Notable works: The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel's Game, The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Is this something you would like to see more of? Strange Horizons is now accepting fiction submissions for the Palestinian Special issue! The point is that this book moved me very deeply at a time in my life when I was making career decisions. In other words, there is a tradition that is passed on from one generation of writers to the next, and the medium of this all is translation. On the assumption that most people who have been influenced by García Márquez in the English speaking world have been influenced through Rabassa’s translation, it had a huge effect on novel writing in English. And I have been grateful to Pontiero for bringing Saramago into my life. But as I get older I find it funnier and funnier. His best-selling books have been translated into fifty languages, made into movies and adapted for the stage. The first chapter especially is an entire course on translation. His fictional worlds and mythical creatures had an immense impact on the writers that came after him. But I’m not sure you could specify which part of Mexican society or Colombian society is revealed. I knew his name but I hadn’t read anything of his. This novel, which was revolutionary in its structure and its use of imagination, is now absolutely compelling in English as well as in Spanish. With every translation you have a new version of the book. Just imagine how I felt when I started to translate it! It’s all of those things. Often referred to as one of the most important Hispanic writers of the 20th century, he experimented with both the form and content of his stories. The Translation Journal is in an online journal for translators and interpreters and friends of the industry. He really deconstructs his translation, which seems to me a very innovative approach. Saramago has a notoriously idiosyncratic style – quite difficult to translate I imagine. It was my first inkling that translation could be an art form of great value. While finding precise … As the world went into lockdown early in 2020, many of us without frontline jobs and lucky enough not to fall sick with Covid-19 found more time to read than usual. Hailed as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Colombian novelist, journalist, and short story writer Gabriel García Márquez was known as the perfecter of magical realism, a genre of fiction that folds matters of fantasy into realistic situations. You are the most recent in a very long line of translators to tackle Don Quixote. The other is: Does the translation make you completely happy as a reader? Her novel from the longtong alleys and … The point I’m trying to make about that syntactical difference is that word order is crucial in the meaning of an English sentence. This award-winning … The words are exactly the same, but the position changes their meaning. Many credit him with perfecting a narrative style known as tremendismo, a tendency to emphasize violence and grotesque imagery. Curtis and Celia Hawkesworth. Certainly in the English speaking world. But my editor never told me. There are two things, not in order of importance. It’s a very powerful book, and Celan is… actually I have no adjectives to describe the kind of poetry he writes – it’s just so powerful. I’ll tell you why I did that. We reviewed the first of them, Until the Debt is Paid, as part New Talent November in 2014 and were very impressed with the fine characterisation, seamless plotting and the depiction of Berlin in all its multicultural… There are things that you can do in a romance language, syntactically, that you simply cannot do in English. That can be revelatory as regards the original novel. So yes it was a bit of a cheat, but all of his novels, one after the other, touched me and moved me in the most profound way. That translation is one of the reasons why I specialised in Spanish and became involved in all of this. His stories are heavily influenced by his Peruvian heritage and involvement in politics. Read. She is a 2013 recipient of the National Medals of Arts and has earned the Pura Belpré Award for Writing. In English, we don’t always have endings on verbs to indicate the subject – I love, you love, we love, they love – so without a subject pronoun that doesn’t indicate who’s doing the loving. 4 Read I think translation is the cement that holds literary civilisation together. Notable works: Ficciones, El Aleph, The Library Babel. She has translated the works of Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez, and her translation of Don Quixote has been praised by Carlos Fuentes and Harold Bloom. I think he’s remarkable – he takes you by the hand and leads you through some very difficult terrain, which is the writing and translating of complex and difficult poetry. It’s not called the greatest novel ever written for nothing. I think for me and Gregory, when it comes to our translations of Gabriel García Márquez for example, what you learn about is Gabriel García Márquez. The Congo-Brazzaville author, a finalist for this year’s Man Booker international prize, tells the story of Congolese bar Credit Gone Away. Oprah Magazine participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Author and translator Don Lee Choi calls Kim Sagwa “South Korea’s young, brilliant, fearless writer” and it’s hard to argue after reading Sagwa’s shocking and powerful debut, Mina. In both of these books he deals with very complex poets. We began with the best debut novels, the best short story collections, the best poetry collections, the best memoirs, the best essay collections, and the best (other) nonfiction of the decade. The overwhelming favourite was Quixote. Probably. The point of it is not necessarily how well Putnam translated Don Quixote. This is an issue I face when I deal with older pieces of writing – 16th century poetry, for example, or Don Quixote. One Hundred Years of Solitude Read Should a translator always aim to translate a work into a contemporary style? Would you say, when doing a translation, that it often ends up as a bit of a grammatical struggle? I was very enamoured of [Francisco de] Quevedo and [Luis de] Góngora. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at editor@fivebooks.com. If you've enjoyed this interview, please support us by donating a small amount. There are certain words which get thrown around, like “seamless”. I was so excited by the book, and so moved by it – it had me in tears. I guess that is also bound to be a reflection of Colombia or Mexico. This site has an archive of more than one thousand interviews, or five thousand book recommendations. Perhaps one of the most widely-read Spanish language authors of today, Zafon's world famous books have been translated in over 50 languages. Finally, can you introduce Felstiner’s book on Celan to our readers? Camilo José Cela is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Spanish author. I read something recently about translations of Tolstoy which said that Russian readers have only one Tolstoy, while English speakers have a plethora. It’s interesting that you describe it as a book that moves you. Read Your commitment to writing is what really matters most as a translator. I don’t know anyone who writes books like him. But it was the immediacy of the translation and the brilliance of the novel which convinced me that I had made the right choice. We may earn commission from the links on this page. Read 14 304 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. What makes them so popular? That hardly existed at all when I was in school. Putnam’s translation came out in 1949 and used more or less contemporary language for his time. The prolific American author best … I think the translation should reflect that. 5 There isn’t much money to be made in translating. Right. He was the original translator of García Márquez’s works, and then you took over as the translator of Love in the Time of Cholera. Grossman is also the author of Why Translation Matters. She continued the tradition of great translations of Saramago’s novels right up to the last, Cain. Your third selection is a bit of a cheat. 