English version of the successful article ‘Eternity in the Reed’ by Irene VallejoTitled ‘Papyrus’ for the English-speaking market This won the award for best translation into English. Prize for a work in Spanish in 2023, an award given annually by the Queen Sophia Institute.
Vallejo’s work An unprecedented editorial achievement for an article of over 400 pages Selling over a million copies, the work was translated into English by Charlotte Whittle, who the jury emphasized knew how to balance the original work “between erudition and informality, boldly driving changes in tone and tone”.
whiteThe person who takes home the $10,000 prize is an experienced translator and editor with two PEN translation awards He explained to EFE that translating Vallejo’s work into English took about a year of work, mostly during the pandemic, so it was “great company” for him at the time.
He underlined that Vallejo gave him “plenty of creative freedom” in translating his texts into English.especially quotes from classical Greco-Roman authors that Vallejo himself translated into Spanish; He explained that tradition dictated that we should look for the most canonical versions of these authors, but that he found them too “nineteenth-century” and under the heavy burden of all kinds of censorship, and so he set them aside.
He noted that the most difficult challenge of translating Vallejo was strength as a writer. “Maintain the friendly tone without losing the light tempo of the language or giving up the complexity of the ideas”and to achieve all this he received some advice from the author himself: think of the book as a work of oral tradition.
The award ceremony took place at New York University King Juan Carlos College.and other finalists: Katie Whittemore (Lara Moreno), translator of ‘Piel de Lobo’; The translator of the book ‘No fire ever’ (Damiela Eltit) is Daniel Hahn, and the translators of the book ‘Breezes are coming in December’ (Marvel Moreno) are Isabel Adey and Charlotte Coombe.