La crainte de la traduction - Koldo Biguri

Koldo Biguri prefaces this article on the problems currently faced by translators from Basque to Spanish with a general overview of this history of translation in the language.

The first Basque translation (a version of the New Testament) did not appear until 1545 (just twenty-six years after the first book was published in this language). Most of the works brought out in Basque from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries were in fact translations or adaptations, largely of religious writings.

Nonetheless, the oral tradition contains examples of translation stretching far further back in time. Despite the fact that the geography of the region and its language - entirely unlike any of its neighbours - made it less permeable to outside influence, its myths and legends contain many imported concepts and indeed names (the giant Errolan, for example, is loosely based on Roland of the Chanson). Biguri sees these influences as a sort of "loan" from other cultures, adapted to the local situation to further enrich its culture. Thus the Basque language has to a great extent benefited from translation to which indeed, it owes its survival. He argues that without translation, Basque - a language until recently spoken largely by a rural, agricultural population - would have been incapable of adapting to modern circumstances and would thus have ceased to be useful.

Although Basque is an "island language", in which any form of passive bilingualism is impossible, the country is not an island, and is not impervious to outside influence. Nonetheless, this sense of insularity historically led to the development of two radically opposed strands of opinion regarding the future of the Basque language: one group insisted that Basque was destined to disappear (Unamuno himself recommended that his fellow countrymen "forget" their native tongue) while the other considered it to be an immaculate language, preserved intact since the fall of the Tower of Babel, which could therefore only be defiled by foreign influence.

As a result, translation into Basque has until very recently been looked down upon: by some because it prolongs the life of a moribund tongue, and by others because it pollutes Basque's innate purity.

For many, translation is only acceptable if it introduces no foreign influence to Basque, because the richness of the language is still judged in terms of its lack of foreign influence, and although this endogamic vision is receding, it still underlies many attitudes towards translation. And because much of the original and translated work published in Basque is used for educational purposes, loan influences are still largely spurned.

Biguri rejects this position and feels that it is necessary to strive for greater acceptance of "foreignness", especially in view of the fact that practically all of the potential readership will also have been exposed to literature in either Spanish or French.