On Translating Basque Literature
Sarah Turtle

Abstract

This article was prompted by the author's participation in EIZIE's 6th edition of The Writer in the Translators' Workshop in September 2009. It describes the process to translate the material in advance and then goes on to deal with certain issues that arose in the course of the workshop. It also looks at some of the pitfalls when translating Basque literature in general, and poetry in particular. It considers the difficulties caused by the fact that Basque is still being standardised, and by the lack of a sufficiently large, Basque-English dictionary. The piece also includes some practical advice for writers in the Basque language.