How do you become literature translators (studies) and what are the perspectives?

Literature translator: job description, studies and career prospects

The majority of the books that appear in this country are translations from a foreign language. literature translators are responsible for the new works of the works what literary translation is, how to become literature translators and how the professional prospects are.

No life in the spotlight

Unlike the authors of famous printing works, people who translate literary works are in the background. In addition, even the Association of German -speaking translators emphasizes literary and scientific works in Berlin that no wealth is accumulated in this professional field.

If you strive to become a literature translator, you should have a lot of idealism. Specialist translators who specialize in certain areas earn much better.

Literats mostly work freelance

The translation of literary texts is usually a freelance activity. If you want to take this profession, it means that you:

• do not have any predictable income
• have no legal entitlement to paid vacation
• in the event of illness no continued wage or sick pay
• have to take care of further training and further training

In addition, it should be noted at this point that the concept of the literature translator is not a protected term. In principle, everyone can title as such.

The main task of writers is to translate texts from the starting language into a new language . You treat the entire range of writings. This includes subsequent areas:

• Non -fiction
• Poetry
• Fiction
• Films and comics
• Scientific texts
• Specialist texts

literary translation is much more than the new of documents in the target language. People who pursue this activity are sometimes integrated into the creation and marketing of books. Furthermore, they are partly responsible for the organization of readings and the writing of marketing texts.

Here it becomes clear that you should have certain characteristics and preferences in order to be successful as a translator of literary texts. This includes in particular:

• Creativity
• A preference for languages
• Independence
• patience

The translator Eveline passes in the portrait

In 2014, the translator Eveline Passet received the translator prize of the Culture Circle of German Economy, endowed with 10,000 euros. Eveline Passet, born in 1958, studied Slavic and Romance Studies in Paris and today works as a literature translator and radio author in Berlin. It translates from French and Russian and has translated works by Benjamin Constant, Alfred de Musset, Wassili Rosanow, Alexander Kuprin, Daniel Pennac and Wassili Golowanow into German.

Eveline Passet repeatedly combines her translational activity with projects that are supposed to sensitize a general public to translation as well as to language phenomena. So she is one of the co-authors of " Change of Lace . Eveline has also headed workshops and further training for translators for many years.

How they become literature translators

There are a variety of ways to become a literary . This includes the fact that there is no legally obligatory training for translators. It is an unprotected job. Therefore, numerous career changers work in this area.

course for literary translation is offered at some universities . For example at the universities in Düsseldorf, Munich and Bochum . Another way to take this profession is to train at an institute for interpreting and translating. This usually takes three years and ends with an exam. In addition, studying foreign languages ​​or training in the field of literature translation is helpful. If you want to translate literary texts in the economic sector, you can also have yourself checked in front of the Chamber of Commerce.

Since the overwhelming majority of young professionals working freelance , they have to try to work their own initiative. Fixed positions in companies or state institutes are the absolute exception.

With increasing professional experience, it makes sense to make a focus . The technical, scientific and medical field in particular are lucrative. The more complex the topic of the text to be translated, the higher the remuneration. When translating a medical report into German, for example, you have to know the exact German wording of the specialist date and put it on paper.

English is particularly important

An absolute must to be successful in literary translation is comprehensive knowledge of the English language. Norbert Zänker commented as follows:

"Specialist translators of so -called orchid languages ​​have a hard time because the order situation fluctuates or is constantly low."

This goes back to the fact that most texts are published in English. Those who do not master this language will receive little orders. Furthermore, it is common in the industry to work in the relay. As a rule, the starting texts are first processed by an English translation office and only then translated into the target language.

How high is the salary?

This question cannot be answered in general. Rather, it depends on the scope and quality of the work. However, it is certain that literary notes are not overly rich. You have to invest a lot of time for the high -quality translation of literary texts and are usually only insufficiently rewarded.

You can find an overview of the earning opportunities as a translator at StudyCheck .

How are the career prospects?

Due to the lack of permanent positions, the career entry is challenging. Working as a freelancer is the rule . Accordingly, you have to try to make orders and customers independently. However, successful literature translators do not assume the orders.

Despite the progressive digitization, new texts always appear. Nothing will change in the future. Even intelligent algorithms cannot take on human cognitive skills in the foreseeable future.

The Federal Association of Interprets and Translators provides numerous further information on this job description, possible fields of activity and typical working methods. V. (BDÜ).