[Blog manager’s note: Adriana wrote the following to a question left on one of her blog entries. Since it is uncertain how many people go back to read the comments, we have posted her response as a separate blog entry. The question posted was: As a bilingual reader, do you find that it is true that much is lost in translation? ]
This is a very good question. I am glad you asked it because most folks worry about what is “lost in translation.” When it comes to children’s books, many worry about the quality of those translations as well. I am proud to say that Rayo Children’s translations have received many kudos, especially from librarians! Criticas magazine recently added many of Rayo’s translations to their “Best Books of 2007″ list due to their high quality; an unprecedented event, since they generally include only original Spanish titles on that list. This makes me particularly happy, because I know how important a good translation is, especially to a child who may just be learning how to read, so I place special emphasis on that in my work.
My first response to your question has to be that regardless of minor losses, more would be lost by not reading a book in translation in the first place! How would we know about other cultures, or try to understand them and learn about them, without our precious translations?
Although it’s true that some elements of a text may be lost in translation, a good translator and a good editor will try to minimize those losses. I certainly try to. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with talented translators, such as Liliana Valenzuela, who has translated the work of Sandra Cisneros among others, and with whom the process of polishing a translation becomes a deliciously challenging task. Finding just the right word to convey the meaning of the original is a process that can sometimes take hours, even days! But I so love doing it, and doing it as a team makes it all the more enjoyable. It is impossible not to become friends with the translators you work with; you are embarking on a journey of discovery together, always thinking of the reader, of the various possible interpretations of individual words, or whole sentences. One very good example of this is the fact that Latinos hailing from different Spanish-speaking countries may have different meanings for the same word, and some of those may not be very harmless to boot! So with Spanish in particular, it is important to not only be familiar with the language, but also with different cultural interpretations of the text.
I work with many bilingual authors, and they always become a part of the process, even when they choose to leave the translation to me. That helps tremendously of course, because only the author can really explain the intent of his or her own words. In cases where the author is not bilingual, he or she must truly trust the translator, and the translator must in turn be willing to take the editor’s comments into account, something that all good translators do, since they know better than anyone that translation is a process. The end result is always cause for celebration! It is the end of an arduous and immensely gratifying task, which in my case, provides me with the satisfying knowledge that young Spanish readers have just been granted access to an entirely new array of books! Also important, of course, is the fact that those books are often the ones that English readers are already familiar with, so that Latino children can share in that experience in their process of acculturation.
All in all, a translation will never replace the original, true, but when done well, it will certainly make you feel like you haven’t missed a thing!
