The Decreasing Supply and Demand for Literary Translation

Linguists and experts believe that the translation for literary works is considered by many to be one of the highest forms of translation for the fact that it involves much more than simply translating text. Translators and linguists agree that compared with any other types of translation, literary translation requires the highest levels of skills. As a matter of fact, of all fields in translation, literary translation is undoubtedly the most difficult in which to find really steady and well-paid work. Aside from the complexities of choosing the right translator to do the job, the supply and demand of literary translation keeps on dropping over the years. Does this mean that in few years’ time, translation for literary works will be neglected and may have vanished? If there is a continuous drop in the demand and supply of literary translation, does it mean that the interest of people in literary works is decreasing as well?Obviously, the demand for literary translators is not as great as the demand for technical translators. Thus, courses in literary translation also have no great demand in comparison with other courses or types of translation.It is true that literary works are important in human lives; from the very beginning of the learning process of a certain individual, his or her interest and knowledge in literary works should increase as well. Unfortunately, researchers have recently found that the demand for literary translation in the world is decreasing.The main reason why there is a decreasing supply and demand for literary translation is that many literary translators nowadays don’t seem to accept the job of translating literary works from one language to another. Linguists believe that the majority of literary translators can’t make a living from literary translation anymore. Literary translators remain to perform their passion of translation, but consider it as a hobby rather than a profession. However, some literary translators pursue their career by trying to fit their qualifications in order to perform some other type of translation like technical translation or medical translation.The effect of decreasing number of literary translators has a negative impact not only on society and learning institutions but also on translation and interpreting agencies. It seems likely that literary translation is considered the least financially rewarding type of translation.Literature is important for people, especially for students, in order to widen their learning abilities about important things. However, if the alarming decreasing number of supply and demand for literary translation will continue, experts believe that learning ability and performance of students, particularly language students will be affected.Language students may show less interest in the field of literary translation. However, language schools and translation practitioners should show their responsibility as effective communicators in society. The rich knowledge and culture of literary works are worthy to be shared and learned by other people, and including people of different heritage. Thus, literary translation should be given importance by the people.