Plea for preserving a flourishing translation culture

‘Great translation by the way’

It is with off-hand comments like these that book reviewers typically dismiss the work of a translator - assuming, that is, that they mention the translator at all. Such cursory treatment makes painfully clear where translators stand in the literary pecking order: right at the bottom. At the request of five partners in the book sector, Martin de Haan and Rokus Hofstede have written a plea to set matters right and to give a central place to literary translation as a profession. The pamphlet can be downloaded at www.vertaalpleidooi.nl.

Published: May 17, 2008 news