Laura Ivaska

A remedy for translating languages of limited diffusion: Indirect translation

One problem that translating from a language of limited diffusion poses is the potential lack of translators who know the language in question. Such is the case, for example, with Finnish translations of Modern Greek literature. There are few translators who are proficient in both languages, and thus at least half of the 24 prose novels translated from Modern Greek into Finnish have been done indirectly from languages other than Greek. Considering this from another perspective, indirect translation – in its various forms – offers a feasible way to increase translation flows especially from languages of limited diffusion.

I discuss the concerns that scholar, as well as translators and publishers, have voiced about the possibly lower quality to which translating indirectly leads. The fear is that the effect of something getting lost in translation intensifies when translating from a translation. To overcome this situation, both translators and publishers have proposed the practices of compilative and collaborative translation. Collaboration refers to the different ways in which translators may ask help from others to assist them in their translation endeavor. Compilative translation means using more than one source text, and takes different forms based on the number of STs as well as their relationship with the work that is being translated. 

However, the different ways in which indirect translation is practiced has gained little attention in translation studies until recently, perhaps due to its reputation as second-class translating. The negative attitudes may partly explain why the indirect nature of indirect translations is often hidden, which causes difficulties for doing research on the topic.


Laura Ivaska is a Doctoral Candidate at the Department of English at the University of Turku. Her doctoral dissertation deals with the (indirect) translations of Modern Greek literature into Finnish since 1952, and her research interests include collaborative and compilative translation, the intersection of translation studies and textual studies, and the role of translators in
bridging cultures. Laura is a member of the international IndirecTrans network.