If you think technical translation is difficult, try literary translation! The translation of fictional literature is by far one of the most difficult forms of translation that goes beyond learning technical vocabulary and the contrastive analysis of two languages. Unlike technical translators, most literary translators have an educational background in comparative literature and creative writing. Currently, the Instituto Cervantes is offering a brilliant interview online with María Teresa Gallego Urrutia, an award-winning Spanish-French literary translator. María Teresa Gallego Urrutia has been awarded the 2008 Premio Nacional a la Obra de un Traductor (National Translation Award) by the Ministerio de Cultura (Spanish Ministry of Culture). She has a degree in French from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has worked as a translator since 1960. She teaches at various universities and is currently the head of the French department at the Instituto Gregorio Marañón de Madrid. In this interview, María Teresa Gallego Urrutia offers us wonderful insight to the world of literary translation and contrasts it with technical translation. She also discusses the inherent creativity that is required to translate literary text and the translation of literary masterpieces that have already been translated.
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About the Instituto Cervantes
Instituto Cervantes is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is the largest organization in the world concerned with the teaching of Spanish, and it maintains a presence in over twenty different countries throughout 54 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American culture and Spanish Language. The mission of Instituto Cervantes is to promote the teaching, study, and use of Spanish as a second language and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures throughout non-Spanish speaking countries.
