Translating Duras: challenge and responsibility
Xabier Artola Zubillaga

Abstract

This article describes my experience during the process of translating Marguerite Duras's La douleur from French into Basque. This text was among the candidates in the Literatura Unibertsala (Universal Literature) public translation contest in 2013. The article explains the procedure I followed in what was my first translation of a literary work: the reasons I had for entering the contest, the work I did to enrich my knowledge about the novel and its author, the method and schedule I followed in the translation process, the auxiliary resources I used, etc. I also describe some of the problems I encountered when translating the work into Basque, and discuss my solutions.