This is the story of how I became a translator. As I revisit my 15-year-old self, I realize that I translated my way through my teenage years. I trust that many of you will relate to it one way or another. But let me start with a confession: to be a professional translator was and still is a means to make my way into literary grounds.
Category: Books
The secret life of books: an apology for historical fiction
There is an invisible thread that stretches out from primordial cave painting to the works of art we produce to this day. Therefore, very little of what we think, read, paint or write is original. I dare to say that there is no originality. Everything is pastiche!
¿Es posible que Frankenstein haya leído el Quijote?
No somos más que enanos a hombros de gigantes, reinterpretando y narrando de diferentes formas, lo que hemos aprendido de los libros de historia, de las novelas de los gigantes, embebidos del panorama socio-cultural del tiempo y del lugar en que vivimos.
A voyage to self-awareness: we are all stardust
This is not an epiphany I had on New Year’s Day. This is the thread I followed on my voyage to self-awareness.
A lutar contra moinhos de vento? Escolhe as tuas batalhas!
"Talvez a chave seja ser um pouco mais como Sancho Panza e menos como o "cavaleiro da triste figura", e compreender o que faz andar a mó do moinho."
¿Luchando contra molinos de viento? ¡Elije tus batallas!
En el 92, mi abuela española me regaló la serie completa de “El Quijote”, divida en dos cintas.
Fighting windmills? Choose your battles!
“Tilting at windmills” was an expression used by Miguel de Cervantes. Still, it turned out to be a universal idiom used to describe situations where adversaries or scenarios are incorrectly perceived. What could be a mere windmill could be magnified wrongly into something gigantic.
“La Balsa de Piedra” de José Saramago: el Hombre como animal fabulador
"La Balsa de Piedra" es, en definitiva, una invitación a dar alas al animal fabulador que existe dentro de nosotros, y si 'los límites de mi lenguaje significan los límites de mi mundo', démosle al mundo una nueva posibilidad al darle nuevas posibilidades al lenguaje.
“The Stone Raft” by José Saramago: man as a fabulator animal
After reading "The Stone Raft" we realize that everything within the reach of our telescopic lenses, everything that man has named and classified to this day can be shaken by the opening a crack. It took special characters and unusual events to subvert the laws of logic and physics, to deconstruct and extend the borders of an imaginary world, through a text.
“A Jangada de Pedra” de José Saramago: o Homem como animal fabulador
“A Jangada de Pedra” é um bilhete de passagem para lugares onde moram ainda bem enraizados o mito e a fantasia.