MCLC: Nobel conflict of interest controversy (1)

Denton, Kirk denton.2 at osu.edu
Sat Oct 20 08:41:50 EDT 2012


MCLC LIST
From: Lucas Klein <LRKlein at cityu.edu.hk>
Subject: Nobel conflict of interest controversy (1)
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The following is the response to the Göran Malmqvist conflict of interest
"controversy" by Anna Gustafsson Chen, the translator of Mo Yan's published
works in Swedish, which I asked her to send to me after seeing her twitter
post (https://twitter.com/Anguche/status/259259672610107392/photo/1/large).

Lucas

===========================================================

1. When the Swedish Academy¹s Nobel Committee is interested in a certain
author they will start by reading those of his/her works that are available
in translation into a language that the Committee members can read. That
would mean Swedish, English, French, German and possibly some other
European
languages. If the Committee needs more materials they can engage a
translator to translate for them. This is done under secrecy, of course.

2. In this case, the Nobel Committee asked Göran Malmqvist to translate a
number of essays and short stories for them. Since he is a member of the
Academy as well as an acclaimed translator this is by no means odd ­ this
way they could get a very good translation to read and at the same time
diminish the risk that outsiders would know what they were working with. It
is important to remember that Malmqvist made his translations on request
from the Nobel Committee once they were already interested in Mo Yan and
had
read most of his earlier translated works.

3. Malmqvist cannot himself decide who will be awarded the Nobel Prize. The
Nobel Committee consists of five Academy members, and Malmqvist is not one
of them. He can promote a candidate that he likes, but so can all the other
Academy members. And in the end, he has only one vote, just like all the
others.

4. If Malmqvist would have wanted to promote a certain writer for his own
personal gain, he would not likely have chosen Mo Yan, whose works he never
translated before. He would have gained much more if either Bei Dao, Li Rui
or Cao Naiqian had been awarded the Nobel Prize.

5. As for translators, no translator has exclusive rights to a certain
author. There exists a sort of gentleman¹s agreement among Swedish
translators ­ if your colleague has worked with an author for a long time
you don¹t snatch that author away from under that translator¹s nose once
the
author becomes famous. For this reason, some people in Sweden have
criticized Malmqvist and claimed that it¹s unfair of him to act the way he
has. My point of view is that since he already translated these essays and
short stories it would be a pity if nobody could read them. Better to
publish them than to let them rot away in his computer.

6. The Academy¹s Permanent Secretary, Peter Englund, has told the press
that
Malmqvist will give his translations to the publisher for free.  This way,
he won¹t gain financially. Of course, some people then criticized this
decision as well, saying that Malmqvist would dump the market for other
translators of Chinese literature. Since I am basically the only other
active translator from Chinese to Swedish and since the publishing house
(the same one) didn¹t pay one cent out of its own coffers for my
translation
of Life and Death are Wearing Me Out (I did that job on a scholarship from
elsewhere) I¹d say the market is pretty dumped as it is. Translating
Chinese
literature into Swedish is not something you can make money from.

7. In short: knowing Malmqvist, I don¹t suspect for one moment that he
promoted Mo Yan for his own personal gain. I do think, however, that he
needs some media training and that he needs to realize that you should
nevernevernever send e-mails when you¹re upset.





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