Books are my business: Writer and translator Frank Wynne

Wynne has translated novels from every country in South America bar Venezuela, but also from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, and Lebanon

Frank Wynne: 'A book cannot be communicated by taking the book and simply shifting the words into another language.' File picture: Nick Bradshaw 

Frank Wynne is an award-winning writer and translator from French and Spanish. 

His translation of Atomised by Michel Houllebecq won the 2002 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. 

His translation of Standing Heavy, by the Ivorian writer GauZ’, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize last year. Originally from Sligo, he is based mainly in Dublin.

How did you become a translator?

Like most people of my generation, I got into it by accident. I went to Trinity where I resolutely failed to complete my studies. 

Being a young gay man in holy Catholic Ireland in the ‘70s and early ‘80s was not a lot of fun, and so after a brief unillustrious career working with Radio Nova, I decided to move to Paris.

I read a lot in French and I became fascinated with the language. I then moved to London and I ran a small French bookshop in Kensington, where I stocked French graphic novels. 

I ended up working in comics publishing for a number of years and did bits of translation work, largely in an editorial role.

In the meantime, I became what is known as a publisher’s reader, most editors do not read in multiple languages and when deciding whether to acquire the rights for a book in translation, they get someone else to read it. 

I happened on a book called L’hypothèse du Désert by Dominique Sigaud and wrote a positive review; the editor decided he would acquire the rights and asked me to do a sample, and I went on to translate the book. I still had a full-time job, working for the European arm of AOL.

Then I translated Atomised which was hugely controversial and sold almost a million copies. 

When that happened, I decided to become a full-time translator, which was a foolish idea on my part as it would be another seven years before I would get enough work to make a living. 

I have been doing it now for about 25 years and have about 100-110 books out there.

What does being a translator involve?

Before I agree to translate a book, I read it to get a sense of what it is. Before I start working on it, I will probably read through it again to have a sense of what the book feels like to a reader.

If you just sit down and start translating from page one, you are not experiencing it as a reader.

 Over a period of a few months, depending on the length of the book, I will do a first draft. That is when I do most of my research. 

As in writing a book, translation is not about a first draft, it is about rewriting and revising. 

A book cannot be communicated by taking the book and simply shifting the words into another language.

That will not recreate the rhythm, the humour, the irony, the register of voices or the allusions it makes to 19th century poetry, 17th century paintings, or whatever else. 

The crucial skill of the translator is not the ability to learn another language — which is why AI is not really going to cut it — but the ability to write. 

When it was announced that the great Gregory Rabassa was translating One Hundred Years of Solitude, he was asked whether he felt his Spanish was good enough; he replied ‘you’ve asked the wrong question, the question is ‘is my English good enough?’. And that is entirely true.

What do you like most about what you do?

If I am a writer, there are some books I can write, if I am a translator I can be 40, 60 completely different writers and write novels that I could never have imagined. 

I have translated novels from every country in South America, bar Venezuela, but also from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, Lebanon. 

In that respect, it is like being a musician or an actor.

What do you like least about it?

It is badly paid, which doesn’t help. Don’t get me wrong, I am in a privileged position, I have been doing it for long enough and have a sufficiently high profile. 

Sometimes you will get a review that is very complimentary about the style, rhythm, or lyricism that will completely fail to mention that the book is even in translation. 

It is frustrating but things are an awful lot better than when I started out, partly because the approach of the small independent presses has shifted the way people see translated literature.

Three desert island books

I would take Proust, In Search of Lost Time, I would have to pick and choose the translated volumes though; if I took it in French, it would probably be easier. 

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jenny Croft. I love many of Olga’s books and Jenny’s translations but Flights is the one I absolutely fell in love with and could read from now until the end of time. 

The third would be Don Quixote in Spanish, I could spend the rest of my time trying to come up with a version of that, which would be fun.

• Frank Wynne and GauZ’ will discuss his latest novel Comrade Papa with Jackie Lynam at the Write by the Sea festival in Kilmore Quay, Wexford, today; St Peter’s Church, 2.45pm.

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