Amanda Gorman’s Dutch translater sacked for being ‘white and non-binary’

[Angelica789]

Campaigners argued that Marieke Lucas Rijnveld wasn’t a suitable person to translate Amanda Gorman’s latest poetry book into Dutch as they are not black and female, and the author has pulled out as a consequence.

This is interesting to me because if we continue to give such weight to identity above other characteristics, such as skill as a writer, it will affect marginalised groups far more than anyone else, yet these are ones campaigning hardest for identity based policies.

Kazuo Ishiguro has spoken about the restrictions inherent in the current fashion for demonising anyone who dares to write from any point of view but their own.

And at the same time they don't want to hear about the lives and views of anyone they deem 'privileged' - which includes most women.

Surely there are going to be multiple instances where translating a book has to be done by someone not of the same ethnicity as the author. Isn't it better for the best available Greenlandic translator to translate a black female author or must they find a black female Greenlanic translator? What about white authors, can they only be translated by white Indian, Japanese or Nigerian translators? It's daft.

This is often just about someone looking for something to condemn someone for - anything, anyone just so they can climb the purity spiral by pointing at another's failure to be woke enough.

In my experience, non-binary people expect full inclusion in women's spaces

Yes I've seen this - most women's activities/groups I see ads for now say they welcome "transwomen and non-binary people" - why? That could just mean any bloke at all.

This is Marieke's tweet in English:

I hereby inform you that I have decided to return the assignment to translate the work of Amanda Gorman.

I am shocked by the fuss around my involvement in spreading the Amanda Gorman message and I understand the people who feel hurt by Meulenhoff's choice to ask me. I considered it a great and honorable assignment to translate Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem and her collection into Dutch.

Amanda's team has announced that they are still behind the choice of de Meulenhoff and I thank her for the trust that has been placed in me. What interests me is the richness of the language. I had lovingly poured myself from translating Amanda's work where I saw it as the biggest task to keep its strength, tone and style government.

However, I am well aware that I am in a position to think and feel that way, where many are not. I still wish that her thoughts would reach as many readers as possible and open more hearts.

So, this is a rough translation. Rijnveld resigned 'themself' after the discussion about 'their' suitability and why a black translator hadn't been used. I think.

Why not a black translator?
According to the publisher, Rijneveld, winner of the International Booker Prize and also young and with his own style and tone, was the right person to do so. Critics, especially from the black community, disagreed. They wondered why no good bilingual black poet had been found to translate the work. They received a lot of support, especially on social media.

Publishing house Meulenhoff initially defended itself by stating that Gorman and her team had themselves agreed with Rijneveld. The American and her team had asked for a translator who felt a personal affinity with Gorman, also in style and tone.

According to Meulenhoff, it was found in Rijneveld because it makes issues such as gender equality and mental resilience open to discussion and works with passion towards an inclusive society.

The publisher also promised that the Dutch translation would be read critically by so-called 'sensitivity readers' with different backgrounds. That didn't help. Black critics in particular kept repeating that this way good black authors and translators will not get a job .

Dutch?

Interesting eh?

The Netherlands have a vivid and rich multi-racial mixtory (in major areas). Like the UK.

What has gone wrong in their inter-sphere/law lands?

So, I think it was the fact 'they' are a white Dutchie which might be the issue.

www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/01/21/book-review-discomfort-evening-marieke-lucas-rijneveld-239781

Interesting review of 'their' book. Religion, loss and maturing.

It's not a gender issue. The furore is to do with using a white person but this person was chosen by the author. So they have disrespected a black woman's own view on who should translate her work

It is mad and discriminatory. It means a white hetero woman has far more options when it comes to choosing a translator than a black lesbian. I suspect white women may even be able to choose white men to translate stuff without the woke crowd getting involved.
It's not a fecking kidney donation. It's language ability that's needed not genetic matching.

I used google translate to read the article from Janice Deul that brought the discussion into the media.

www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/opinie-een-witte-vertaler-voor-poezie-van-amanda-gorman-onbegrijpelijk~bf128ae4/

I've got a lot of sympathy for the point of view that people from ethnic minorities than white peers usually find it much harder to break into publishing, and that this would have been a good time for people to consciously counteract the subconscious prejudices that lead established people in publishing to employ more people like themselves.

On the other hand why would a publisher have approached the author and poet who won the International Booker Prize just last year, was the first ever Dutch author to win it, and the youngest ever author to do so?

