japanese to english translator needed!

[Edward Fowler]

One final, belated remark on the issue of translation.  (The 
exigencies of my everyday job have kept me away from the List.)  
Both Sunyoung Lee and Julie Koo were eloquent in their defense 
of the kind of literary projects they do, which--for the record 
--I support wholeheartedly and which, I trust, are finding a 
niche in university syllabi.  Indeed, I was not a little unfair 
to pick on them when in fact the target of my criticisms were
organizations with far larger budgets and greater maneuverability
than theirs.  More than a critique, my comments were a lament
about the subaltern position of literary translators in general,
a position that has a long and painful history, one which is
particularly egregious in this country (as Sunyoung Lee and  
Julie Koo rightly point out) because of our general arrogance with
regard to language.  Despite the wealth of scholarship in recent
decades, from (the rediscovered) Benjamin and Steiner to Derrida 
and beyond, all of which tesifies to the _creativity_ of, and the
critical acumen involved in, the translator's work, translation 
remains a bastard enterprise, a mere afterthought in the publishing 
plans of journalists and fiction marketers.  Those truly dedicated 
translators almost never make a living off their work, but support 
themselves instead through "day jobs" such as university teaching
(which is becoming more difficult, because of the assumption about
translation's "non-theoretical" nature), or non-literary translation,
which can be (and has to be) done at a speed that will pay the rent.

My support of Kaya's vision, then, comes from an appreciation of
the sacrifices that are almost inevitably made in this line of work.  
The truly good translations are predictably a labor of love, poorly
compensated by definition because it is simply not cost-effective to
take the time and "get it right."  (This is not to imply, of course,
that any single rendering is the "right" one.)  To engage in such
translations, then, is to acknowledge from the beginning the need 
for subvention (be it in the form of a grant, leave-time, spousal
support, etc.), because the work itself will not pay its own way.
It may well be that the great translations are typically produced 
in this very tedious and untimely fashion.

The publisher working with a translator so dedicated is truly 
blessed:  the final product, tardily delivered though it might
be, can only enhance the publisher's reputation.  The translator 
working with a sympathetic publisher is twice blessed:  such a
publisher understands that deadlines are made to be extended when
warranted; it is also willing to put in the time shepherding and
encouraging the translator through a difficult creative process 
few seem willing to acknowledge as such. 

If the editors of Kaya can do that, then my hat is off to them.

Ted Fowler