PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Tuesday, May 23, 1978 .

on won

SOR a Sib rine I oT
'

celebrating 10 years of business.

ot

Mayor Dave Maroney cut the birthday cake at the Terrace Shopping Centre Saturday,

Translation hard work

. MONTREAL (CP)
. Sheila Fischman had just
: moved to Quebec and wanted

4 improve her French. So

-she thought she would try

‘translating a French-

Canadian novel into English.

‘It was fun, and a lot of

work.
‘ . But she finished the trans-
‘fation, suid it to'a publisher

4 and joined the select group of -

pebplewho translate literary
’ works from one official lan-
"guage to another,

- Untila few years ago, each
“of Canada’s two main
‘cultures had its favorite
‘ novelists and there was little
_ eross-cultural appeal,

Then in 1973 the Canada
: Council began subsidizing
: translations from English to
: French and vice versa—six
_cents a word.for works of
‘iterary creation” where
:the author, publisher and
: translator were Canadian.

; Within a short time, trans-
ilated novels began ap-
pearing on bookshelves.

PeThe House of Anansi in To-
: rento and Le Cercle du Livre

' da France in Montreal are
, two publishing houses that
i have taken advantage of the

_ program.
‘ BEGINS COLLECTING
“When the (Canada

Council) decision was

‘ taken,” said Pierre
; Tisseyre, president of Le
. Cercle, “T gaid to myself, ‘Tl

t begin a collection”

Since then, English-
: Canadian authors = Ilke
‘Margaret Laurence and
‘ Mordecal Richler have been
. published in French in Le
-Cercle's collection—called
: Deux Solitudes,

| Tisseyre expected to run

into a lot of competition from
‘other French-language
: publishers but, to his sur-
orlse, his remained for a

‘ fong time virtuaily the only

}French house publishing
. English-Canadian _ novels.

: "His books sell well, he said,
’ but that’s partly because Le
‘Cerele concentrates on
‘ warke that have done well in

- English.

' Ann Wall, president of
’ Anansi, said the firm haa had
-suecess with the French-
, Canadian books it has
‘ published in English, even
‘though Anansi doesn’t
‘always wait to see how the
- book does in French,

'. Its first translation was

: Roch Carrier's La Guerre,
Yes Sir!— which, in-

‘: dentally, was the book on

} which Sheila Fischman cut
her teeth.

‘ "To date, it has sold 43,000

i copies, which is a best-seller

‘ however you look at it.”

, _ Anansi has also published

"the late Hubert Aquin and
Jacques Ferron.

ALWAYS REVIEWED
Wall said Anansi books

-have generally been well

received by the critics. But

Tisseyre’s experience has |

not been the same.
“We've had to overcome a
certain prejudice,’ he said.

“People said, *What business
do they have publishing

English books? They should
publish Quebecois books’.”’

First, he said, the critics
ignored the French versions
of English-Canadian novels,
although recently they have
been getting more attention.

“How can we of
national unity when you have
a country awhere: one half
knows nothing of the
literature of the other? It’s
beyond me. English Canada
knows American literature
better than Quebec
literature.”

It has not been easy for
either publishing house to
find competent translators.
And for Tisseyre, there's an
added difficulty.

“In Quevess because 80
many people nglish,
alot of them take themselves

for translators,” he said.
But the translation of

novels is not simple.

“The style, the form, they
have to come through. H you
aren’t a talented writer

yourself, there will
necessarily be a drop in
quality.”

Literary translation is not
a a big employer in Canada.
The Association of Literary
‘Translators has about 50
members and takes in just
about everybody in the field.
And in spite of the Canada
Council subsidy, translators
are not making money. The

going rate is five cents a’

word. This compares with 15
centa a word for technical or
commercial work,

_ communicate,

Ms. Fischman now ia one
of the veterans of the
business.

Her 15th translation,
Aquin's Neige Noire, which
will bear the title of Hamlet's
Twin in English, is about to
be published.

she said translating a
novel {a like writing a whele
new Book and’ translators.
should get equal billing with
authors: “We don’t want to
be anonymous. Translation

is a work of creation that.

should be judged as such.

“That means we are quite .
-happy to see our work

criticized as. well.”
WORKS STRAIGHT
THROUGH

How does she work?

"T do the whole thing all at
once and then go over it. I
don’t take one chapter and

polish and polish it.

