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The Rewards of Translation
Last year the Fourth Marsh Award was presented to Anthea Bell for her translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Wo warst du, Robert? (Where Were You, Robert?). The Marsh Award is a biennial prize awarded for the best translation of a children's book published in the UK from a foreign language into English. The prize money goes to the translator in recognition of the vital role translators play in our cultural lives. Translation and translators are often undervalued - a state of affairs which the Marsh Awards set out to change. In the mid 1990s the number of children's book translated into English had dwindled to less than three per cent of the annual number of books published for children in the UK. It was this that prompted the National Centre for Research into Children's Literature (NCRCL) to initiate discussions with the Arts Council, the British Council and a possible sponsor. As a result, the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust and administered by Gillian Lathey of the NCRCL, was launched.
Past winners of the award have all demonstrated that translating for children is a particular art. It is the skilled work of the translator that allows stories to travel over linguistic and cultural boundaries. Many of our best-loved children's books were not originally written in English. The Moomins originated in Finland, Emil and the Detectives came from Germany, and Asterix and Obelix were, of course, Gauls. It is easy to forget that the original books by Tove Janssen, Emil Kästner and Goscinny and Uderzo would have been impossible for non-linguists to understand. Rendered into English by their skilled translators, the stories have become part of our cultural landscape.
Past submissions for the Marsh Award have covered the full range of writing for children, from poetry to prose fiction and picture books. Translated from a variety of source languages, the books have also featured all manner of different styles and themes. But all have one thing in common: while perfectly suited to a British readership, they also allow children to encounter something different - to hear new voices and to read new stories. As past Marsh Award speaker Philip Pullmann has commented, books in translation occupy a place on children's bookshelves that could not be filled by anything else.
The Fifth Marsh Award will be presented in January 2005 by British novelist Aidan Chambers, and the judges are currently seeking submissions. Submissions are welcome from British publishers for books translated into English for young readers up to sixteen years of age. The books must have appeared during the award period (1 July 2002 - 30 June 2004), and must be submitted to the judges by the end of June 2004. For full details of the submission guidelines please email the NCRCL (G.Lathey@roehampton.ac.uk).

Past Winners
2003 Anthea Bell: Where Were You, Robert? (H.M. Enzensberger)
Published by Puffin
2001 Betsy Rosenberg: Duel (D. Grossman)
Published by Bloomsbury
1999 Patricia Crampton: The Final Journey (G. Pausewang)
Published by Viking
1997 Anthea Bell: A Dog's Life (C. Nöstlinger)
Published by Andersen Press

Where were you, Robert?, the winning entry for the Fourth Marsh Award, is a complex and gripping fantasy. Fifteen-year-old Robert discovers that he can travel through time. As he stares at a picture, his vision blurs and he enters the scene that he's looking at. A glimpse of a TV documentary takes him to Stalin's Soviet Union in 1956, where the contents of his pockets bring him under suspicion of spying. A film he sees in Moscow transports him to Australia in 1946. Next a photograph catches his eye, and he finds himself in Germany, sixteen years earlier. Soon Robert is adrift in history, falling into picture after picture, never sure where he will emerge. Finally he finds himself in seventeenth-century Amsterdam and can only escape by painting a picture from memory - a picture of his kitchen at home.
One of Germany's most famous men of letters, Hans Magnus Enzensberger is an outstanding poet, writer and political thinker. He has received numerous distinguished prizes for his poetry, children's books and essays.
Wo warst, du Robert? (nbg 4, Autumn 1998) has sold into numerous languages throughout the world. It was originally published in German by Hanser Verlag in 1998. Anthea Bell's translation was brought out by Puffin in 2001.

	The Rewards of Translation Last year the Fourth Marsh Award was presented to Anthea Bell for her translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Wo warst du, Robert? (Where Were You, Robert?). The Marsh Award is a biennial prize awarded for the best translation of a children's book published in the UK from a foreign language into English. The prize money goes to the translator in recognition of the vital role translators play in our cultural lives. Translation and translators are often undervalued - a state of affairs which the Marsh Awards set out to change. In the mid 1990s the number of children's book translated into English had dwindled to less than three per cent of the annual number of books published for children in the UK. It was this that prompted the National Centre for Research into Children's Literature (NCRCL) to initiate discussions with the Arts Council, the British Council and a possible sponsor. As a result, the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust and administered by Gillian Lathey of the NCRCL, was launched. Past winners of the award have all demonstrated that translating for children is a particular art. It is the skilled work of the translator that allows stories to travel over linguistic and cultural boundaries. Many of our best-loved children's books were not originally written in English. The Moomins originated in Finland, Emil and the Detectives came from Germany, and Asterix and Obelix were, of course, Gauls. It is easy to forget that the original books by Tove Janssen, Emil Kästner and Goscinny and Uderzo would have been impossible for non-linguists to understand. Rendered into English by their skilled translators, the stories have become part of our cultural landscape. Past submissions for the Marsh Award have covered the full range of writing for children, from poetry to prose fiction and picture books. Translated from a variety of source languages, the books have also featured all manner of different styles and themes. But all have one thing in common: while perfectly suited to a British readership, they also allow children to encounter something different - to hear new voices and to read new stories. As past Marsh Award speaker Philip Pullmann has commented, books in translation occupy a place on children's bookshelves that could not be filled by anything else. The Fifth Marsh Award will be presented in January 2005 by British novelist Aidan Chambers, and the judges are currently seeking submissions. Submissions are welcome from British publishers for books translated into English for young readers up to sixteen years of age. The books must have appeared during the award period (1 July 2002 - 30 June 2004), and must be submitted to the judges by the end of June 2004. For full details of the submission guidelines please email the NCRCL (G.Lathey@roehampton.ac.uk).
	Past Winners 2003 Anthea Bell: Where Were You, Robert? (H.M. Enzensberger) Published by Puffin 2001 Betsy Rosenberg: Duel (D. Grossman) Published by Bloomsbury 1999 Patricia Crampton: The Final Journey (G. Pausewang) Published by Viking 1997 Anthea Bell: A Dog's Life (C. Nöstlinger) Published by Andersen Press
	Where were you, Robert?, the winning entry for the Fourth Marsh Award, is a complex and gripping fantasy. Fifteen-year-old Robert discovers that he can travel through time. As he stares at a picture, his vision blurs and he enters the scene that he's looking at. A glimpse of a TV documentary takes him to Stalin's Soviet Union in 1956, where the contents of his pockets bring him under suspicion of spying. A film he sees in Moscow transports him to Australia in 1946. Next a photograph catches his eye, and he finds himself in Germany, sixteen years earlier. Soon Robert is adrift in history, falling into picture after picture, never sure where he will emerge. Finally he finds himself in seventeenth-century Amsterdam and can only escape by painting a picture from memory - a picture of his kitchen at home. One of Germany's most famous men of letters, Hans Magnus Enzensberger is an outstanding poet, writer and political thinker. He has received numerous distinguished prizes for his poetry, children's books and essays. Wo warst, du Robert? (nbg 4, Autumn 1998) has sold into numerous languages throughout the world. It was originally published in German by Hanser Verlag in 1998. Anthea Bell's translation was brought out by Puffin in 2001.