The inaugural roundtable meeting of the APWN received a grant under the Japan Foundation Grant Program for Intellectual Exchange Projects, 2005-2006. Project director, berni m janssen, offers this report on the discussions of the roundtable.

When 40 writers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds meet, issues of translation and interpretation are very close to the surface. Wordsmiths, working with the power and precision of words and language, are only too aware of the gaps, misunderstandings, and sometime impossibilities of texts moving from one cultural and linguistic context to another. The situation itself, the inaugural meeting of the Asia and Pacific Writers Network (APWN), a gathering of writers from Japan, China, Singapore, Philippines, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia, was reflective of this complexity of culture, literature and language. We are familiar with these issues of translation of words, ideas, people between cultures, popularised cinematically in “Lost in Translation”. Indeed cross-cultural engagement (where translation is ongoing), even for those who are committed to dialogue and understanding, can be fraught with contradictions.

As Nakamura Kazue says “The very contradictions, misunderstandings, different standpoints among us may give the most honest and useful strategies; we need to sit together and talk. Seemingly most different, most remote regions and peoples need to sit together and talk.”

Sit and talk we did. As a group of writers dedicated to dialogue and freedom of speech, the questions of who and what is being translated and into what language, and who has access to works in translation, were of as vital importance in the ongoing debate of how translation can best be achieved. Dr Isagani Cruz, in his presentation for “Whose Voices Are Heard?”, conducted a thorough analysis of a notable anthology of World Literature to confirm that “The way we read literature, as manifested in classroom textbooks, misrepresents the state of literature today, primarily because of the four horsepersons of apocalyptic hegemony, namely (instead of pestilence, war, famine, and death), race, class, gender, and language.” (You can read this insightful paper on www.apwn.net.)

That quaternary is not only powerful in the global economies of media and publishing, but unfortunately becoming all too evident and prevalent in our societies and politics. Fear of the ‘other’ is creating intolerable borders. Yet we have extraordinary means, through our literatures and their translation, to destabilise these borders. We need to have greater access to the literature of our neighbours, and not just that which is deemed easy for the foreign audience. As Nicholas Jose has pointed out “Few books from China reach the international market unmediated. The patient curiosity required for writing that does not match existing tastes or confirm prejudices is hard to come by in an English-speaking world that has too much to read already. As a result what passes for Chinese writing outside the country is rather thin, and Chinese authors who deal seriously with their culture are known only to specialists.” (Nicholas Jose, Review of Ghost Tide by Yo Yo, first published Australian Book Review, September 2005. Also published on www.apwn.net.)

Acknowledging the difficulty of obtaining works of literature from across our region, even in English translation, the meeting participants supported the proposal of Dr Isagani Cruz to establish a Virtual Translation Centre, which would focus on the translation of works of literature from the region’s languages into Chinese, English, Japanese, and Indonesian/Malay.

“So why do we need to have Chinese, English, Japanese, and Indonesian/Malay and not just English? Precisely because we are trying to decolonise our imaginations, but also because certain texts are easier, probably better, to translate into an Asian language rather than into a European one. There is nothing wrong with translating our texts into English; what would be wrong would be to translate our texts only into English and deprive those without English-language reading ability of the chance to read us.” (Dr Isagani Cruz)

Utilising the APWN website, the Virtual Translation Centre would initially be a directory of works in translation, translators and translation centres. The website already publishes work in different languages and scripts, and works that may not be accessible to the region’s readers. We will establish a section for Writing in Translation and in the long term aim for an online Translation Centre, where works published on the site would be available for translation, and the possibility of multiple translations.

As writers, we know the importance of literature, of sharing stories, so fundamental to our humanity, as a means to greater understanding and tolerance. As Nakamura Kazue said, “(The meeting) … gave me chance to reconsider, reconfirm, the essential need and use of the words and literature, which is at risk of being forgotten in Japan. In the flood of superficially rich information and colourful stories we are thirsty for fundamental words that reach the basis of our existence. After all, we do keep wondering why we exist, for what we live, why we make such a mess out of our own existence, don’t we? This meeting, dealing with all practical problems and immediate difficulties, assured me that I was not wrong to keep holding onto the idea that literature can still answer these questions, and only literature can keep answering these questions in such diverse and vital manners.“

Literature, in any language, articulates the complexities of individuals and societies. Through translating and publishing literary works, readers from other cultures travel in foreign worlds, deepening their understanding of humanity. As writers, we have a profound belief that through sharing our complex stories, the ‘other’ will no longer be a feared stranger, but a person who has a name, a face, a family, a history and a home.

berni m janssen

Asia and Pacific Writers Network gratefully acknowledges the support of: Toyota Foundation, through the Asian Neighbors Network Program; Japan Foundation, through the Grant Program for Intellectual Exchange Projects; the Myer Foundation; City of Melbourne; Arts Victoria; and National Arts Council Singapore.