A Brief Excursion in Literary Translation: Chronicle of a (Perhaps Too Daring) Adventure
Translation: Kristin Addis
Abstract
In this article, I explain how the doors of literary translation were opened to me. As a professional translator in the Administration, I got my start in literary translation through the second annual (2003) Jokin Zaitegi prize in literary translation, which offers a grant for the translation of a Nobel Prize-winning literary work each year. The work is chosen by the publishing house Elkar, and is published in time for the Durango Book Fair of the following year. That year, the winner was the South African writer, J. M. Coetzee. It was a surprise to me to be chosen the winner of the contest, and it was an overwhelming challenge to translate an author I wasn't familiar with, but who was already recognized as one of the great writers of global literature; all the more so since I specialized in administrative texts and usually worked in Basque and Spanish. I also discuss how I compensated for my lack of mastery of English with certain basic attitudes without which all my efforts would have been in vain: faithfulness to the text, both in register and in content; and the attentive, deliberate and meticulous reading that is or should be part of all translation. The article makes a brief literary reference to translated authors and texts, but avoids entering a theoretical or technical analysis of the process of translation. It stresses the collective aspect of the effort involved in the publication of contemporary international literature in Basque, and the exemplary contribution, attested to by my own experience, of the correction and editing of the editors who extended their vote of confidence, as well as of other professionals fully committed to the minimum quality that any translated publication or literary text should achieve. The article also invites reflection on the validity or lack thereof of the strong tendency of translators to specialize in one or various authors for the translation of contemporary literary texts into Basque, from the point of view of both supply (translators and publishing houses) and demand (readers).
