As a professional translator, I would like to find the words necessary to convince publishers and their authors to include our names on the covers of the books we translate… but it is not a given.
Some publishers even consider it unnecessary to mention our names on the title page of the same books (a real experience) when these publishers and their authors would not have acquired all these new readers – and this new market – without our patient work carried out day by day. after day.
While it is important to convince publishers, the support of authors is essential. Some authors now require the name of the translator to be mentioned on the cover of their translated books. And some translators ask for their names to be expressly mentioned on the cover of the books they translate. All this in due form in their respective contracts.
READ – The names of the translators on the cover: authors are committed
A general epidemic
After starting in the world of books, this imposed anonymity also applies to articles, news, web pages, films, videos, software, mobile applications and games, the translations of which took us hours, weeks or even months of work.
Systematic with a few exceptions, invisibility adds to precarious employment and plummeting prices. It is therefore difficult to maintain strong morale despite our unshakeable faith in the usefulness of the profession, defined as an essential bridge between languages and cultures.
I would be curious to see what would result from the temporary disappearance of all cultural (and other) assets forgetting to mention their translators and the financial loss that would follow.
And artificial intelligence (AI), you might say ? We forget that AI databases are fed, tested and improved by hundreds of translators (often immigrants) exploited by multinationals in Silicon Valley (and elsewhere) then unceremoniously dismissed overnight. Unsurprisingly, their names appear nowhere.
Colleagues tell me that artificial intelligence will sweep our profession. This is indeed already the case. But it is never too late to do justice to a profession that has not yet said its last word.
So let’s use the hashtag #CoverTranslators as often as possible. There is no need to be a translator for this. Everyone reads translated books and articles, consults translated news and web pages, watches subtitled videos, uses translated mobile apps and has fun (figuratively) playing translated video games.
And authors around the world can of course support our cause by signing this open letter (in English).
Illustration © Denis Renard – A translator finally emerging from oblivion to participate in the movement
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