Literary Personalities in Indonesia Want the Government to Provide a Translation Center

Indonesian literati want the works of the country’s literary masters to reach audiences outside of Indonesia and are requesting their government’s support by providing a translation center.

Ongoing book translation project

Authors and publishers have welcomed the start of an ongoing project, which involves the translation of books penned by literary masters of Indonesia into German and English.

With this project, author Okky Madasari said that the Indonesian government will be left without any option but to give serious attention to the project and support it. She said that in the past, the government has not shown any interest in literary works. Now Indonesia is going to have a crack at reaching a wider global audience.

The book translation program is part of their preparations, as the country is going to be the guest of honor in the Frankfurt Book Fair to be held from 14 to 18 October 2015.

Award-winner

Okky added that her country’s leaders have pretty much left the Indonesian authors and publishers to do the distribution of their works outside of Indonesia on their own. Okky is an award-winning author who wrote, “Bound” (Pasung Jiwa), “The Outcast” (Maryam) and “The Years of the Voiceless” (Entrok).

She said that she received a request for an interview from a Spanish journalist who found her books when the journalist had a holiday in Bali. During a book discussion not long ago hosted by NyonyaBuku, a women writers’ agency, Okky revealed that most of the international readers of her books are those that read reviews or saw her books in online stores such as Amazon. Some of her readers met her at authors’ conferences or book festivals and bought her books so she could sign them. However, she attributes her international exposure more to luck than anything else. According to her, she and her colleagues pray that readers outside Indonesia will somehow find their books because they cannot rely on the quality of their work alone and need government support for their international promotion.

Small industry

The Indonesian book publishing industry is small therefore it is unable to attract foreign investment, according to Director Salman Faridi of Bentang Pusaka, a publisher based in Yogyakarta. He added that to introduce Indonesian literature to the world, the books have to be translated into English first, which needs time and money. He had invested his own resources to develop two translations of “The Rainbow Troops” (Laskar Pelangi), written by Andrea Hirata, into English, but the translations did not fit the local context. He eventually was able to publish the third translation.

Difficulties faced by the publishers

Speaking at the book discussion, the publisher added that it is not easy to find a translator. The translation charges are quite high as well. The rate for an English to Indonesian translation is about US$1.89 (Rp25,000) per page. On the other hand, Indonesian to English translation charges amount to US$11.36 (Rp150,000) per page and US$34.09 (Rp450,000) for a page to be translated from Indonesian into German. Even if they could afford to pay these exorbitant charges, they still have to face the problem of how to sell the books.

Anton Kurnia, a writer and translator who was also a guest speaker at the book discussion said that the Indonesian government should set up an institution just like what Malaysia did. Malaysia had founded the Institut Terjemahan & Buku Malaysia (ITBM) or the Translation and Book Institute Malaysia.

Digital support

Valent Mustamin, business director of Prime Strategy, who represents the WordPress community in Indonesia, has created a website in early 2014 as a tribute to Indonesian writers and help them sell their works. He had gathered materials such as authors’ biographies, book reviews and information about the reviewers and presented them in English to reach international readers.

Image credit: Asmara Moerni, by Saeroen under Public Domain Indonesia