To Be Translated or not To Be

This report therefore begins with the assessment of the unprecedented global scope of English and the current state of literary translation in the English-speaking world and particularly in the United States that will be undertaken in the first chapter. Then, by contrast and as context to the situation of English, the second chapter comments on responses from PEN Centers across the globe to a questionnaire about literary translation sent out by International PEN. To provide further points of comparison, the report presents in the third chapter six case studies from different parts of the world to describe what could be called the “translation economy” of each region: the Netherlands, Argentina, Catalonia, Germany, China and France. The subsequent chapter on experiences on literary translation describes the successful initiatives of a number of PEN Centers to address the need for more translation into English, as well as significant efforts by other institutions, both public and private, to engage with this issue in ways that can make a difference. Finally, the conclusions try to summarize the main findings of the report and offer a general view of literary translation in today’s world. Three distinguished writers, Paul Auster, Narcís Comadira, and Ngu~gı~ wa Thiong’o, have contributed literary depth to what might otherwise have been a lamentably technocratic document by composing texts on the subject of translation especially for this report.