At 75 titles, World Literature Today's Notable Translations 2013-list is certainly ... generous.
(Recall that the Three Percent Translation Database finds a total of only 419 works of fiction and poetry translated into English and published in the US this year, a number that will probably increase as a few stragglers are added, but still .....)
Overall, it's a pretty solid list, and not a bad place to start if you're looking for books in translation to read.
That said, I do note that two titles on the list are, in fact, pretty damn old translations (re-issued this year -- but not new translations (unlike, for example, Sonallah Ibrahim's That Smell, which is at least a new translation of a previously translated work)): Forest of a Thousand Daemons by D.O.Fagunwa in Wole Soyinka's 1968 translation, and The Woman of Porto Pim by Antonio Tabucchi in Tim Parks' 1991 translation.
There are also some notable omissions, including:
But, of course, the real disappointment is that they list 75 books and yet manage to fail to mention what is obviously the most notable translation-publication of the year, Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone. If you're talking 'notable' there's no way around this one, whether you're listing five or seventy-five titles.
Overall, it's a pretty solid list, and not a bad place to start if you're looking for books in translation to read.
That said, I do note that two titles on the list are, in fact, pretty damn old translations (re-issued this year -- but not new translations (unlike, for example, Sonallah Ibrahim's That Smell, which is at least a new translation of a previously translated work)): Forest of a Thousand Daemons by D.O.Fagunwa in Wole Soyinka's 1968 translation, and The Woman of Porto Pim by Antonio Tabucchi in Tim Parks' 1991 translation.
There are also some notable omissions, including:
- Antonio Muñoz Molina's In The Night of Time -- I haven't started this one yet, but come on: it's Edith Grossman, translating one of the leading contemporary Spanish authors; it's hard to imagine that doesn't make a top-75 cut ...
- Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès' Where Tigers are at Home -- what is it about this book that absolutely everyone seems to continually overlook it ?
- Mizumura Minae's A True Novel -- another big book from Other Press, which also strikes me as a very significant translation
But, of course, the real disappointment is that they list 75 books and yet manage to fail to mention what is obviously the most notable translation-publication of the year, Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone. If you're talking 'notable' there's no way around this one, whether you're listing five or seventy-five titles.