'Printzea'. A Personal Reading
Abstract
Printzea, the translation by Juan Martin Elexpuru into Basque of Machiavelli's The Prince, was a runner-up in the 2009 Euskadi Awards for Literature, and the author of this article was on the panel of judges for the awards. The author recalls her reflections which were prompted by the reading of Printzea. This private reading gave her an excuse to question the values and reasons behind translation, and the task being performed by Basque translators. In addition to mentioning Elexpuru's skill and the merits of this translation, the author deliberately draws attention to one shortcoming in the text: in the final revision before the work went to press, the translator himself noticed that one sentence was incomplete and in fact corrected it, but the publisher failed to take it into account. In connection with the incident, the author of the article the vulnerability of translators within the publishing system.
