Translating Children’s Literature by Gillian Lathey (review)

Gillian Lathey has contributed a much needed addition to the Routledge series Translation Practices Explained, edited by Kelly Washbourne, by focusing particularly on the special problems and challenges posed in translating children’s literature. The book is designed as a textbook that can be used for a specialized class in translation at the graduate or undergraduate level or as an ancillary text for a more general class on translation. At the end of each of the seven chapters, there is a helpful section of discussion points and a final section with exercises. Another useful feature within each chapter is a list of bullet points in which Lathey outlines strategies and sums up what has been covered so far. The text is well researched and includes further reading suggestions for students as well as an extensive bibliography and index.

The introduction offers a clear justification for the inclusion of this book in the series. As Lathey points out, children’s literature is “an underestimated art” given to an “illusory simplicity” (1). If literary translation for adults poses problems, translating for an implied child reader offers its own set of challenges. First, as Lathey reminds us, there is no clear definition of what “children’s literature” is. Second, even the concept of childhood itself is contested and subject to cultural variations. Consequently, Lathey must cover a wide range of translation problems and approaches to them in order to introduce translators to the particular “stylistic, linguistic, formal, generic and thematic issues specific to writing for children” (10). Along with questions regarding translation proper, Lathey also offers insights into the publishing industry and the various cultural concerns that dominate the marketing of books for children.

The first problem for any translator is to define the audience for the work. In the case of translating children’s literature, this problem becomes more complex. Lathey’s first chapter, “Narrative Communication with the Child Reader,” explains how the implied readers of a child’s text can span a wide range of developmental stages, from toddlers looking at picture books or hearing stories read aloud to more sophisticated adolescent readers. In addition, the author of a text may not only be speaking to children, but may also insert messages for the adults who are reading aloud in what Lathey refers to as “dual address” (16). The second problem is to understand the purpose of the book: how much of it is for entertainment alone and how much is didactic? There may be ideological messages authoritatively delivered by an omniscient narrator, or, if the ideological message is subversive, the narrator may adopt a “conspiratorial voice” (15). Furthermore, as with the translation of poetry, if the text is to be read aloud the translation must be more than an accurate representation of meaning in the target language; it must also consider aspects of orality and performance: sound, musicality, rhythm, and onomatopoeia.

In addition to the consideration of sound, which Lathey discusses at length in a later chapter, there are also visual considerations in children’s literature that are virtually nonexistent in that meant for adults. Specifically, translating illustrated books and picture books has its challenges: how the text looks on the page, how it coordinates with the artwork, how it fits into comic strip bubbles. Furthermore, there are typographic problems having to do with font and hand lettering. In some cases, technology has solved certain problems (shrinking text, for example); in others, it has exacerbated them (flipping pictures for languages that read from right to left makes all of the figures left-handed, for example).

The real problem with translation, however, whether for adults or children, is the issue of cultural transference—that is, what to do with the unfamiliar. Lathey’s second chapter, on “meeting the unknown,” looks at “translating names, cultural markers and intertextual references” as they apply particularly to children’s books. Part of the issue here has to do with how obvious a translation is or means to be. Lathey describes the tension between a translator’s...