The Writer in the Translators’ Workshop (2007)

The fourth workshop for literary translators, a workshop aimed at promoting the translation of Basque literary works into other languages, was organized by EIZIE (Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language). The workshop took place on September 10-13, 2007, at the Ibaizabal school in Durango.

Since it is our custom to invite the author of the work that won the Euskadi Prize the preceding year, the purpose of the workshop this year was to translate a work by Iban Zaldua into four other languages: French, German, Italian and Spanish.

For the workshop, the author chose the title story of his book, Itzalak (Shadows); the translators were Fermin Arkotxa (French), Christiane Bendel (German), Roberta Gozzi (Italian) and Angel Erro (Spanish).

As always, the participants discussed their experience in the workshop at a round-table on the last day, and the audience was treated to the reading of a selected passage from the story in all five languages. The round-table was held at the Landako Gunea conference room in Durango.

The translations, together with the story in its original language, will be published in a special issue of the journal Senez.