Books by Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Nguyen Nhat Anh and Nguyen Ngoc Thuan continue to attract readers. Some books have been proposed for translation into foreign languages for export. Yet, it is difficult to find qualified translators.

Writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu and one of her books.

In late 2008, Tre Publishing House was ordered to publish more book titles by writer Son Nam, books about Vietnamese history, and Vietnamese history in cartoons. Besides purchasing copyrights of new books and investing in reputed writers like Ly Lan, Nguyen Nhat Anh, Nguyen Ngoc Thuan and Nguyen Ngoc Tu, the publishing house is seeking translators to translate these books into foreign languages.

Tre Publishing House Director Quang Thu Nguyet said: “Some foreign partners wanted to buy some Vietnamese books. We translated some works by Nguyen Nhat Anh into Japanese. It is very difficult to find translators for Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s books because it is hard to translate this writer’s writing style into foreign languages.”

Publishers are hunting young translators to vivify the team of established translators, who are now overloaded or older. Ly Lan, who translated Harry Porter into Vietnamese, is considered the one who can best meet the deadlines of publishers.

The Fountainhead, a novel by Ayn Rand, which was voted as one of the best novels of the 20^th century by New York Times’ readers, was recently translated into Vietnamese by a group of young translators in Hanoi. This 1,174-page novel is the work of translators who studied in the US, the Netherlands and Japan, namely Vu Lan Anh, Dinh Quang Hieu, Vu Hoang Linh, Nguyen Kim Ngoc, and Tran Thi Ha Thuy. The novel was edited by young writer Phan Viet. Tre Publishing House has invited this group to translate another novel by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, into Vietnamese.

The group of translators who translated the The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman has been invited to translate another business book entitled The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence was recently translated by a group of young translators, including Nguyen Hong Quang, Van Sanh, Le Hong Van and Nguyen Minh Vu.

Barack Obama – The Audacity of Hope was translated by Nguyen Hang during the race between Obama and Hillary Clinton to become the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. When Obama won the presidential election, the Vietnamese version was launched and it was a big victory for Tre Publishing House.

VietNamNet/TP