Words Without Borders

"Words Without Borders undertakes to promote international communication through translation of the world's best writing—selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals—and publishing and promoting these works (or excerpts) on the web. We also serve as an advocacy organization for literature in translation, producing events that feature the work of foreign writers and connecting these writers to universities and to print and broadcast media." - www.wordswithoutborders.org

Very noble. Only one question. Do they hire translators? So I click on their search button. Turns out their search is meant for literature which they already fed through the translation machine. Has options for search based on the orginal writer, the translator, the title....Hold on. I thought I'd check up on the titles, to see if there's any famous works of art here. And this is what I get:

"I am like an offer"
"I lose verbs most quickly, nouns are left"
"I peel potatoes, stroke you on the head, pick up a leaf"
"Big breasts & wide hips by Mo Yan"
"Ahem"
"Ahlem"
"Five poems"
"Four poems"

All right. All right. I'll spare you the agony. To see the full list, click here, and browse through the full list under "search by title".

Fun and games apart, they do have a point. "Today, 50% of all the books in translation now published worldwide are translated from English, but only 6% are translated into English."

What this means is that the western world is living in a bubble. Struggling and talented writers in the non-english speaking world languish in obscurity despite producing magnificient literature. If you're white, female, blonde, attractive and you run away from your own wedding, that's a sure lock on a million dollar book deal.