Kehlmann in praise of Carol Brown Janeway

       I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend the ceremony for the inaugural Friedrich Ulfers Prize last week; awarded to: "to a leading publisher, writer, critic, translator, or scholar who has championed the advancement of German-language literature in the United States" it went to Carol Brown Janeway -- an entirely fitting choice, as she has championed as both a publisher/editor and as a translator.
       Daniel Kehlmann gave the valediction, and at Publishing Perspectives they now print it in full, as In Praise of My Translator.
       They are perhaps cavils, but I must note two claims that I take some issue with: first, Kehlmann says:

Also one of her principle rules is that she translates writers who are still alive and have at least some command of the English language, which makes it possible for them to read Carol's translation and work with her on questions and details.

       To which I must respond by citing what is, if not a black mark so certainly a grey cloud in the otherwise impressively bright Janeway sky: Márai Sándor's Embers. Yes, Márai -- a longtime US resident -- had some command of English -- but he was long dead by the time she got around to this one. Worse, of course, is that the Janeway's translation is not one of Márai's A gyertyák csonkig égnek but rather, as the Vintage International edition copyright page puts it in fine print: "This edition translated from the German-language work Die Glut". Yes, it is a translation of a translation -- all in all rather far removed from the process Kehlmann describes.
       Kehlmann also takes a cheap shot at My Prizes-author Thomas Bernhard (that book, by the way, yet another where Janeway no longer had opportunity to consult with the author), saying:

I am sure I can speak for all the writers who have been translated by her, like Bernhard Schlink, Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Margriet de Moor, Yasmina Reza and Thomas Bernhard ... well, maybe not Thomas Bernhard, gratitude wasn't something he might have been very interested in.

       That's an easy laugh-getter but relies entirely on Bernhard's silly (though admittedly hard-won -- he worked at it) reputation. I was at the ACFNY panel discussion on Elfriede Jelinek's Jackie yesterday, and Jelinek- and Bernhard-translator, and Bernhard-biographer Gitta Honegger -- who actually knows/knew both of these writers personally and well -- reminded the audience that while both Jelinek and Bernhard are/were certainly difficult and complicated people, they are/were also extraordinarily generous and gracious individuals -- and it seems to me unlikely that Bernhard would have been as dismissive as Kehlmann dismissively suggests.