A translator’s day at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Yesterday, I went to the Frankfurt Book Fair. It was a first for me, and I had only one day, so I decided to choose the day with the best event schedule. Of course, what interested me more was the translation events held at the fair. (China being this year’s guest country was not important.) Here’s a report on my day at the fair:

6:45 -- 9:27 - Because I live some 200km from Frankfurt, I had to make an effort and get up early to catch the train. It was an especially cold autumn day, so that was quite hard. But when the sun came out I could enjoy a beautiful view of the foggy Rhine river from the train.

9:30 -- 10:30 -- After stops in Bonn, Koblenz, Mainz and at the Frankfurt main station, I finally arrived at the Book Fair. No time to look around, I went straight to the Business Breakfast panel discussion, where the topic was “The German Book Market and Programs for the Promotion of German Books Worldwide”. Mr. Clemens-Peter Hasse, head of the Goethe Institute’s Literature Department and the Book Translation Grants Program, talked about how his institution (which incidentally is one of my best clients and the place where I learned German) shapes its translation grant programs. He said that each year he receives 600 applications, but has to settle for 300 grants. Applications are received through the local Goethe Institute in each country. The programs are directed toward publishers, not translators, and before applying publishers need to have purchased a license for the translation’s publication. He talked about the regular grant programs and a special program with country-related emphasis, litrix.de. Sad news: the Goethe-Institute pays only 8 euros per translated page.

Another speaker at this event, Ms. Anke Simon, Manager of Translation Funding at the Publishers Committee of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association, talked about her institution’s emphasis on Humanities publications. Book translation projects are selected by a special committee, which convenes twice a year. The main focus is on German to English translation. The program also targets publishers, not translators. German publishers do not have to have a translation license to apply, but they will have 3 years to search for a partner in another country willing to publish the translation. Last year, the program’s first year, a grant was given for publication of 66 titles. The grant itself has no fixed amount, but the pay is on average 0,10 euro cents per translated word.

Also in the audience were people involved with translation grant programs in several other German and European institutions. They presented themselves, but, alas, there was no time for a more detailed discussion.

In the end, I asked the lady who was helping out with the “breakfast” part of the event if I could have some water, but she said in German with a Chinese accent: Ist schon vorbei! (It’s over!)

10:30 -- 12:30 -- I went to the Übersetzer-Zentrum (Translators’ Center), hall 5.0 E 955, where lots of interesting things are happening. For example, there was a special section to showcase literary translator Eike Schönfeld working live on his translation of Fall, by Colin McAdam -- I don’t know how he could concentrate, because the fair’s noise was deafening. In another section there was an exhibit of the works of literary translators. Every translator could bring his or hers to show, but sadly I forgot to bring my first book translation into German, released just a month ago by a renowned publishing house in Germany.

Then it was time to hear a discussion about the incredible CEATL survey about the situation of literary translator in Europe. By the way, you can download a copy of the survey here. Mr. Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, president of the Association of German Translators of Literary and Scientific Works, and Mr. Holger Vock, one of the authors of the survey, presented shocking facts. For example, they said 8% of European literary translators live under the poverty line. Due to their low income, literary translators usually can only afford to live modestly (“a student’s life”, they said). They also told the audience what an editor said about translators: “A badly paid translator is not necessarily a bad translator, but a translator with bad looks (!)” They added that literary translators usually supplement their income with money from translation grant programs. By the way, literary translators, at least in Germany, are those who translate belles-lettres, but also those who translate academic or scientific works. Conditions are better for literary translators living in the Netherlands and in European countries where the income level is generally low. Question is, why do people become become literary translators if the pay is so low? Maybe that comes from the fact that most literary translators have other sources of income.

12:30 -- 13:30 -- Another panel discussion elsewhere. This time it’s about blogging and social networking as marketing tools for booksellers and publishing houses. Not very exciting, but interesting all the same. I had to leave earlier, because I was starving and had to eat something.

