Senez 23 (2001)

• Date of publication: 2001
• ISSN: 84-7086-287-1
• L.D.: 1152/01
• 112 pp.

All articles in this issue have been published in Basque.

Presentation

Translation: Juan Mari Mendizabal

Here is, dear reader, the first issue of Senez magazine in the 21st century. New century, new ways, that is how we could sum up the atmosphere we are currently in here at EIZIE. On the threshold of the new century, the World Literature collection, one of the main ventures undertaken by the association over the last few years, has come to a crossroads. The latest titles, up to 100, are being translated and will soon be published. Since the first volumes were published in 1990, few can argue that the collection has not brought about great life and total transformations in literary translation. Fewer still will argue, if they do not want to get it wrong, that the path that has been opened should not be continued. Therefore, together with this issue of Senez, EIZIE is distributing the general conditions to take part in the translation of works which will follow the collection.

We want to start also this year with poetry translation, by publishing poems by the great Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. The poems had been translated and published here and there, in old literature magazines, and we would have considered them unavailable, had Susa publishing house not gathered them recently for the Ibiñagabeitia Project. We took them from there, of course, and we want to thank Susa for the great work done, as well as for the permission for reproducing them.

The next two texts have to do with literary translation and with our collection. On one hand, we asked Iñaki Aldekoa and Mari Jose Olaziregi to make an assessment of the World Literature collection now that it has reached the above mentioned crossroads; not only in order to evaluate the part of the path already covered, but mostly in order to look at the steps to be taken in the future. On the other hand, Migel Asiain and Arazeli Montes inform us about the experience they had with training teachers from Navarre in the field of children's literature.

Then comes a long and fertile opinion section. Articles by Zelai Nikolas and Koldo Biguri, each with its own originality, are fine witnesses of the influence of the ups and downs in the profession. A topic wide and deeply dealt with in the past, the translation of the Bible, is studied anew in the scholarly well-documented article by Ramon Irizar. Then come two texts published elsewhere, finely translated by Iñaxio Lopez de Arana and Juan Mari Mendizabal and both closely linked with the task of the translator: an old paper by Bernardo Atxaga, and a conversation between Ros Schwartz and Nicholas de Lange, both providing plenty of food for thought. At the end of the section, Gotzon Egia makes some suggestions as to how to make the computer work more effectively for the benefit of translation.

Finally, we have transcribed the interview with Joxe Agustin Arrieta by Juan Garzia on the translation of 'Homo Faber' and many other issues revolving around Basque translation.