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Esther Allen

50 best literary translations? Here's how I read it...

The British Translators Association is an animal of a very different breed from its closest American counterpart, the American Literary Translators Association or ALTA. The most useful difference between the two groups, from the working American translator's perspective is that front and centre on the Brits' web page is a suggested minimum rate of remuneration, stated flat out: 80 pounds per thousand words for prose, and 85p per verse for poetry.

This would be illegal here in gun-toting America. In 1991, the American Translators Association (a vast group not limited to literary translation) ceased posting its annual guidelines for translation rates when the Federal Trade Commission began investigating whether such a practice constituted price fixing - a violation of US anti-trust laws. Curiously, as the pound grows and grows against the dollar, the lack of US pricing guidelines has turned out to be a great boon to American translators. When my colleagues ask me what rates they should charge, I send them straight to the British translators' homepage.

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