Page:Performing Without a Stage - The Art of Literary Translation - by Robert Wechsler.pdf/44

 supposed to work that way: the submitting party is supposed to get the brunt rather than the best of the bargain. It’s true that the laurels go to the author, but in English-speaking countries it’s the rare foreign author who ever gets enough fame to make it worth anyone’s while. In fact, most translations — even those competently done — are never published, and most poetry and story translations that are published appear in magazines or books with very small readerships. Even the great majority of published novels in translation reach tiny audiences. So it is the rare foreign author who attains fame, but the translator always gets the rewards he seeks.