M

aking literature travel between Europe and Asia was the theme of one panel at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. I was a speaker with Vinutha Mallya and David Lopez del Amo, respectively literary agents in India and China. The session asked: '€œHow does writing from other continents find its way to European publishers in today'€™s competitive book industry? And how do we interact with markets and literary scenes as remote as those of China, India, or Indonesia?'€

Other than agents, translators can inform the industry about which foreign books will sell to the target market. Unfortunately, there are still only a handful of qualified translators working from Indonesian into English or other European languages.

Therefore, to get more translations from Indonesia into Europe, the Education and Culture Ministry, through the Indonesian Translation Funding Program (ITFP), should continue investing in translators. The investment could be done, for example through literary translation workshops and mentoring programs.

My translation initiative, InterSastra, has partnered with the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) since 2012, holding translation workshops, seminars, readings and other events with Indonesian and European authors.

Training translators how to network with and pitch a work to international publishers, like in the European Literature Night'€™s Translation Pitch, helps translators hone their skills and gives them the opportunity to promote the authors whose works they admire.

Furthermore, training translators to write proposals enables them to submit them to international publishers. These will give translators experience in creating a book summary, gathering information on the relevant market and explaining to publishers why they think the book would be successful with the target audience.

Many European countries have organizations devoted to promoting their country'€™s literature and translators'€™ exchange programs are another method. The ITFP could collaborate with them to create a program enabling a translator working to translate a book by, say, a German author to work in Germany for a period of time, supported by the German organization, and a translator working to translate a book by an Indonesian author can work in Indonesia, supported by the ITFP.

The IFTP would fill a real need by improving the infrastructure for writers in Indonesia through workshops to raise awareness regarding copyright, establishing a network of translators able to translate from regional languages, developing festivals and residencies, especially in the regions, where authors, editors and translators can meet. Many translators of Indonesian literature have said that the source texts were often poorly edited.

At an InterSastra seminar in 2012, Olivia Sears, from the Center for the Arts of Translation, San Francisco, noted that, '€œSome less-translated countries have had success by inviting delegations of editors and publishers to their country to meet authors.'€ ITFP can do this periodically and sponsor Indonesian writers to various literary festivals. We could also donate Indonesian books to schools and libraries abroad.

Also at the InterSastra seminar in 2012, Lily Rose Tope of the University of the Philippines highlighted how Southeast Asian countries don'€™t read each other. One obvious barrier is language, but some of our neighboring countries are English-speaking countries, such as Singapore and the Philippines. With more translation between Indonesia and these countries we can open doors for translations into other languages in the region and beyond.

Finally, ITFP should post on its website a catalog of samples of translations into English, which can be browsed easily by foreign publishers looking to publish Indonesian books.

Because many publishers don'€™t pay translation costs, to keep promoting Indonesian works to the world the ITFP must continue its work, but rather than giving grants to Indonesian publishers, the program must reach out to international publishers.

If ITFP already paid a grant to translate a book into English, published by an Indonesian publisher, and then, say, a UK publisher wants to acquire the book but they don'€™t like the translation and want to hire a different translator, then the public will have to spend twice as much on the grant for that book.

This year for the Frankfurt Book Fair many translators had to juggle several books at once and struggle with extremely short deadlines. I don'€™t know how much of the grant was actually used to pay translators, or if the translators get to retain the copyright to their work.

Moreover, translators who are Indonesian citizens had to work for a lower rate than non-Indonesians, even if the books are published in key foreign markets such as the US and Australia and even if the Indonesian translators themselves live in countries with higher living costs than Indonesia. Public money is being used to discriminate against citizens.

Most esteemed translators translate into their native tongue, but the work'€™s quality, not the translator'€™s citizenship, should determine the rates the translator gets. Increasing our appreciation for translators'€™ work will pay off in the quality of the translation.

By investing in translators and the infrastructure for writers, ITFP will bring benefits not only for our performance at periodic book fairs, but also for Indonesian literature in the long term.