Ultimately, if they go with someone else who is lower profile, whose sales and finances might suffer? Who will lose out financially? Well, the obvious answer is Amanda Gorman, whose past travails Janice Deul discussed as part of her argument that Rijnweld was unsuitable.

And what if Amanda was fully involved in the decision and chose Marieke Lucas on account of their experience being the author translated (like that debut novel that won the International Booker Prize ) and because Amanda thought that Marieke's literary style in their own poetry gelled with her own? What then?

All happened quite quickly. Rijneveld tweeted excitedly on 23rd February. The poem was going to be published on 30th March and the collection in August.

You can see some of the discussion in English tweets at the end. However, it is twitter, so not really a discussion as such.

twitter.com/MLRijneveld/status/1364128900620685312

Plus these culture wars, identity politics etc are so much more fun than the boring work of bringing about real social change and progress around the key issues that actually matter most like jobs, housing, training, childcare. To have the luxury of focusing on these very niche issues in the lofty worlds of poetry and the like is a sure sign that people don't have, and never have had to worry about having their basic needs met. They like things just how they are thanks, just with more diverse cultural products and signifiers like food, music, books etc

Absolutely, theleaf

Some people in these tweets were having a go at Amanda Gorman for having Marieke Lucan Rijneveld do the translation.

Lucas not Lucan.

Has a white male author ever been patronised like this and told he can't choose his translator?

I agree with the view that focussing on identity politics is a great distraction from the real inequalities in society.

To me it’s like the middle classes who are obsessional about recycling and ethical clothing but fly 4 times a year for holidays. It enables privileged people to feel superior for doing things that have no actual impact on their life.

It’s also very odd how you have to write from only your own authentic voice and live experience blah de blah, yet it’s fine for a man to suddenly know exactly what it’s like to be a woman and thenceforth speak as one and be given women’s officer jobs.

Oops my eyeballs just rolled right out my head

This seems crazy. Why can't Amanda Gorman choose who she wants? I'm going to presume the decision was made on the basis of this Dutch person's talent and resume. Seems like the opposite of empowering to tell Amanda she can't make her own decisions.

I don’t understand this one at all. It’s meaningless performative social justice at barely a high school level. It’s embarrassing.

Excellent thread though especially Terryleather and Herself. Middle class liberals maintain their relevance and social position by giving away rights that they don’t need and backing illogical identities that mainly benefit their mates.

Puts me in mind of arguments in the nineties amongst (male) critics about whether Jean Rhys's white creole female character, Antoinette, in Wide Sargasso Sea could possibly have anything to say about the position and treatment of women in the Caribbean more generally. Jean Rhys shared the character's white creole heritage and was a Caribbean-born woman. For some of the men, the character's race seemed the only thing that could possibly contribute to her experience of life. Personally, I think her sex had an enormous, defining influence too. As someone noted, these arguments get shaped by the cultural location and politics of the critic.

For my money, the ideal translator of a poem would be a poet themselves and also have an affinity for the work they're translating. It's not just about the nuance of words and rhythm.

Exactly Maud. Translation isn't easy. It's not just about knowing the equivalent words. It's about crafting the language and translating poetry isn't something just anyone can do.

@MaudTheInvincible

Puts me in mind of arguments in the nineties amongst (male) critics about whether Jean Rhys's white creole female character, Antoinette, in Wide Sargasso Sea could possibly have anything to say about the position and treatment of women in the Caribbean more generally. Jean Rhys shared the character's white creole heritage and was a Caribbean-born woman. For some of the men, the character's race seemed the only thing that could possibly contribute to her experience of life. Personally, I think her sex had an enormous, defining influence too. As someone noted, these arguments get shaped by the cultural location and politics of the critic.

For my money, the ideal translator of a poem would be a poet themselves and also have an affinity for the work they're translating. It's not just about the nuance of words and rhythm.

Fgs - there was clearly so much of Rhys' own life, personality, demons, weaknesses and strengths in the Antoinette character.

To be utterly superficial and flippant - it's a book about a mad woman in an attic written by a mad woman in a damp bungalow in Devon.

(Disclaimer I'm a huge fan of Jean Rhys and I don't actually mean that)

I found this hilarious initially, the current identity fixation is reaching the point where it’s collapsing under the weight of its own ridiculousness.
Then it made me sad, as all this deeply individualistic navel gazing crap is distracting people from far more important issues such as climate change, which doesn’t give two shits about your skin colour or pronouns.