3 I was wondering how that came about. Celebrating its 12th year of honoring literature in translation, the Best Translated Book Awards named its 2019 longlists for both fiction and poetry. I read this translation when I was a kid, 16 or 17 years old. … It’s a book not only about translating, but about Neruda’s poetry and by extension about Neruda himself. For that reason it is a very important book to me. García Márquez says in his memoir that he learned to write by reading Faulkner, and describes him as a great teacher. He’s a delicious man, he says those kind of things all the time. We publish at least two new interviews per week. I don’t know if I could do the same. Doppelgänger by Daša Drndić, translated by S.D. You simply have a noun, love. Winner of the 2013 Best Translated Book Award, Satantango was first published in 1984 and took master translator Georges Szirtes over two decades to translate. Many credit the Argentine short-story writer, essayist, and poet's works with marking the beginning of the popular magical realism genre that swept Latin literature in the 20th century. Read. First of all, it’s inevitable that there are so many translations because no two translators translate in the same way. I thought I’d throw that title back at you and ask straight out: Why does translation matter? The best books on Translation recommended by Edith Grossman The award-winning literary translator discusses books on and of translation that inspired her, and considers the trade-off that every … But sometimes you’re constrained by the nature of the language you translate into. On the other hand, as much as I love translation I think if you read the original language, there’s no point in reading the book in any other language. The award-winning literary translator discusses books on and of translation that inspired her, and considers the trade-off that every translator faces, between fidelity and meaning. Often referred to as one of the most important … Felstiner is also a literary critic. Translating Neruda is kind of a diary of the practice of translation, and it’s very untheoretical which makes me happy. Which brings us to your choices. A poet and novelist, many of Alvarez's works explore the complexity of living both as a Dominican and an American. Doppelgänger written by Croatian author Daša Drndić only features two stories: “Arthur and Isabella,” … It feels like we’re moving past the stage where the translator is meant to be the invisible hand, the person behind the curtain who does all the work and isn’t really appreciated for it. In my Quixote the only time I do anything like that is when Don Quixote goes off on a rant and starts imitating the language of the novels of chivalry. If I were to not use my current idiom, what language would I use? I have read One Hundred Years of Solitude in both Spanish and English, and I was so struck by what Rabassa was able to accomplish that it was the final argument to confirm some changes I made in my own life. He was, of course, reading Faulkner in Spanish translation. Read 9 636 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. I think he does it very well. The issue, edited by Rasha Abdulhadi and Basma Ghalayini will be published at the end of March 2021. You recently wrote the book Why Translation Matters. Which takes nothing away from Gregory’s translation, of course. Would you say then that Rabassa and García Márquez have equal importance in the way in which they have influenced other writers? Part of the confusion when it comes to reading the Bible is that the Bible wasn’t originally written in English. A renowned journalist and long-time correspondent for Spain's El Pais newspaper, Montero's award-winning contemporary fiction is delves into the complexities of femininity and the rollercoasters of emotions and responsibilities that come with it. I have never learnt the answer to that question. That’s a very nasty question! Would I try to imitate Spenser in The Faerie Queene? If readers are overwhelmed, I was terrified. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi, translated by Michael Berry – Wang Anyi is one of China’s best writers, and doesn’t get enough credit. If you take away the subject pronoun, you have no verb. In a review of the book for El País , Spanish novelist Enrique Vila-Matas said of Navarro: “This author’s … I’ve spoken before about the influence of William Faulkner on a lot of Latin American writers, and particularly on García Márquez. I am ready to get so much hate for making a definitive list, because of course everyone has their own opinions about mystery authors … In this book I found out about Celan’s life, his poetry and the translation process of several of his poems. Translations are ordered … That’s good – I got into an argument recently about whether the translator and the author are of equal importance and they didn’t think they were, so I’m glad to have you backing me up! This interview was first published in February 2012. Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and best-selling author of 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus'. If you translate from English to Spanish, Spanish has certain requirements which you cannot break, otherwise the sentence makes no sense. I particularly liked the Basilicata … It’s a ridiculous question, and the obvious answer is that it makes no sense. The Nobel Prize in Literature winner is known to expertly cross genres with his work, writing prolific literary criticism, murder mysteries, historic novels, and political thrillers. That’s a great way of looking at it. Paul Celan Known as literary masters in both Latin culture and across the world, the works of these acclaimed Hispanic writers (many of them Pulitzer Prize-winning) will have you lost in the dreamy pages of yet another book—or two. Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases. Don Quixote I’m not sure if they mean society, or high art, or what exactly they have in mind. A fake 16th century English? I would love to be able to, but I’ve never tried. Since not everyone can read every language in the world, the only way to find out what people are writing and thinking is to read translations. 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