Interview with Anjel Lertxundi on translation
Abstract
Anjel Lertxundi is a well-known writer in the Basque language who, on this occasion, in a conversation with another writer and also translator, Juan Garzia, makes a series of reflections on translations into Basque.
The interview begins with the fear that currently there seems to exist a certain divergence between the work of Basque writers and translators which has to lead to the former becoming more and more unaware of the progress which has been made during recent years in the translation into Basque of literature intended mainly for adults.
In Anjel Lertxundi's opinion, due to the situation of the Basque language, writers cannot handle all the resources of the language, re-create all settings, nor even make use of all the literary genres, and so the translation itself must take responsibility for filling all these gaps which the original work in the Basque language cannot cope with, in such a way translations will be used as a tool for standardizing literature itself.
During the interview, mention is made of how our education system often resorts to literary works which, in reality, with the excuse of offering a purer and more popular Basque, employ an excessively simple style and this, on many occasions, is proposed as a linguistic model. For this reason, translated works, which are often written in a much more elaborate and complex language, are not regarded with the importance they deserve, and so by disregarding these and the contribution they might make, this will lead, sadly, to a situation in which universal literature will be virtually unaccessible to Basque readers except through Spanish. In view of this, it is necessary to give translation the status it deserves within Basque letters, in view of the fact that in many cases it has reached a level which can be very enriching for literary language. In this way, it is necessary for both writers and translators, and readers too, to join forces to improve the expressiveness of the language and increase both the linguistic and literary resources of Basque.
