The Translator as Hero in Postmodern Fiction

Abstract

The idea that the translator is a heroic figure has not yet come of age, either in literature or in the world at large. The phrase 'Conan the Translator' does have a wonderful resonance, but literature offers few instances of translators acting out epic roles. Why should the idea of the translator as hero be so unexpected, so diverting? Even as the protagonist of a postmodern novel, the translator will inevitably acquire a certain aura, will seem larger than life, will project something, however tenuous, of the heroic. Moreover, in the modern world itself we have encountered the translator as tragic hero. He is Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, stabbed to death in 1991. He is Ettore Capriolo, translator of The Satanic Verses, stabbed, but not fatally, in the same month in Italy. But the fact remains that translation and heroic activity seem antithetical. The hero is easily recognized as the one who exudes an over-abundance of self. Our virtue as translators, on the other hand, apparently depends on a deficiency of self, on a high degree of 'negative capability'. Precisely our modesty, our willingness to play second fiddle, to meld into the identity of a primary creator, is often viewed as a precondition of successful translation. Are we not required, as translators, to be humble, selfless to the degree that we can take on the sensibility, style, and world view of the writer? Does not our lack of prestige and social status as translators mirror, alas, this negative capability? We are poorly paid and often anonymous, our names left off dust jackets and title pages, omitted from bibliographies and book reviews. When not wholly invisible, we appear as marginal figures indeed. Yet there are ancient precedents for an alternative view in which translation is conceived as an epic endeavour and the translator as heroic. In the legend of the Septuagint, the Hellenistic world gives us the prototype of the translator as cultural hero. The seventy translators of the Hebrew scriptures labour in isolation, each in his cell, in Alexandria,