Blog Post: Translation of International Children’s Literature
While searching for international children’s literature to review, I noticed that many of the most popular children’s books in a given country were not available in English. This made me realize how many good books are out there that neither me nor another typical American will ever be able to read.
When considering the topic of international children’s literature, especially between countries that speak very different languages, translation is very important. There are likely a countless number of books in existence that would be great for a given child which are inaccessible because of this. In The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature by Gillian Lathey, Lathey discusses how by translating a work into a new language, translators are like “invisible storytellers.” (Lathey, 2010) The story would not have existed if they had not heard it in one language and carefully told it in another. Unlike certain types of translating which can happen somewhat effectively on a word by word basis, children’s literature is more complicated. Part of what makes certain types of children’s literature great is the meaningful use of word choice and rhythm to tell a story and plugging a work into Google Translate would likely hurt the impact of the story. Likewise, picture books where the physical writing style is important may need to be illustrated again. In “Translation Aesthetics in Children’s Literature,” Furong Huang discusses that “children’s rich imagination, their acute sense of color, rhythm and children-flavored animated images, etc. should be given priority in the process of translation.” (Huang, 2017) Throughout this essay, Huang discusses how the aesthetics of a word of children’s literature can be meaningfully translated. Since this process is not trivial, it can constantly be improved and there are many different approaches for doing it.
Ultimately, due to language barriers, improvements in translation will be necessary for international children’s literature to continue growing.
Huang, F. (2017) Translation Aesthetics in Children’s Literature. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 7(12), pp.1327-1360.
Lathey, G. (2010) The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature. New York, NY: Routledge.