Children's Literature in Translation

by Anthony Gardner

Children's stories translated from other languages are so essential to British culture that it is hard to imagine a nursery bookshelf without them. The characters they contain, from Tintin and the Snow Queen to Pippi Longstocking and Babar the Elephant, have done more to break down barriers between nations than the most seasoned diplomat could ever hope to - as the Dalai Lama recognised when he recently gave his Truth of Light award to the Hergé Foundation for Tintin in Tibet. It is no surprise, then, that when Philip Pullman was asked by the Royal Society of Literature Review to name ten books every child in the UK should read, he included two works in translation: Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives and Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomintroll.

One might assume that such classics were the tip of an iceberg, and that for every Pinocchio or The Little Prince there were 50 lesser-known imports giving pleasure to English-speaking children. The truth, however, is sadly different. Visit even the best-stocked children's departments and you will be hard pressed to count more than twenty foreign authors on the shelves. According to the Publishers' Association, of 10,784 children's books issued in the UK in 2001-2 (the last year for which figures are available), only 162 - fewer than 2 per cent - were translations.

Why should this be? One view is that it simply reflects the quality of home-grown juvenile literature. 'English children's books have long led the field, and with such a strong tradition, we don't need much from abroad,' argues Kirsty Young of Heywood Hill, one of London's most respected bookshops. 'When French schoolchildren were being told, "Sois raisonnable!", English children were allowed to read what they wanted; Lewis Carroll was the first person to write a purely nonsensical book, while the Germans were still only interested in didactic works like Struwwelpeter.'

One modern writer who has successfully broken into the English-language market is Cornelia Funke, whose Dragon Rider (translated from German) reached the top of the New York Times bestseller lists. Yet when she was asked to name her top ten children's books, seven were written in English and only one in German. And popular though her books have proved, they cannot hold a candle to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, which have so far been translated into 64 languages.

Anne Fine, Britain's former Children's Laureate, believes that the chances of publishing a successful translation have actually been diminished by the Harry Potter phenomenon. 'Before J.K. Rowling, publishers never gave children's books a marketing budget, so they were all competing on an equal basis and the cream could rise to the top,' she says. 'Now it's all to do with marketing: as with adult books, publishers decide which ones they're going to promote before the first 60 pages have been written - and it's unlikely that they'll choose a foreign author.'

Fine also blames the sheer volume of children's books published in English - 'If a series about a purple elephant appears on television, there are 90 books to accompany it' - which makes imports seem surplus to requirements. More worryingly, she says, 'We in Britain do not have the same culture of critical thought about children's books that we did twenty years ago. It's harder to sell translations now, because they seldom get reviewed any more.'

On top of this, there is the expense of commissioning a translation to be considered, and the inescapable fact that what delights the young readers of one nation may have no appeal at all to those of another. But for John Roe Townsend, author of a historical survey of the genre, Written for Children, the most potent factors of all are the dominance of the English language across the world, and the insularity of the British. 'English readers just aren't very comfortable with translations,' he says. 'If foreign writers can become known, they can do well; but there's an instinctive suspicion that has to be overcome.' One only has to compare the proportion of translated books on the French market - 23 per cent - to understand his point.

There are, however, some signs of hope for translated writers. 'The situation five years ago was much worse,' says Nick Tucker, who reviews children's books for The Independent. 'Foreign books are now beginning to get through, not least because of the success of Cornelia Funke. The Marsh Award has also been important.'

Inaugurated in 1997 as a response to the dwindling number of imported titles, the Marsh Award for Children's Literature is given for the best translation of a book published in the UK. The prize goes to the translator rather than the original author, and has twice been won by Anthea Bell, who is most often associated with the Asterix books. (Her most recent triumph was in 2003 with H.M Enzensberger's Where Were You, Robert?.)

'When we started, we decided to make the award every two years, because there just weren't enough books to choose from if we did it annually,' says Gillian Lathey of Roehampton University, who administers the prize. 'But the numbers have increased since then, and the list has become extremely strong. Whereas publishers used to send us everything they had, they are now making choices about which books to enter, which is a luxury they didn't have before.'

She is further encouraged by the publication of Children's Books in Translation, a comprehensive guide compiled by Deborah Hallford and Edgardo Zaghini with the backing of the Arts Council. 'It's a question of raising awareness,' she says. 'We've introduced a course on translated children's books as part of our English Literature MA, and I think it's been eye-opening for our students to discover the quality of what's available.'

Philip Pullman is among the contributors to the guide, and his foreword includes what may well become the battle cry for the translation movement. 'You never know what will set a child's imagination on fire...' he writes; 'but if we DON'T offer children the experience of literature from other languages, we're starving them. It's as simple as that.'

© Anthony Gardner. All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to the European Commission.