What is lost and what is gained when publishers change the title of a book when they bring it out in translation?
Sometimes the effects are good. Today, for instance, over at the Literary Saloon, M.A. Orthofer (whose lack of snowpants got some fans’ attention recently) brought to light a postive change in title. He cites Dalkey Archive’s change of Pierre Siniac’s “Ferdinaud Celine” to “The Collaborators,” saying in his review, “(This) is, indeed, a book full of collaboration and collaborators…”
Sometimes the results are middling, but probably for the best. My favorite example, and one that’s pretty well-known, is when Serpent’s Tail published the English translation of Michel Houellebecq’s IMPAC Award-winning debut novel, “Extension du damaine de la lutte” under the underwhelming title “Whatever.” Which is, now that I think of it, not so bad, considering it captures the narrator’s frame of mind.
And sometimes the results are OK, but could have easily been left alone, without scaring away potential readers, and keeping all of the author’s good work intact. I noticed an example of this when reviewing “The Storm” by Margriet de Moor. The very first line of the novel says, about a main character, “One of them, Lidy, stood at the window and looked out.” The line is just OK under the book title, “The Storm.” But if Knopf has used the original title, “The Drowned” (“De Verdronkene”), the words “one of them” in that opening line would have foreshadowed, as the author intended, the character’s connection to a vast history of Dutch people who perished in horrific floods.
And naturally, when new translations come out, publishers sometimes like to try a new title. Translator Vincent Kling brought this up during an interview regarding Proust and the argument between “In Search of Lost Time” and “Remembrance of Things Past.” As Kling says, one is more literal, and one is more beautiful.
Yes, I’ve been wondering if Abdu Khal’s Arabic Booker-winning /Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles/ will get a new name when it comes out in English. I hope so. Mostly, I just can’t take the word “spew.”
And /White Faces/, a book by Elias Khoury out next month from Archipelago, has become /White Masks/. Because of the racial dimension /White Faces/ adds for an American reader?
For whatever reason, this topic intrigues me. Oh! And I recently read Hamdi Abu Golayyel’s /The Laborer/, which came out in English as /A Dog with No Tail/.
I think I would’ve preferred /The Laborer/.
As the translator of A Dog with No Tail I feel I should point out that the title was changed at the request of the author despite considerable resistance from the translator and publisher.
Robin – That’s interesting news to hear. My understanding was that authors typically don’t wield that kind of influence in these decisions. And publishers usually have the final say. Are there other instances you know of where authors have insisted on different titles when the translation is published? I’d be curious to know.