Pl once took an entire
week to come up with the
first sentence in a novel.

“There's no such thing as a
literal translation—or there
shouldn't be, with rare ex-
ceptions. A literal tran-
slation is a lowsy tran-
slation.'”

A novel translator works
with “levels of language and
words and ideas,’ The most
diffleult thing is getting the
flavor of the language,
particularly the dialogue.

How do the authors react.
to their works in translation?
“Tf you write, you want to
i says Quebec
author Roch Carrier.

“Translation opens a new
door.’’

EVERYONE
NEEDS TREES

LIVE !

TREES...A GROWING CONCERN

rn CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

AND YOUR PROVINCIAL FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

talent drain’’

*
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XK

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Theatre lacking in Canada,
claims British. director

‘EDMONTON (CP)

” Canadian theatre will have

to rely on international stars

until it learns to praduce and

promote its.own, says Peter ,
Coe, newlyappointed artistic

director of Edmonton's
Citadel Theatre.

The British-born director,
whose appointment sparked
a protest from a Canadian
actors’ union Zhich said a
Canadian should have -been
hired, said there is great
potential for the growth of
Canadian talent, and part of
his job is to see that potential

“What's really lacking in
Canada, compared with
England or America, is
commercial  theatre-—
theatre which can provide

artists with really longterm job

Tuns,;” he said in an inter-

view during a recent cross-°

country theatre tour.
Commercially successful

theatre, as opposed to state- visa

subsidized theatre, provides
good salaries which would
encourage Canadian talent
‘to stay in the country.

The 48-year-old director
has had a long and suc-
cessful career highlighted by
several bits on Broadway
and London's Weat End in
the early 1960s. He has
directed productions of Oli-
ver and The World of Suzy
Wong and worked with stars
including Topol, Roy
Dotrice, John Clements and
Keith Michel.

ACTORS BADLY PAID

Many actors are “very
badly paid compared with ©
the rest of the community,’’
he said. Their salaries may
seem big, but the work is
often irregular, especially if
there is no commercial
theatre.

The shortage of com-
mercial theatre in Canada
has created a ‘“‘colossal
to other
countries.

Canadian playwrights are
often lucky to get one play
produced, Coe said. ‘They
eventually drift away and
start writing for Charlie’s
Angels,”

Star-calibre actors and
directors leave the country
and arereluctant to return to
less-lucrative Canadian jabs.
“The star system doesn’t
exist in Canada.”

Coe, who takes -over the - |’

Citadel from John Neville
June 1, said he hopes to
produce plays which can run
for 16 to 13 weeks and tour
various Canadian cities such
as Winnipeg, Vancouver. ‘and
Toronto,
WORKS WITH CANADIANS
Disturbed by the con-

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troversy surrounding his
appointment, Coe said he
feels it is part of his duty to
encourage Canadian
directors

He would like to hire a
young Canadian as associate
director and set up, in
conjunction with the Canada
Council and the National
Theatre School, a workshop
for directors who would work
ciosely with the Citadel. ~~

The appointment of oe
last fall angered the
Canadian Actors Equity
Assoclation, which wrote
letters to the theatre's board
of directors, Canadian
government officials’ and
John Roberts, secretary of
slate, contending there were
Canadians qualified for the

The federal immigration
department later ruled the
hiring procedure was proper
and issued Coe a one-year

oe said the’ association,
which represents Canadian
actors and some directors,

had no right to intervene
since it does not represent all
the directors. He said the
association should en-
courage the importation af
foreign expertise if it can
benefit Canadian theatre.
PLANS TO STAY

He said he expects to slay
at the Citadel longer than a
year and will apply .for
landed-immigrant status or
for an extension of his visa
before it expires June 1, 1979,

The state of Canadian
theatre, he said is con-
siderably healthier than that
of Britain, where financing is
often insufficient,

The Citadel, supported by
municipal, provincial and
federal] governments as well
as private individuals and
industry, operates on a $1,25-
million budget, be said,
compared with the $200,000
budgets typical of many
theatres,

Coe’s tour of Canadian
theatres is taking him to To-
ronto, Edmonton,- Van-

couver, and Winnipeg before

his return to England.
“There's a great deal of

activity, interest and

potential talent. here,” he

eaid. “All you have to do is .

sea that all that is well
used—and that’s the job of

the artistic director,”

Md)

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