The History of ACE Traductores
ACE Traductores, the Spanish association of literary translators, will be forty years old in November 2023. To pave the way for the celebrations, its journal, Vasos Comunicantes, has recently published a series of three articles that review its entire history and, ultimately, the recent history of Spanish translation. Here are the three instalments: the first, the second and the third. Furthermore, in this same issue, no. 57, a fascinating interview with Catalina Martínez Muñoz has appeared. And it also includes a profile of Esther Benítez, a historical translator and activist ...
Machine Translation and Literature: Two Close Enemies?
Translator, proofreader and post-editor Rocío Serrano has just written a very interesting, thoroughly researched and highly enlightening article on machine translation and literary texts for Vasos Comunicantes, ACE Traductores’ online journal. Is the future here ...
Confined Interviews
I have really negleted this section, when so many things have passed! Just the month on May was extremely eventful. On the 31st, Xavi Ayén interviewed Valentina Alferj, Andrea Camilleri's right-hand woman, for La Vanguardia. He also spoke to Pau Vidal and to me as representatives of his many translators. The interview, which you can read here, came with this wonderful recreation of inspector Montalbano by Marc Pallarès: A few days before that, on the 27th, I spoke with Vasos Comunicantes, the magazine published by ACE Traductores. They have started ...
A Brief Reflection / on Translation Awards
Turkish-into-Spanish translator Rafael Carpintero has recently received the Best Translation Award 2018 at the Estado Crítico Awards for his translation of Sabahattin Ali's Madona con abrigo de piel (Salamandra). And he has written a very insightful (and very funny) article on translation awards, which you can read here (in ...
Translation from Within
A couple of weeks ago, Álvaro Macías Rondán published this article about literary translation in the Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos: 'La traducción desde dentro: un oficio invisible que habla alto y claro' (Translation from Within: An Invisible Trade That Speaks Loud and Clear). He interviewed José Luis López Muñoz, Daniel Sancosmed, María Teresa Gallego, Carmen Montes, Ana María Bejarano, Eugenia Vázquez-Nacarino and myself to discuss no less than our profession, the legendary visibility and our favourite books out of all the ones we've worked ...
So Why Does One Translate?
I have just read an article called ‘¿Que por qué traduzco?’ (So Why Do I Translate?), posted several months ago by renowned Turkish-into-Spanish translator Rafael Carpintero in his blog, El Carpintero Traductor. And I like it, like every thing of his that I have read. And it makes me think of another article, ‘Por qué traduzco’ (Why Do I Translate?), published by renowned English-into-Spanish translator Ismael Attrache in El Trujamán. And I also like it, like every thing of his that I have read. And that’s ...
I pini di Roma
My second residency this year, after the fellowship at the Bogliasco Foundation in January, is in Rome. I’m spending the month of April at the Casa delle Traduzioni, working on a terribly difficult and terribly entertaining book by Gianni Rodari to be published by Editorial Juventud. I’m enjoying my time here tremendously, translating a lot and in good company. And of course the highlight of it all was attending the big tribute to Andrea Camilleri at the Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese, a few days ago. The Centro Sperimentale ...
The Vanguard of Literary Change
'Translators are the vanguard of literary change: we need better recognition', says the illustrious Daniel Hahn in a great article he has written for The Guardian, which you can read here. Last year, Daniel won €25,000 at the International Dublin Literary Award for his translation of A General Theory of Oblivion, by Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa. With half of that money, and the backing of the Society of Authors’ Translators Association (TA) and The British Council, he funded an award designed to recognise a great literary translation debut ...
A Fellowship at the Bogliasco Foundation
Do you know the one about the choreographer, the translator, the composer, the playwright, the photographer, the dantist, the filmmaker and the art historian in residence in a Ligurian villa by the sea, as fellows of the Bogliasco Foundation? How lucky to be working here, just outside Genoa, with this amazing group. It’s an honour to spend this sunny month of January with Christopher Williams, Anne LeBaron, Frank J. Avella, Wit McKay, Francesco Ciabattoni, Offer Egozy and George Gorse. Below you'll find a couple of home videos. This is Villa dei ...
Anthea Bell, Grande Dame of Translation
If you only read one interview with a translator this year, let it be this one by Claire Armitstead, who speaks to the charming Anthea Bell. It was published in The Guardian in 2013. Thoroughly ...
Irene de la Torre Talks about Her Experience at CELA
It raises the spirits to see Irene de la Torre’s excitement in this article on the Escuela de Escritores website. She talks about her experience in Pisa with CELA, a European Union project for young translators recently set up which will continue for two years. What a superb ...
The Fables of Saint Jerome
Last Friday, on the eve of the feast of Saint Jerome of Stridon, El País published an excellent article by Aurelio Major titled 'Fábulas de san Jerónimo'. In it, the writer and translator says: 'Translating is transferring, transporting tradition, interpreting, migrating tirelessly, because the only nation is the very many books, transformed, re-read, renovated with every new version'. And today, Tuesday, that very same newspaper has published a piece by Paula Corroto, titled 'Los personajes invisibles de la literatura', in which (under a somewhat alarming subheading) she interviews Miguel Sáenz, ...
Bisogna cambiare tutto
I have finally found the time to start the long-delayed renovation of my website—it was vital, mostly for technical reasons. The original site dated back to the year 2000 and the design had stood the test of time quite well, but there were search-engine problems and size issues when using portable devices. Also, I hadn’t updated the information for quite a while, always thinking that I should just redo the whole thing from scratch. Which I am doing now. From now on, it will be much faster, more straightforward and ...