White translator removed from Amanda Gorman poem, amid controversy in Europe

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/11/amanda-gorman-white-translator-spain/

by leephillips • 5 years ago

1 3 5 years ago

uberman• 5 years ago

Apparently, this comes via her American publisher:

"(they) received a request from the US group Viking Books for the work to be carried out by a female activist with African-American origins"

per: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56340162

I guess I can see an argument that the perspective of the translator might have some bearing on the interpretation and choice of words. Still, it seems counter productive to reject a completed translation on the basis that it was not done by the right kind of person. I hope the person who completed the work will at least be paid for it.

edhowzerblack• 5 years ago

This is completely ridiculous woke peacocking. If only an African-American activist woman can understand the poem well enough to translate it than why bother translating it into Catalan or Dutch in the first place? For according to their logic, a Dutch or Catalonian reader wouldn't understand it anyway because they are not African-American!

hw-guy• 5 years ago

In the US, rejecting someone from a job because of their race or sex is explicitly illegal. Maybe not in the EU. But I'm disgusted it was the US publisher that made the demand. Good luck finding a native Catalan speaker with "African-American origins." I thought this way of thinking would have disappeared in about 1965.

White translator removed from Amanda Gorman poem, amid controversy in Europe

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