Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Margaret Jull Costa - Live & in Person

Margaret Jull Costa probably needs no introduction to anyone reading this blog. She has translated some of the greatest works of 19th and 20th century Spanish and Portuguese literature by such writers as Fernando Pessoa, José Maria Eça de Queiroz, Javier Marías, and José Saramago.

Jull Costa spoke about Saramago this past Monday night at the Book Club of California in San Francisco as part of a lecture series put on by the Center for the Art of Translation, and I was fortunate enough to attend. CAT has promised to post audio of the event on its website, so I won’t go into a lot of detail here other than to say: when the audio gets posted, go to the site, listen to the talk. It’s illuminating, moving, and you’ll have a chance to hear a magnificent reading voice (would that Jull Costa would now make audio-books of her translated works...).

Sounding out each word as though it were a privilege and pleasure to do so, Jull Costa led the rapt audience through Saramago’s life and work, illustrating it with passages from his books. Thoughout her wide-ranging discussion of Saramago’s work, Jull Costa almost never explicitly spoke about herself or her own work, instead managing to convey aspects of Saramago’s writing to which a sensitive translator would need to respond – his background and philosophy, his idiosyncratic style, the tiny arsenal of punctuation he put to use, his democratic refusal to capitalize proper names in his late work, his long sentences (about which Jull Costa offered a magnanimously delivered critique of people who whine about long sentences).

While reading a moving passage from Saramago’s Nobel acceptance speech about his illiterate grandparents, Jull Costa’s voice broke slightly. A sniffling sound made me turn my head to find both of my companions – and many others in the room – with moist eyes. It was clear that for Jull Costa translation is not merely a job or an exercise, but a means of reading sensitively, deeply, respectfully. At the end of her talk, one was left with Jose Saramago. Without having been self-effacing or trumpeting her talents, Jull Costa had simply conveyed, beautifully, Saramago’s words, and through them, why Saramago matters, and why having his work available in English matters. In response to a question, her admission that her pleasure in translating wasn’t out of a particular interest in Spanish or Portuguese literature so much as it was an interest in the English language elicited a palpable reaction. Even if this seemed an obvious point, I felt I’d had an epiphany: a great translator is, first and foremost, a great reader – and, following that, a great writer as well.

Now that she has come to the end of Saramago, with her translation of his 1980 novel, Raised from the Ground, due out in December, Jull Costa is currently working on previously untranslated works by Benito Pérez Galdós and Leopoldo Alas. I’d brought along one of her translations for her to sign, and when I put it before her, she placed both hands on the book and said it was perhaps her favorite novel: The Maias, by Eça de Queiroz. Later, I noticed that she’d signed the book in a manner that reflected the impression of modesty, humility and generosity that she had conveyed in her talk: a bit off to the side, in small script, as though acknowledging her role but also underscoring the respect in which she holds those writers whose work she has so generously made available to us. 

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful post!

    I admire her a lot for helping spread Portuguese literature in English.

    Did she say anything about translating more Saramago in the future, perhaps his diaries? Or other Portuguese writers?

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  2. Thanks, Miguel. The book coming out in December is apparently the last Saramago she'll do. Pretty much everything that she hasn't translated herself has already been translated by others. She did note that Saramago's first novel, a realist work unlike his later books, has just been republished in Portuguese.

    The Pérez Galdós and Alas books are the only current projects she mentioned. She did, however, note the difficulty of finding publishers interested in some of the many as-yet-untranslated-books that she would like to see made available in English.

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    1. Well, there's still a lot of non-fiction material to translate, but I guess that's not very commercial.

      It's sad that she has difficulty finding publishers interested in her translations. There are indeed so many good books to translate yet.

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    2. I don't how the publishing/translation business operates, but I should clarify that I think she merely meant that there has to be a certain amount of publisher interest before there's a chance a translation will be sought. As you note, there are many good books awaiting translation, but probably not enough critical mass in the publishing business to set some of those translations in motion.

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  3. A woman after my heart. Or at least my reading interests. For egotistical reasons, I'll choose the physical option.

    Thanks for the report. With too much going on at work and home right now I couldn't justify going. Hopefully when I'm in the city this weekend with the family I can convince them to stop by some fun lit sites.

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    1. Dwight - I'm sorry you weren't able to make it (I didn't realize you were in the area - had I known, I would surely have alerted you).

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    2. Eh, far south bay, so I need a good excuse to leave the wife stranded with the boys for the evening. This might have qualified...thanks for the report.

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  4. What a treat! And what exciting projects - exciting for a select, lucky few, at least (Dwight - my copy of Fortunata and Jacinta just arrived - big devil).

    I have to admire the ego-free nature of her talk.

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    1. A treat indeed. And regarding Fortunata and Jacinta, I haven't yet even dared to do the math on how much I'll need to read each day to finish it by October. October 2013 seems more reasonable.

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  5. I just read 'Alves & Co.' last week, and I read Atxaga's 'Seven Houses in France' earlier this year, so I'm well aware of her work - good translators are worth their weight in gold :)

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    1. I remember your post on Atxaga. That, along with the imprimatur of the Margaret Jull Costa translation - put it on my TBR list.

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  6. Very nice post and very interesting. I'm the only one here not familiar with her but that is no surprise as I hardly read translated books in English but would opt for French or German translations.
    Translation could be an artform and if she has a great reading voice I suppose she is musical and a good translator needs an ear for language.

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    1. Thanks, Caroline. My guess is that you might well enjoy picking up one of her translations as an exception to the usual French or German options.

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