Literary translator about Jonathan Franzen: “We had fun”

As a translator, Bettina Abarbanell reads bestsellers very carefully. Here she explains why the first sentence is important and what language reveals about people’s psyche.

First I read the book, the English version, the original. I read it slowly and carefully, with a pen in my hand. In some places I take notes, not many. During this first reading I absorb the atmosphere of the book: what tone does it have? Which voice speaks to me? Is it that of the first person or is it told in the third person? And does the voice come close to the action or does it remain more distant? Is the voice funny, melancholy, serious, ironic? I read quietly, but I hear what I am reading out loud. It has an acoustic effect on me that helps me to develop a feel for the text, to recognize its rhythm.

I never dreamed that I would one day translate literature professionally; that would have seemed presumptuous. I studied Romance and English in Tübingen. At first I worked as an editor for a publishing house in Frankfurt, but I soon realized that I would rather translate texts myself than correct those that others had translated. I got my first assignments through existing publishing contacts and was lucky enough to be friends with Alexander Fest, who later became a publisher at Rowohlt. We met while we were studying. He often commissioned me to do translations. At the time he had his own small publishing house, Alexander Fest Verlag.

On a white bookshelf there are book translations with colored covers.

At the top are the originals, including Bettina Abarbanell’s translations. The stories “Little Scratches” and the novel “With All My Love” by the British author Jane Campbell (pink cover), which she most recently translated, are prominently placed

© Bettina Abarbanell

Once we were on holiday together with our families. And suddenly he waved a manuscript and said he had something from an American agent, “something really big.” It was the cruise chapter from Jonathan Franzen’s “Corrections.” I read it and thought it was great. Alexander Fest then signed Franzen and gave me his book to translate, that was more than 20 years ago. Since then I have not only I have not only translated Jonathan Franzen’s books, but also many others by Scott F. Fitzgerald, Denis Johnson, Rachel Kushner, Elisabeth Taylor, to name just a few. Most recently, I translated two works by 82-year-old Jane Campbell, her novel “With All My Love” and her short stories “Little Scratches,” which have been rave reviews and read enthusiastically by many.

As a freelance translator, I have always worked from home.

Translation is an art and a craft that I find very fulfilling, but also requires a lot of patience. It is lonely work; I spend many hours alone at my desk. If I have to submit a text, I sometimes work at night. When I was “proofreading” Jonathan Franzen, I felt like I was working around the clock. My husband went on holiday with our three children so that I could make progress. As a freelance translator, I have always worked at home; I find independence to be something beautiful. My study is in the middle of the house, right next to the entrance. When the children were running around, I always closed the door with the words that have become a running joke: “You have to remember, this is my study too!” Today they are long grown up and laugh at this somewhat desperate sentence that I used to use to set myself apart.

I don’t need to know an author’s entire work, because each book stands on its own. When I’ve read the original and made my first notes, I start quite unspectacularly by translating the first sentence. I take a lot of time for this, because the beginning of a text sets the tone. The first sentence has to be right, otherwise everything goes in the wrong direction. I always translate the book chronologically from front to back. Sometimes there are places where things get stuck. I skip them and say: I’ll work on those tomorrow. But I couldn’t start with the last chapter or anywhere in the middle.

As soon as I have a first draft, I go back to the beginning and start a second pass. I work on the sentences and try to make the translation into a text that sounds like it was written in German and not translated from English. I find this easier when I have some distance. I have now understood that the further I move away from the sentence structure, the closer I am to the original. It’s about writing the book again, in my language, in German. It’s not for nothing that I own the copyright to my translations.

While I’m translating, I collect my questions for the author. Sometimes there are ambiguities in literature, and then I ask: What exactly is meant here? Jonathan Franzen, for example, speaks German; he studied in Berlin for two years. He is interested in Germany and the German translations of his books. He said from the beginning that no question was too stupid for him. My emails then focus on individual words, unusual phrases or, for example, brand names that German readers might not know much about.

“Is there enough humor in it?” Jonathan Franzen often asks me.

When I translated his last novel, “Crossroads,” he asked me to read the first chapter in advance. I think he would have known if I hadn’t hit his tone. He nodded through the chapter and only commented in two or three places: I meant that to be even funnier than it sounds here! That’s the most important thing to him, that his kind of irony is conveyed. “Is there enough humor in it?” he often asks me.

Language reveals a lot about a person’s psyche, which is why the exchange with the authors is personal. I write to Jane Campbell differently than to Jonathan Franzen. And of course it helps me when I get to know her, then I can empathize with her even better. For example, I once met Denis Johnson, and I liked him very much. His books are rather dark, but with a touching, poetic glimmer of hope. They are about people on the fringes of society, alcoholics, junkies, the stranded, but still have something positive about them. I had to find my way into this world first. It didn’t feel as close to me as Franzen’s, who writes from the middle of society and actually for the middle of society.

When “Crossroads” was published, we had an event in Potsdam, where we sat together on a stage. I felt a bit uneasy beforehand because he has so much stage experience and a great presence. But then we had a lot of fun together, I like him a lot, we get on well, and I really enjoy translating his novels. But unfortunately we’ll have to wait a while for the second volume of “Crossroads”.

I earn around 25 euros per page.

Our fees are meager compared to the demands of this work. I earn around 25 euros per page, which is comparatively a lot. There are many translators who get less, and the development of artificial intelligence is not making it any easier for us. Some of my colleagues were asked to revise an AI-generated translation. They declined. Anyone who asks for something like that has not understood that a literary translation is only partly a craft, but essentially an artistic task that cannot be done by a machine.

On average, I manage 100 pages a month. The more difficult the text, the longer I spend on it and the less I earn – an absurd situation. Because the fees are so low, many translators do other things on the side, such as working as lecturers or moderators. There is also the German Translators’ Fund, which awards scholarships. I have received one many times, because we translators can hardly live on the fee alone.

After I have revised my translation a second time, I send it to the editor. I get along well with most of them. There are rarely some who interfere too much, too much iwant to set your own tone. But in the end it is still my translation, I don’t have to accept all the suggested changes. I look at them all and then decide based on how I feel about the book. I check my version for errors one last time when the book is typeset.

To this day, it is still a touching moment when the package with the copies is delivered.

There are now publishers who put the translators’ names on the cover. We give readings or are invited to do so, give radio interviews, and generally become more visible. Our very active association has at least fought for us to have a share in the success of a book, even if not from the first copy, but only from the 5,000th. Many books do not sell that often. Jonathan Franzen’s books do. And Jane Campbell’s stories also sell well, and I earn money from that.

Even after 30 years and around 50 translations, I still find my work fulfilling. To this day, it is a touching moment when the package with the proof copies is delivered. Suddenly there is a book, before it was just a document on the computer. Some people ask me if it bothers me to be in the shadow of other writers. Of course, authors like Jonathan Franzen are better known than me, but we are not in competition. My work is completely different to his. I would only be in his shadow if I tried to write a family novel. But that has never occurred to me.

Recorded by Lisa Frieda Cossham

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