Translating 'Ulysses'
Summary
This detailed article deals with the process of translating Ulysses into Basque. In the note to the centenary edition, the translator himself, Xabier Olarra, pointed out that the sufferings of the translator of Ulysses do not end with the completion of the translation. Like Sisyphus, the translator is condemned to push the stone again and again towards the top of the mountain, and push it again each time it rolls down. And he added that the reason was that "translations of Ulysses will always be provisional. And so is this one".
The translator explains the details of the process: the documentation phase, the difficulties of understanding the text, the decisions taken, the corrections and updates... As he points out in the article, "I have always thought that translations (at least mine) can be improved, and I think it has become quite clear that most of the translations of Ulysses are improvable (in any language)".
