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Letter From Stockholm

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Editor’s Note: When Gao Xingjian was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in October, some observers, including Germany’s minister of culture, cried foul. Why, they asked, did Goran Malmqvist, a member of the Swedish Academy, advise Gao--some time prior to the announcement--to change publishers? Because Malmqvist is also Gao’s Swedish translator, the suspicion was strong that he might profit from the academy’s decision. These charges were the subject of a front-page story in The Times (Nov. 1).

For his part, Malmqvist publicly stated, in The Times’ story, that he believed that Gao’s work hadn’t been properly promoted by his first publisher and that it was only his literary enthusiasm that prompted him to urge Gao to seek a new home for his writings. Others insist that Malmqvist, at the very least, ought to have recused himself from the Nobel selection lest the appearance of impropriety taint the academy’s decision.

In response to these charges, Malmqvist sent The Times the following letter:

To the Editor:

After the announcement of the award of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature to Gao Xingjian, some newspapers in Sweden, Europe and the U.S. have accused me of double-dealing and unprofessional conduct. The facts of the case are the following:

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In my capacity as translator of Chinese literature and member of the Swedish Academy, I have obviously played an important role in this matter. In the last 12 years, I have translated well over 95% of Gao’s works and have also hailed him as one of the greatest writers in Chinese of our time. My first two translations of Gao’s works--”When I Bought a Fishing-Rod for Granddad” (1989) and “Soul Mountain” (1992)--were published by Forum, a publishing house which is owned by Bonniers, the largest publishing concern in Sweden, which also has a dominating influence over Swedish mass media as owner of five of the largest Swedish newspapers and part owner of Sweden’s one and only commercial television station. My third translation--”One Man’s Bible”--was published by the small and privately owned publishing house Atlantis.

My switch from Forum to Atlantis is in no way irregular. In the last 35 years, I have produced some 50 volumes of translations from Chinese, which have been published by 14 publishers. The reason for this is that no single Swedish publisher could possibly handle so many translations from the Chinese. My translations of the poetry of Bei Dao, for instance, have been published by two publishers, and so have my translations of works by the Shanxi writer Li Rui.

Early in this year I decided to transfer the right to publish my translations of Gao’s works to Atlantis. I discussed this with my friend Gao, who agreed to my proposal and in consequence in June wrote a letter to Forum, indicating that he wished to withdraw the rights to publish his works from Forum. According to Forum, this letter, a copy of which I have seen, was never received.

My transfer from Forum to Atlantis was motivated by the following considerations. Forum’s publication of my translation of “Soul Mountain,” to my mind the greatest novel of the 20th century, passed utterly unnoticed. It simply drowned in the flood of popular books of little or no literary value, among them translations of works by Jackie Collins, which in the last decade have been published by Forum. Atlantis, on the other hand, the director of which personally handles every step in the production of its books, produces no more than 35 titles each year, all of the highest literary quality. The switch to Atlantis was first of all motivated by my wish that the works by Gao be made available to the Swedish reading public in the best possible way.

It has been suggested that I in this matter have been motivated by considerations of personal gain. The fact is that the switch to Atlantis means that my translator’s fees will be less than 50% of what I would have received from a larger publishing house such as Forum.

I also wish to mention that the controversy between the two publishing houses has been solved in such a way that Forum will republish “When I Bought a Fishing-Rod for Granddad” and that Atlantis will republish “Soul Mountain.”

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N.G.D. Malmqvist

Professor Emeritus

Member of the Swedish Academy

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