I really enjoyed Ásta's and Vala's talk since it’s always a treat to hear from both the author and the translator of a work. I liked Ásta’s philosophy on starting a poem from someplace “other than the mind” and encapsulating each word with a different energy. Although some abstract parts like the almond lost me, I deeply respect Ásta’s creativity and observance, like when she noticed the “presence” of the fan, jaja. I also appreciate her willingness to “surrender” to the ridiculousness of art, like the hyena poem. I wish that Ásta and Vala had read the whole hyena poem out loud, but at least we got a taste of it. I resonated with Vala’s comments on the difficulty that comes with understanding the source text to translate it, but “murdering” the source while doing so. There are quite a few violent metaphors in translation I’m realizing now.
I’ve been looking forward to Julia Sanches’ talk for a long time, and I think that her translations are well-done. Although I do not agree with some of her decisions, overall, Julia does a great job of getting a clear meaning across in the English. I am not sure how much of a say she has had in her translations of book titles, but I don't like that Panza de burro is translated as Dogs of Summer. Panza de burro, literally “Donkey’s Belly,” is a reference to a weather phenomenon in the Canary Islands during the summer when clouds accumulate at low altitudes. The term also exists in English. The book is written in Canarian Spanish, a way of remembering and officially recording the unique terms not officially registered by the RAE. Thus, I think that there is a large cultural aspect missing in the translation of Abreu’s Panza de Burro as Dogs of Summer. Nonetheless, I love choices like “Jus a teeny bit” for un fisquito namás to capture the phonetics and informal style of the source. The narrator is a girl who is in love with her best friend, Isora, and although the narrator’s name is never revealed, Isora’s name is constantly mentioned throughout the book. Isora’s name is omitted a few times in Julia’s translation such as on page 2 where Julia writes, “the two of us” for Isora y yo (“Isora and me/I,” depending on the voice you want to capture). I think that the saturation of Isora’s name and lack of the narrator’s is a key part of the book, but at the same time, I understand that Julia most likely removed some of them for clarity. I can see that Julia’s translation is written mostly in British English with choices like “nan” (5) instead of “nanna” or “grandma,” “canteen” (2) instead of “cafeteria,” and “first floor” (3) for segunda planta. I also wish that Julia kept abuela instead of “nan” in her translation, “Tía Chuchi and her nan chela” (9) because “Tía Chuchi” originally made me think that that was how Chuchi was going to be addressed by the narrator for the rest of the book. I think that abuela is easily-understood by an English-language audience, too. Panza de burro is already such a difficult text to tackle because the narrator makes numerous typos, jokes, and pop culture references specific to the Canary Islands, so I think that Julia does well maintaining both the directness and playfulness of the original Spanish.
I enjoyed Slash and Burn, as well. I think that Julia was creative in her choices to make the writing more colloquial. For example, for faltaba arreglar varios detalles (“several details needed to be fixed/dealt with”) she wrote, “several details had to be ironed out” (12), and for para que no volviera a tardar (“so that she wouldn’t waste any more time”) she wrote, “to keep her from dillydallying” (19). Sometimes she did not follow this same technique though, and I got a bit confused. For example, el corazón le palpitaba muy fuerte Julia translated as, “her heart was beating very hard” (20) instead of using a stronger word to replace “beating very hard,” like “pounding.” I am also not sure why she wrote “father” (21) for papá in one paragraph and then “dad” in the next (or maybe she didn’t notice). I think that Julia is quite gutsy in her translation choices and I appreciate that! I look forward to talking with her about these texts and the additional experiences she’s had translating from Portuguese, French, and Catalan.
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