Conveyances: Brazilian Author Vanessa Bárbara on and in Translation

Through its blog series Conveyances, the Library of Congress’ International Collections explore the ways in which the translated words held in the Library’s collections link us across continents, cultures, and centuries. The following is a written interview between Henry Widener (HW), Portuguese Language Reference Librarian in the Hispanic Reading Room, and Brazilian author and translator Vanessa Bárbara (VB) on the author’s lifelong engagement with translation.

HW: How did you get into working as a translator? How long have you worked with translation?

VB: I was a fact-checker for the publisher Companhia das Letras, but I always enjoyed working with translation. I started out translating children’s literature for CosacNaify and then I took a test to start translating adult literature for Companhia das Letras. The first title I translated was The Raw Shark Texts (Cabeça Tubarão) by Steven Hall, in 2007.

HW: Many people say translation is an art, something which involves the creativity of the translator. How does your voice or your hand appear in your translations?

VB: Translation is not a mechanical act. It’s not like you can send a text through a machine and get a result that is always the same. My concern is always achieving a balance between loyalty to the work itself, solidarity with the reader, and containing my own creative impulses, which can run totally wild.

In the end, I am a very slow translator because it takes me a long time to assimilate the voice of the author. This can only happen as the work progresses, which is why I often have to revisit the initial chapters to correct my initial lack of familiarity. Despite all that, my voice always comes through in translation, one way or another. I try to at least make sure that the final product is a duet.

HW: You have translated the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Art Spiegelman, Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll, and Gertrude Stein, among others. What ties together these authors or your translations of them? Were there any particular challenges?

VB: Lewis Carroll was the most difficult, though, of all the works I’ve translated, his was the most similar to my own style of nonsense humor. Translating his poetry was quite nearly impossible. I think that, more towards the end of my life, I can try again, and I will find better solutions.

Translating The Great Gatsby was like traveling in the novel: full of pain yet delightful. I even made a map to help locate and guide myself through the story’s setting. It was very difficult to find Gertrude Stein’s voice.

Something that links all these authors is they all demanded a lot of research, finding references and studies on which to base my own choices of translation – most of all with Virginia Woolf. I really enjoy this part of the work, which I think speaks to my fact-checking spirit.

VB: I think the story is almost universal – it’s about relationships, neighbors, grief, introversion. It’s also pretty crazy, with elements of suspense and strange characters. I would like to acknowledge the French translation by Dominique Nédellec, which was exceptional and crucial for the book to win the Prix du Premier Roman Étranger, in 2016. (One example: he translates the phrase “cansada para burro”, which closes the novel, to “vachement fatiguée”, which I thought was genius.)

HW: Many people prefer to read works in their original language as they feel it brings them closest to the author and their work. What would you say to someone who can only engage with an author through translation? Are there any authors you love whom you have only engaged in through translation?

VB: Ah yes! All of the Russians (I love Tolstoy), as well as some French authors: I fell in love with Flaubert through the Portuguese translations. I think something will always be lost when reading a work in translation, but you also gain something: the translator’s work of cultural mediation is rich and beneficial to the reader in many ways. For instance, a translator’s hand takes a reader to a universe that is so different from their own.

I grew up reading old translations that were full of old-fashioned syntax and spellings. This more antiquated language engaged the text in a certain way, as if I were really reading in another language, though it was my own. Literature is like this, too, I think. You arrive at the book with a desire to dive into another universe, even if it seems out of place in relation to your own.

Further Reading

Library of Congress StoryMaps: Literary Translators of Latin American Culture: A Brief History of Literary Translations in the PALABRA Archive And The Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS)

Library of Congress Research Guides: The PALABRA Archive at the Library of Congress

4 Corners of the World Blog: Conveyances: Poet Salgado Maranhão and Translator Alexis Levitin Join the PALABRA Archive