Gianni Celati's "Parlamenti buffi" has been translated into Basque

Le avventure di Guizzardi, the first part of Gianni Celati's trilogy Parlamenti buffi (or Erretolika irrigarriak, in its Basque version), has recently been translated into Basque by Fernando Rey as Guizzardiren abenturak. The other two works making up the trilogy, La Banda dei Sospiri and Lunario del Paradiso, are already translated into and published in our language, under the titles Denak hasperenka (translation by Pello Lizarralde) and Paradisuko almanaka (translated also by Fernando Rey), respectively. The trilogy has been put in the Basque market by Igela publishing house.

Unknown to many people as this author may be, Gianni Celati has actually been hailed as one of the best contemporary European writers. He was a member of the Gruppo 63</a>, and his multifaceted career encompasses writing, literary translation, working as a university professor, preparing documentaries, etc. Mr. Celati excelled at all those fields and gained considerable prestige. He translated into Italian such authors as Céline, Melville, Stendhal, Swift, Twain, London, Barthes, Holderlin…</p> <p>The three books mentioned above were written by Celati between 1971 and 1977. Those works were published again, with a number of modifications, in 1989, under the general title <em>Parlamenti buffi</em>; a trilogy which was to win the Mondello prize the following year.</p> <p>Being a trilogy as it is, it must be stressed that the three works it consists of are independent of one another, and can therefore be read separately. They are the result of a searching process taken up by the author. In a foreword written specially for the Basque edition, Celati gives a more detailed account of that process and the works which make up the trilogy. </p> <p>It must be noted that the author himself has been at the Basque translators disposal for assistance, an assistance which has additionally given rise to El almanaque del paraíso, the Spanish translation of Lunario del Paradiso, by the Pamplona-based translator Pilar Uharte, a translation which is expected to be published soon. The remaining two works of the trilogy have not been translated into Spanish yet.