travel every year to international markets like the American Booksellers Convention and the Frankfurt Book Fair, where they sell translation rights for many English-language books, including the global bestsellers, but rarely buy the rights to publish English-language translations of foreign books. British and American publishers have devoted more attention to acquiring bestsellers, and the formation of multinational publishing conglomerates has brought more capital to {15} support this editorial policy (an advance for a predicted bestseller is now in the millions of dollars) while limiting the number of financially risky books, like translations (Whiteside 1981; Feldman 1986). The London literary agent Paul Marsh confirms this trend by urging publishers to concentrate on selling translation rights instead of buying them: “any book with four or five translation sales in the bag at an early stage stands a good chance of at least nine or 10 by the end of the process” (Marsh 1991:27). Marsh adds that “most translation rights deals are done for a modest return” (ibid.), but the fact is that British and American publishers routinely receive lucrative advances for these deals, even when a foreign publisher or agent pressures them to consider other kinds of income (viz. royalties). The Milan-based Antonella Antonelli is one such agent, although the figure she cites as an imprudent Italian investment in an English-language book—“If you pay a $200,000 advance, you can’t make it back in Italy”—actually suggests how profitable translation rights can be for the publishers involved, foreign as well as British and American (Lottman 1991:S6). The sale of English-language books abroad has also been profitable: in 1990, American book exports amounted to more than $1.43 billion, with the export—import ratio at 61 to 39.