13:45 -- 14:00 -- Back to the Translators’ Center. In a discussion promoted by the German Translators’ Association, fellow translators Norma Keßler and Babette Schrooten talked about how to specialize and the pros and cons (well, mostly the pros) of specialization. Ms. Keßler (right) specialized right from the start, at university, but changed her specialization by marrying a specialist (!), whereas Ms. Schrotter (left) specialized coming from a medical profession before becoming a translator.Very interesting, brief discussion. The bottom line was: specialization is a need, because if you don’t specialize you’ll waist time doing research for every ‘difficult’ term that comes your way. Both colleagues agreed that specializing and client acquisition are essential elements of the work of a freelance translator. They also gave us a tip on a very good interview with French to English translator Chris Durban on YouTube. By the way, there are other interesting videos at the German Translators’ Association’s channel on YouTube.

It was there that I met fellow blogger Margaret Marks from Transblawg (she recognized me from the internet!). We communicate for a couple of years on online platforms, but never met offline. She’s a very nice person. We exchanged some ideas in between events. She said she follows other translation-related blogs in Portuguese, but has to rely on Google Translate to understand them. (Margaret, I promise I’ll blog more often in English!).

Earlier, I had a very interesting conversation with Gabriele U. Matthey, regional president of the German Translators’ Association in Hessen. She explained some details of membership and the advantages of becoming a member. I think I will apply (I’m already a member of the Brazilian Translators Association, though), if only to be able to go the events they organize with discounted prices. And she said my region is the one hosting the most translation events in the country. Nice to know that.

14:00 -- 17:00 -- After I said good-bye to Margaret, I had to go check what Germany’s dictionary makers have to offer. Alas, I didn’t find anything interesting, since PONS, Langenscheidt, Duden etc. definitely couldn’t care less about German-Portuguese dictionaries, let alone CD-ROM editions for that language pair. Besides, they didn’t sell anything (on the day of my visit the fair was open only to book industry’s pros, not to the general public, who usually go there to buy something).

This was the moment where I lost track of time. There were so many interesting things to see. An author reading for an audience of 3 (!) in an extremely noisy environment. The Buenos Aires stand -- the most colorful stand at the fair. The Brazilian publishers’ stand (not the most friendly people, I must say. Perhaps I should have spoken a language other than my native Portuguese). People at my favorite Portuguese dictionary maker‘s stand were a lot friendlier, but sadly they are not interesting in publishing a CD-ROM edition of their excellent German-Portuguese dictionary.

I also went to the far, far away hall 8, where British English was the lingua franca. Really not very much worth a visit. It’s the place to go if you’re a publisher, though. Oh, I liked this hall’s entrance the most. The sunlight was flowing into the building through the elegant glass structure. I was so stunned buy this (and buy the long way between some halls) that I missed an event at the Translators’ Center I wanted to attend called “the several forms of translating -- past and present”.

17:00 -- 19:00 -- Last event of the day. Back to the Translators’ Center. The 2009 Paul Celan Prize (Paul-Celan-Preis) for literary translation was awarded to Esther Kinsky, who seemed to have worked very hard on her Polish to German translation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Unrast. The prize (15000 euros and a certificate) was given by the German Literary Fund. After that, I had a couple of glasses of sparkling wine and a nice chat with a lady from the Association of German Translators of Literary and Scientific Works. We talked about the differences between technical and literary translation, about how bad the pay for literary translators is, about membership in the association and lots of other topics. But I had to go.

18:57 -- 22:36 -- Back to the train station. Trains in Germany have very precise arrival and departure times, and they usually arrive and depart on time. On the way back, I had stops at Frankfurt’s main station and Bonn, and finally arrived home after two hours with the train plus 40 minutes with the bus (I live in the country!). Time to get a good night’s sleep and get back in shape for the legal translation job I had to do today.

Here’s a video summarizing everything I saw at the fair. Enjoy: