Literary translation as an outlet of creativity

Jeremy Tiang, one of Singapore's most prolific Chinese-to-English translators, has a piece of advice for aspiring translators: Just do it.

"I have a master's in theatre - I have no translation degree," says the 45-year-old via Zoom from his home in New York.

"I learnt by experience, learnt from other translators, learnt by being edited, learnt by participating in workshops, learnt by teaching."

In the decade since he started translating in earnest, Tiang's star has been rising. This year, he became the first Singaporean to judge the prestigious International Booker Prize, the results of which will be announced on Thursday.

He is the translator of about 25 books, including novels by Singapore's Yeng Pway Ngon and Chinese author Yan Geling, and film star Jackie Chan's 2015 autobiography, Never Grow Up.

"I feel like I've been very lucky to be able to work with authors whose work I love," says Tiang, who won the Singapore Literature Prize for his English-language novel State Of Emergency (2017).

Tiang, who is of Sri Lankan-Tamil and Malaysian Chinese heritage, grew up in an English-speaking household. He read English at Oxford University and trained as an actor at Drama Centre London.

Although he had studied at the Chinese High School, his interest in Chinese literature developed when he was in his 20s.

His first translated work was Quah Sy Ren and Tan Ing How's play The Assassin, The Medium And The Massage Girl, which he submitted to a translation competition by London's Gate Theatre around 2006. "It didn't win, but it's one of the things I did that made me think - I want to do more of this."

He has been doing more teaching recently, but says there were several years when all his income came from literary translation.

Though Singapore has seen an explosion of literary talent in the past decade, he would like to see the same energy in the translation space. "We have these four separate languages, and the literatures aren't talking to one another enough."

There needs to be support for literary translators at all stages of their careers, he adds.

"Mentorships are invaluable for people just starting out, but ongoing training and funding for mid-career translators is needed too."

One of the first novels Tiang translated was Unrest by Yeng in 2012. He laments that Yeng, a Cultural Medallion recipient who died last year, never really received the recognition he deserved.

"Reading Yeng Pway Ngon and seeing how small his readership was in Singapore just made me sad and I knew I had to do something about that."

One of the most eye-opening things about being a literary translator is having to familiarise himself with the "different Chineses" in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Singapore, "diu diao" means "throw away", but a mainland speaker would probably say "reng diao".

There is also the question of what should be left untranslated.

"Increasingly, I'm trying to not translate (into) words like dumpling. When I see the word 'dumpling' in translated text, it doesn't tell me anything. Is it a yuntun? Is it a chaoshou? Is it a jiaozi?

"It's about expanding the range of vocabulary readers might have access to and hoping that they broaden their understanding of whatever these periods of history or these cultural references are."

He admires translators such as Singaporean Alfian Sa'at, American Jennifer Croft - who translates Polish Nobel literary laureate Olga Tokarczuk's works - and Tiffany Tsao of Indonesia.

He is translating books by Yeng and Singapore author Hai Fan. His translation of Chinese writer Zhang Yueran's novel Cocoon is out later this year, and his English version of Taiwanese writer Wei Yu-Chia's play Da Dong Wu Yuan ("Big Zoo") will be staged in New York in 2024.

He believes that everyone should try translating, even if they do not plan to become a translator.

"I think everyone should sing, everyone should draw, everyone should write and everyone should translate. Having these outlets of creativity would be very freeing," he says.

Singapore is a multicultural country with four official languages, but ask a person on the street to name a non-English work of Singapore literature and they will probably draw a blank.

The literary translation scene is quieter than the English SingLit one. Nonetheless, some publishers and translators say they see a growing interest.

The Singapore Book Council is also ramping up efforts to boost literary translation, which is "a crucial gap in the current landscape that we want to focus on as part of our long-term plans", says executive director William Phuan.

The council, which organises the Singapore Apprenticeship in Literary Translation with languages services company Tender Leaves Translation, ran its first Singapore Translation Symposium in September. Later this year, it will launch an annual mentorship scheme for emerging literary translators, as well as a support group - a "translators' salon" - with Tender Leaves.

The Asian Festival Of Children's Content this month features an inaugural translation forum.

A Singapore Translation Award will be unveiled next year.

There have been various efforts over the years to get Singaporeans to read one another. Publisher Epigram Books, for instance, introduced a series in the 2010s translating works of Cultural Medallion authors from Tamil, Malay and Chinese into English.

Limited funding and the small size of the local market, especially the vernacular scene, are issues publishers and translators have to reckon with.

Singapore Literature Prize winner Sithuraj Ponraj, who writes in Tamil and English, says one challenge is the lack of platforms and publications spotlighting Singapore translators.

In Singapore, he adds, interest in producing and reading literary translations lags behind what he has seen elsewhere, such as India's Tamil literary milieu. As long as interest is confined to just a few international writers, "supply will follow demand".

"We miss a chance to know what our neighbours of a different race or language in Singapore or in the region are thinking," he adds. "We may end up being a super connected generation as far as the Internet goes, but physically, strangers to ourselves."

Publishers can apply for the National Arts Council's Presentation and Participation (Publishing) Grant, and translators are eligible for the Capability Development Grant and Creation Grant, though none is translation-specific.

Writer and editor Nazry Bahrawi, who translates from Malay to English, says: "It would bode well if funding bodies can offer grants for translators to choose a transnational text instead of funding only works produced in Singapore. This would expand the options for budding translators."

Balestier Press - which is based in London and Singapore - has received, over the past five years, a growing number of proposals from translators in Britain and the United States keen to translate Singaporean works. Managing director Tung Roh Suan hopes there will be more grants targeted at translators, and that translators will be featured more in publications, festivals and other platforms.

Publisher Ethos Books says the extensive timeline for editorial research, discussion and checks make literary translation "a costly enterprise". The translator, depending on his repute, might command a fee of 40 cents to $1 a word for shorter texts, and up to $10,000 - or even more - for novels. Editors who can read both languages might also charge an extra $1,000 to $3,000.

"The risks of not recouping the time and resources invested raise the barrier to entry, especially because after embarking on a translation project, the publisher has a responsibility to author and translator to see through the project."

Ethos has had its titles picked up for translation by overseas publishers, from Linda Collins' 2019 memoir Loss Adjustment in China to Malay Sketches (2012) by Alfian Sa'at in Poland.

The Singapore University of Social Sciences has seen a surge in interest in literary translation among students doing translation as their major or minor - which School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences dean Ludwig Tan says is "thanks to the increasing demand for Web-novel translation, especially from Chinese to English".

Tender Leaves Translation owner Shelly Bryant hopes for better recognition of translators besides putting their names on books' front covers.

"I have encountered publishers who were not aware that the copyright of a translation belongs to the translator."

One of the ways to bring local industry practices in line with international standards, she adds, is to push for fair compensation for the work of literary translation.

"It is a time-consuming job that requires a high degree of professionalism and, rightfully, a translator should receive a translation fee plus royalties, even if the royalties are not a huge percentage."