Collective residencies / Irene Solà’s Translators Seminar / Olot
AMARANTA SBARDELLA
From Wednesday, 15 May 2024 to Sunday, 19 May 2024
Bio
Amaranta Sbardella is an italian writer, literary translator and researcher. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature and Literary Text Translation from the University of Siena.
For more than ten years she has been working as a literary translator from Catalan, Spanish and French, as a text editor and publisher's reader. She was a visiting professor at the University of Barcelona, and is a member of the staff of "Storica" National Geographic.
She specialised in translating Catalan authors; including Mercè Rodoreda ("La mort i la primavera"), Joan Sales ("Incerta glòria"), Gabriel Ferrater, Salvador Espriu, Pol Guasch, Eva Baltasar, Pep Puig, Coia Valls, Josep Maria Esquirol.
She was awarded the Translation Award from the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the translation of Salvador Espriu's anthology of stories, "Sotto l'attonita freddezza di questi occhi" (2013).
She is the author of two books: the anthology of stories "Barcelona Desnuda" (Exòrma, 2018), translated into Catalan ("Barcelona nua", Comanegra, 2019); "Il mostro e la fanciulla. Le Riscritture di Arianna e del Minotauro nel Novecento" (Quodlibet, 2017). Her Essay on the Italian presence in Barcelona's arts and culture will be published in 2024 by Barcelona Llibres.
Project
She will participate in a meeting of translators who adapt Irene Solà's novel to several different languages.
Ten translators, five days, two languages, one author. The stay at Faberllull was conceived and carried out under the happy sign of division, meaning sharing and spreading, and the rewarding sign of multiplication. Sharing the novel, its nuances, the doubts that are the essence of translation. Multiplying languages, cultures, inputs. And words, which are the clay we as translators work with.
Over these five days, we got to pass this clay from one participant to another, at any point, during the group sessions or while chatting after meals, over breakfast, or over tea before bed. Or walking in nature, following the footsteps of Francesc Llobera, also known as the Catalan Robin Hood. And, above all, we enjoyed hearing how this clay piece had been shaped, how the ideas had come to the author, delving even further into her feelings and creative process. As Umberto Eco said, interpreting a text (and as translators we are interpreters, exegetes and spokespeople) must start from the author’s intentions in creating the text, the intentio operis, studying the work very closely. Thanks to this great opportunity, for a little while, we got the chance to sit down with the author, to hear about her sources and research, and to share little moments of life and creativity with her, getting to sense and perceive more than ever the intentio autoris of the text.
And for a translator that is a rare joy. And that’s not all. The generosity of everyone who organised, guided and accompanied us on this journey; the professionalism of everyone involved, hosts and guest critics, forged a support network for all of us. And they worked to leave solitude at the door, which is the only downside to this crazy, eccentric profession of translation. Illuminated, nourished, roused, inspired, all ten of the translators got to calmly enjoy the companionship and affinity of the group, growing through conversation and debate. And opening up new pathways, whether in Catalan literature, creativity or translation.
Thanks to Faberllull, Institut Ramon Llull and everyone who made this possible and took such good care of this motley crew of translators with so much in common.