Fellow Portlander and translator Camellia Nieh is featured in this fascinating interview about Tezuka's Black Jack and the translation industry. Camellia is absolutely right when she says in general people start in technical translation, and move to literary translation. It never occured to me that this might be seen as backwards, but she goes on to describe how in many ways technical translation is easier then literary translation. There isn't much to think about when a text calls for "Insert Cog A into Slot C", but there are lots of ways to interpret literary phrasings.
I have heard there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of translations of Basho's most famous haiku:
Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water
Translated by Lafcadio Hearn
Camellia is also accurate in saying it is very difficult to live as a literary translator alone. The number that do it is tiny, to be sure. I have had many people ask me "How do I become a full-time manga translator?". I often say "It's like asking 'How do I become a rich and famous rock star?'" but the sad reality is there are many more rich and famous rock stars than there are full-time manga translators.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading Camellia Nieh's interview as much as I did. Serdar Yegulalp did a nice job.
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