Thursday, January 10, 2008

OBITUARY:BERNARD SCUDDER




The Guardian today had an obituary of Bernard Scudder, who gave so much pleasure with his fine translations of Arnaldur Indridason's crime fiction.




I think that it is sad there is no prize to recognise excellence in translating for the English speaking readership.

8 Comments:

Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

That's half-true. CWA created an outcry when it split the former Golden Dagger into separate prizes for original-English and translated crime fiction, but the resulting Duncan Lawrie International Dagger does honor the translator as well as the author.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

12:13 PM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

I stand corrected. You are right Peter both author and translator are credited with the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger as a team.

"Last year's winning team of writer Fred Vargas and translator Sîan Reynolds have triumphed again in the 2007 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger, this time with Wash this Blood Clean from my Hand. Our photograph shows Fred Vargas with CWA chair Philip Gooden at the 2007 awards ceremony."

But the photgraph showed the author without the translator!
I must start reading and not just looking at the pictures. ;)

12:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i believe there is also a prize specifically for translators... I believe Len Rix won it for his translation of magda Szabo's excelent "The Door".

11:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

p.s. i also think it's sad that they only get around to writing an obituary nearly four months after Mr scudder actually died...

11:32 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

I agree Fiona it is very sad, and I will look up Len Rix. There are several translators' prizes, but I did not think there was one specifically for crime fiction translating.

11:42 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Len Rix won The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for translations into English from living European languages.

11:46 AM  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I wonder if that's the prize I had in mind when I vaguely recalled having read about a prize for translation.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

12:03 PM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

There are several prizes and some crime fiction translators have won them but not necessarily for crime fiction. As you can see from this link.
http://www.societyofauthors.org/prizes_grants_and_awards/prizes_for_published_translations/rossica_international_prize.html

Sorry about the length.

1:14 PM  

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