Finding Translations of Works into English and Other Languages
The tips and sources on this page can help you find translations of individual works or bibliographies of translated works. See additional recommendations in the Oxford Guide to Library Research.
Selected Bibliographies & Reference Sources
The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction by Michael Orthofer
Arranged by region, country, and language, entries illuminate the fiction of individual nations, cultures, and peoples, while concise biographies sketch the careers of noteworthy authors. Also available at the New York Public Library in print and as an eBook.
The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction Website
This website compliments the print book. Click on "Links" and then "Inter/national sites" to reach list of websites arranged alphabetically by country "specializing in international fiction, as well as national sites supporting domestic literature in translation."
Index to Translated Short Fiction by Latin American Women in English Language Anthologies - Compiled by Kathy S. Leonard
The first part of the volume contains entries for 165 anthologies published between 1938 and 1996. The entries are arranged alphabetically by editor or author and each provides full bibliographic information and a list of all short stories and novel excerpts by Latin American women authors contained in the work. ... The additional indexes allow the user to locate short fiction by author, country, and title. The volume concludes with a list of bibliographies of Latin American literature in translation."
Latin American Women Writers: A Resource Guide to Titles in English by Kathy S. Leonard
"This reference includes all forms of narrative-short story, autobiography, novel, novel excerpt, and others-by Latin American women dating from 1898 to 2007. More than 3,000 individual titles are included by more than 500 authors. This includes nearly 200 anthologies, more than 100 autobiographies/biographies or other narrative, and almost 250 novels written by more than 100 authors from 16 different countries."
The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation - Peter France (editor)
Available in print at the GC Library, the Guide "covers translations out of many languages, from Greek to Korean, Swahili to Russian. For some works (e.g. Virgil's Aeneid) which have been much translated, the discussion is historical and critical; with less familiar literatures, the Guide examines the extent to which translation has done justice to the range of work available. It contains entries on individual texts (such as the Thousand and One Nights), writers (Ibsen or Proust), genres (Chinese poetry), or national literature (for example, Hungarian)." This volume is also available online via the NYPL (library card required).
The Literatures of the World in English Translation, A Bibliography (1967-1970)
Useful for finding translations published before 1970. Volumes I-III are available in print and electronically, as follows:
Volume 1: The Greek and Latin Literatures
Read on site in the Reference collection at the GC Library or at the NYPL
Borrow a digital copy available from the Internet Archive
Volume II: The Slavic Literatures
Sign in to OneSearch to request a print copy or read on site at the NYPL
Borrow a digital copy from the Internet Archive
Volume III: The Romance Literatures
Part 1: Catalan, Italian, Portuguese and Brazilian, Provencal, Rumanian, Spanish and Spanish American Literature
Part 2: French Literature
Sign in to OneSearch to request a print copy or read on site at the NYPL
Borrow a digital copy from the Internet Archive
Finding Translations -- General Resources
- WorldCat Discovery
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A search in Worldcat, the vast library catalog that contains records for millions of items in thousands of libraries around the world, is an easy way to find books in translation. Simply search WorldCat on the author's name then limit results by language using the facets on the left side of the screen.
- Translation Database - Publishers WeeklyThe Translation Database was founded in 2008 at the University of Rochester to track all works of fiction, poetry, children’s books, and nonfiction translated into English and published in the U.S. after January 2008. Excluded are all retranslations of previously published books.
- UNESCO's Index Translationum - Print Volumes - REF Z6514 .T7 I42Published quarterly until 1986 by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Includes a list of translated works appearing in major countries. To find translations in English, check entries under the United States (which were taken from Publishers Weekly) and Great Britain (which were taken from The Publisher and Bookseller). Searching entails perusing each printed volume. The GC Library's print holdings include volumes for the years 1932/1933-1938/1940 and 1948-1986. The full set, including a two volume Cumulative Index covering 1948-1968 is available at the NYPL.
- UNESCO's Index Translationum - Online DatabaseAn online edition of the UNESCO index covering translations of books since 1979. While no longer maintained, this database remains useful for discovering translated works in many languages.
Finding Specific Works
To find a specific work that has been translated into English or another language, search CUNY's OneSearch, WorldCat, or other library catalog.
- Search on the author and title of the work and use the facets to limit results by language.
- To find multiple translations of a specific work into English (which may have varying titles) search on the title of the work in the original language. Then, use the facets to limit to English.
- To find a particular translation of a work, search on the translator's name and/or the title of the work. You could also try a search on the translator's name and/or the publisher of the translation.
Finding Anthologies and Bibliographies of Translated Works
To find anthologies, collections, surveys, and bibliographies of translated works in a library catalog, try a Subject search formatted like these examples using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):
[Any Language] Literature--Translations into [Any Language]
Examples:
Latin American literature--Translations into English
French literature--Translations into Korean
Spanish literature--Translations into Chinese
Classical literature -- Translations into English