Translations of Ignacio de Aldecoa's work into English

Peavy

Reader
¿Do you know about any translations of Ignacio de Aldecoa into English? I think not but I am not really sure.

Thanks
 

Eric

Former Member
The Wickedpedia seems to avoid tackling the issue as to the extent to which Aldecoa was a Basque or a Falangist. It doesn't seem to suggest there are any English translations either.

So Peavy, you who use the traditional Spanish question marks, what do you know about him, and what are your reasons for bringing him up here?
 

Peavy

Reader
Ha ha, sorry for the question marks, I don´t know where they came from.

It´s a shame that Aldecoa´s literature is so unknown , even in Spain. The postwar generation is, in my opinion, the most fruitful in Spain but only a few (and I think not the best) are widely know, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ana Maria Matute...

I asked because I am now working in a translation of some of his short stories and I would like to publicate them someday.

Btw, he was from Vitoria, Basqueland (like me), and sure he was not a falangist. Although he was born in a middle-class family and studied in the university, he was not a really good student and was fond of the company of people of the low-classes, gypsies and young artists. He was not really into any political movement, in that moment Spain was almost sterile when it comes to critical thinking, for obvious reasons, and it is why the development of such a great generation of writers is so marvellous.

What I like in his short stories and novels (his poetry is, well... not really good) are his beatiful descriptions of the scenes in which the action takes place and the deep understanding of the "simple" people he depicts. He had the eyes of a little boy and the understanding of a humanist.

Scenes like the one in wich some workers are resting in the early afternoon of a summer day, or that, when a gipsy who had killed a barman scapes from Andalusia to Madrid, are little moments that I hold as more vivid than many of my own memories, and I would like people to enjoy them as well.
 

Eric

Former Member
Thanks for the reference, Peavy. I doubt if I could read one in Spanish, but maybe I can find a print version somewhere. Into which language are you translating the stories?
 

Bubba

Reader
Okay, I looked around the Interwebz and it seems there's one collection of stories--The Birds of Baden-Baden--available in English, as well as a guidebook or picture book, The Basque Country. I couldn't find the table of contents, so I don't know if this translation collects the stories in the Spanish collection of the same name, or if it has the title story only (and three others, if a review I saw on Amazon is correct).

The odd thing (or the unfortunately natural thing) is that these translations were published not by a publisher in the US or the UK but by a publisher (Iberia) apparently located in Spain. Publication in Spain (and thus no distribution in the US or UK) would explain this title's apparent fall into a black hole (it's highly unusual not to find the table of contents in an online library catalogue somewhere or other).

I once checked out the Alfaguara volume of Aldecoa's complete stories but didn't give them much of a chance.

If I read you right, you're not a native English speaker. Better, then, I would say, to find something to translate into your native language rather than out of it. Oh, you can translate into English for the fun of it, or to show something to someone who doesn't read the language you're translating from, but don't expect to find an English-language publisher for your work. It's hard enough when you're a native speaker of English.
 

Peavy

Reader
Thank you Bubba, I will try to find those translations, though I doubt it, I don´t think IBERIA still exists.

I know I haven´t got much chance of pusblishing, but I enjoy translating so beautiful books.
 

Eric

Former Member
I do agree with Bubba, who says:

If I read you right, you're not a native English speaker. Better, then, I would say, to find something to translate into your native language rather than out of it. Oh, you can translate into English for the fun of it, or to show something to someone who doesn't read the language you're translating from, but don't expect to find an English-language publisher for your work. It's hard enough when you're a native speaker of English.
I feel that this is a crucial point, something you should learn early on in your career. If you are really serious about translation, you should read plenty of things in your mother-tongue and translate only into that. As I always point out, a native-speaker of the source language can always help you with things you don't understand, but it is the target language that you must know very, very well.

People tend to be pretty muddled about this, so I tell people right from the start that I only translate into English. Sure, I can show off when speaking Swedish and Dutch, and I can write letters in Estonian. But translating into such languages is a whole new ball game, one where I feel that I have one hand tied behind my back. As Bubba suggests, translating into a foreign language is great language practice, but if you want to publish your efforts, only translate into your mother-tongue - you can make enough mistakes there already.
 

Estrela

New member
Thank you Bubba, I will try to find those translations, though I doubt it, I don´t think IBERIA still exists.

I know I haven´t got much chance of pusblishing, but I enjoy translating so beautiful books.

I just came across this reference to a version of The Basque Country published in Australia:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10596783?q&versionId=12359657

I'm looking for other translations, as a Spanish author I assist with his English translations of his stories and books has used a quote from Chico de Madrid, and I wanted to check if there was a widely recognised English translation already extant. There certainly don't seem to be many translations of his works into English so far in my search.
 
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