The translational exchange between the American and Slovene literatures has never been on an equal footing: the number of translations from Slovene into English is far lower than that of translations from English into Slovene. The COBISS database shows that in the period from the beginning of the 19th century up to the end of 2015, only 506 Slovene literary texts were translated into English and published as a separate volume or book (which is almost 22 times less than the number of Slovene translations of English literary works).

    A more detailed look at the entries in COBISS reveals that only 94 (19%) out of these 506 translations were published in the U.S.A. For example, in the period from the beginning of the 19th century until the end of the 1960s, more than one third, while in the 1980s already more than two thirds of all English translations (i.e., 26 out of 38 works) of Slovene literary works were published in Slovenia. Indeed, one of the typical features of literary translation of Slovene works into English is that numerous translations were not published in the culture using the target language of translations, but in Slovenia. The practice of financing and publishing English translations of Slovene literary works is an ongoing cultural attempt to export and promote Slovene literature abroad, which has its origins in the socialist times and is still firmly in place today – that is also the reason why the number of English translations of Slovene literary works that are published in Slovenia constantly increases. 

    If we take a closer look at different periods, we can see that the 19th century saw no Slovene literary work translated into English, which is not so surprising. More striking, however, is the fact that COBISS records only 5 literary translations into English for the period between 1900 and 1945 (among them the translations of classical Slovene authors, such as Ivan Cankar (1876–1918), France Bevk (1890—1970) and Vladimir Levstik (1886—1957)). This number increases in the socialist period (1945-1990) to 83, and to 457 in the period after Slovenia gained independence (i.e., after 1991). In the 1940s and 1950s translations of France Prešeren, Matej Bor (1913—1993) and Josip Jurčič (1844–1881) appeared in Belgrade, Ljubljana and London (one translation was published in India). In the 1960s 15 translations were published, all in Slovenia or the United Kingdom. However, although COBISS is the largest database and allows you to access databases of more than 430 Slovene libraries, this catalogue is not completely exhaustive and does not cover all translations of Slovene literature into English. For example, COBISS has no record of the book publication of Ivan Cankar's Yerney's Justice (Hlapec Jernej in njegova pravica) translated by Slovene immigrant to the US Louis Adamic, which was published in 1926 with the American publishing house Vanguard Press. These lacunae suggest that additional scholarly attention be paid to the translational activity of the Slovene immigrant community in the USA.

    COBISS thus records no publication of Slovene literary works in English translation on U.S. soil until the 1970s when the first translation of a collection of poetry by Tomaž Šalamun (1941-1914) appeared in Iowa, published by The Toothpaste Press in 1973. Otherwise, there were 10 English translations of Slovene literary works published in the 1970s, while the other nine translations appeared in the UK and Slovenia.

     In the 1980s 38 translations of Slovene literary works appeared, however, only 4 of them were published in the USA: among them were two classical Slovene authors – Ivan Cankar, whose work was published in Ohio (Willoughby Hills: Slovenian Research Center of America/Slovenski ameriški inšitut), and Prežihov Voranc (1893–1950), who work was published in New Orleans (Založba Prometej). Two other authors, more attuned to the contemporary taste, Jože Snoj (1934-) and the avant-garde poet Srečko Kosovel (1904-1926) were published in San Francisco.

    After Slovenia gained independence and abandoned the socialist political system in the 1990s, the number of English translations of Slovene literary works increased significantly. This period saw the appearance of 116 translations, but only 18 of them were published in the U.S.A. The majority of those that appeared in U.S. were the translations of poetry collections of contemporary Slovene poets (Dane Zajc (1929—2005), Meta Kušar (1952–), Taja Kramberger (1970–), Veno Taufer (1933–), Aleš Šteger (1973–), Aleš Debeljak (1961–2016), Alojz Ihan (1961–), Brane Mozetič (1958–), and Jure Potokar (1956–)) that were all published with the publishing house of the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. The fact that the University of Tennessee published so many Slovene poetry collections was thanks mainly to the interest in and promotion of Slovene poetry by Dr. Richard Jackson who taught at this university. This period also saw U.S. publications of translated poems by Tomaž Šalamun, and of prose works by Aleš Debljak, Drago Jančar (1948–), and Andrej Blatnik (1963–), and the translation of an author belonging to the older generation, Edvard Kocbek (1904–1981), who was most probably interesting for the American public because of his dissident role in socialist Yugoslavia.

    There were 162 book translations of Slovene literature into English made in the first decade of the 21st century, 43 out of 162 translations were published in the U.S.A. The most often translated authors were Tomaž Šalamun (10 publications) and Miha Mazzini (1961–, 5 publications). Picture books by Lilijana Praprotnik Zupančič (1955–) became quite popular as well (4 publications). The following authors also had more than one of their works translated into English and published in the USA: Evald Flisar (1945–), Drago Jančar (1948–), Iztok Osojnik (1951–), Brane Mozetič, Boris Pintar (a.k.a. Gojmir Polajnar, 1964–) and Vladimir Bartol (1903–1967), whose work on Alamut, the fortress of fanatical assassins, became particulary interesting in the context of the contemporary war on terrorism. The following were translated only once in the U.S. during this period: Ivan Cankar, Edvard Kocbek, Aleš Debeljak, Vlado Žabot (1958–), Maja Novak (1960–),Draga Potočnjak (1958–), and Aleš Mustar (1968–).

In the last five years (i.e., between 2010 and 2015), 179 Slovene literary works were translated into English; however, only 28 of them were published in the U.S.A. The most frequently translated authors who were published in the U.S.A. in this period were Evald Flisar, Tomaž Šalamun and Andrej Blatnik. Some of the authors we have seen before were published again in the U.S.A.: e.g., Brane Mozetič, Aleš Debeljak, Aleš Šteger and Vlado Žabot, while others appeared for the first time in the U.S.: e.g., Boris Pahor (1913–), Tone Škrjanec (1953–), Vitomil Zupan (1914–1987), Florjan Lipuš (1937–), Marko Sosič (1958), Jana Putrle (1975–), and Milan Jesih (1950–).

    This overview of translations of Slovene literature published in the U.S.A. focused only on book publications and did not take into account translations of Slovene literature that were published in journals and newspapers of the Slovene immigrant community in the United States. A detailed description of that activity would be necessary to provide a more complete picture of the translational exchange between Slovene and U.S. cultures. 

*To cite this article: Nike K. Pokorn. 2016. The translational exchange between the Slovene and American cultures. http://prev-sl-us2015.ff.uni-lj.si/en/Results_Ib.html