Why translation matters.

The Globe and Mail reviews Edith Grossman's new book:

Grossman is well known for her translations of García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes and, most notably, Cervantes. She has won several awards, including, this past January, the first Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Translation Prize. At 74, she would seem to have every reason to feel secure, if not serene.

"How odd, then, to encounter, early on, passages in which she sounds anything but -- sounds, rather, as if she were telling us why translators, especially ones named Edith, matter and how they get next to no respect from crass publishers or (oh dear) careless reviewers. The latter are faulted for making mention of translators only to dismiss them with an all too familiar adverb: 'ably,' sometimes 'seamlessly,' as in 'ably (or seamlessly) translated by,' when the criteria for such a judgment are obviously missing, most reviewers not knowing the original language of the book under review. And even if they know it, she says, they tend simply to point out errors and inaccuracies, 'a useless enterprise that enlightens no one.'