The translational process of one language to another language can be difficult. I found that I struggled most with the phrases in the novel. As this was my first time translating a novel, it took some time to fully understand what characters were speaking about. From the very beginning of the novel, colloquial language is used. At times it was hard to translate and left me pondering for hours to try and figure out what other way could I translate this from Spanish to English. However, I was able to keep the translation text relatively close to the original text as a large part of the novel made sense when translated into English.
It is right to say that I brought more difficulty onto myself by selecting a novel over a newspaper article to translate. The language itself was quite tricky and it took time for me to grasp what was being said. At the beginning, I was overwhelmed when I read the opening pages of the novel. Even, I understood the general storyline and conversations, there was still big sections that I could not wrapped my head around. However, before I began to translate the novel, I decided to be open-minded and try my very best to create a translation that would be enjoyable to read. I wanted this module to help me improve my translation skills but also, I wanted to like spending time doing it. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed translating the novel.
Characters
As I have selected anovel as my translation piece, characters play a huge role in the language of astory. The main characters include Julia, Pablo and Julia’s parents in the opening chapter. Since Julia and her parents don’t come from a prestigious background, their language tends to be more informal. Although, Ovejero seems to create Julia as an intelligent and activist character. After reading the first chapter of the story, I had to a little research, so I could understandthe characters better. I had heard of Franco and his extreme fascist regime, however, I conducted a bit more research, so I could understand the characters a little more.
Julia is a feisty activist who is very enthusiastically involved in politics. Her parents only speak in the first scene or two, but her mother seems not to have much of an opinion about politics. Her father however, hated Franco and would celebrate his death every year with a bottle of champagne.
Julia’s father used quite a lot of colloquial language and at times I found it hard to translate. For example, “pero hay que sacar el país adelante, y necesitamos su ayuda, o por lo menos que no estorben.” I found that I was mixing up context and using first person when I should have been using third.
