On Taming Jewish Literature's Provocations and Subversions

Omri Asscher's first book is surely one of the most interesting and critically consequential studies of Israeli literary culture to appear in the last few years, especially concerning its influence and reception abroad. Asscher is fascinated by the nature of the bond formed between the Jewish diaspora and its symbolic homeland through the ideological proclivities of the practices of both translation and the production of literary texts, its deceptions and some would argue, moral failures. Though Asscher writes about these and related issues with impressive depth and nuance throughout, the crude manipulation of so many literary narratives over the decades makes one wonder why the phenomenon has gone almost remarked upon in the past, so stupefying are the interventions he examines. Indeed, given the drastic nature of the modifications and omissions made to a significant number of the works of Israel's most famous writers this book uncovers, many readers of Reading Israel, Reading America's early chapters may never be able to fully place their complete trust in a translated Hebrew novel ever again.

Few among those who consider themselves lovers of literature would willingly embrace a slashed and corrupted text. Still, for the sake of at least a mild counterargument, there are those who might suggest that many of the cuts made in the journey from a Hebrew original to the English edition can be justified on the basis of their sheer length. Not long ago, Man Booker International Prize winner Jessica Cohen (translator of numerous works by David Grossman, Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Ronit Matalon, Nir Baram, Assaf Gavron, Rutu Modan, Amir Gutfreund, Yael Hedaya, and Tom Segev, among others) observed that "the expansion rate when translating from Hebrew to English can be well over thirty percent." For a translator with a reputation as esteemed as Cohen's (her fans include Robert Alter and Jacqueline Rose) the stakes are obviously very high and preserving the integrity of the literary work remains an essential task. Thus, even when pressured by English-language publishers, Cohen stresses her awareness of the magnitude of that undertaking, recalling her shock when she first encountered the common demand of truncating and abridging early in her career, and the imperative for close collaborations between translators and authors:

This is never an easy decision for the authors, who are often surprised by the rigorous editing their books undergo when they are acquired by English-language publishers. Given my sense of ownership over my translations, I was initially taken aback when an editor recommended significant cuts, but my attitude has shifted over the years. I used to feel that a translation should – as some of my contracts stipulate – "neither omit anything from the original text nor add anything to it other than such verbal changes as are necessary in translating Hebrew into English." But I have come to believe that viewing the original book as somehow static or sacrosanct is in fact detrimental – or, as the translation cliché goes, unfaithful – to it. The "mere" act of translating is, by definition, a transformation. To translate is to author a new work; the process inevitably involves changes deemed necessary (by the translator, the editor, and sometimes the author) in order to successfully ferry the book into its new habitat. While I resist the dreaded "smoothing out" that some editors push for, I am open to revisions and omissions, and I encourage my authors to be equally adaptable. I tend to work closely with my authors, and as I've become more familiar with the type of adjustments editors often propose, I frequently obtain an author's approval to implement some of these revisions myself as I translate. With very few exceptions, they have warmed to this process, even welcoming the opportunity to reconceive their work for a new readership.¹

I share this passage from Cohen's recent reflections because she addresses the challenges of editing and translating (issues that obviously extend well beyond Hebrew literary works) from a quintessential insider's perspective...