The translation of literary texts from Catalan and Spanish into English: examples, strategies and challenges in Negres Tempestes / Negras Tormentas
This year, we will celebrate an event as part of the Iberian and Latin American Week in Liverpool, featuring Peter Bush, one of the most prominent figures in the field of translation in Britain, alongside the author Teresa Solana and Xavier Mas Craviotto. A debate will be held with the attending audience about the book Negras Tormentas, a work that students from the University of Liverpool have studied in its Catalan and Spanish versions as part of their training.
Peter Bush (Spalding, Lincolnshire, 1946) is a literary translator with deep knowledge and connection to Spanish culture and literature. His unique career has allowed him to translate both classic and contemporary works from Spanish and Catalan into English, making them accessible to readers in the English-speaking world.
His personal experience, marked by his arrival in Spain during the final years of Franco's regime and the democratic Transition, and his personal relationships with some of the authors he has translated, have provided him with a unique perspective on Spanish and Latin American realities. Moreover, the keen insight of a translator, the closeness of someone who has chosen Spain as the place to live, and the objectivity of someone from abroad make him a privileged intermediary between Hispanic and British cultures.
Among his impressive list of translated works are La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas, La plaça del Diamant by Mercè Rodoreda, and works by authors such as Joan Sales, Josep Pla, Rosa Maria Arquimbau, Victor Català, Leonardo Padura, and Teresa Solana. Peter Bush represents a cultural bridge between our two worlds, and his work as a translator has significantly contributed to the dissemination of Hispanic literature in the English-speaking world.
Teresa Solana (Barcelona, 1962) is one of the most translated Catalan writers into other languages. A translator by profession, she directed the "Casa del Traductor" in Tarazona for eight years. In 2006, she debuted with the novel Un crim imperfecte, featuring a peculiar pair of detectives, which won the "Brigada 21" award for the best original novel in Catalan. This series includes the novels Drecera al paradís, L'Hora Zen, and Campanades de boda. She has also published two collections of short stories—Set casos de sang i fetge i una historia d’amor and Matèria grisa, the latter of which won the "Roc Boronat" award—and the children's series Supernyaps. Negres tempestes, the novel that won the "Crims de Tinta" award, inaugurates the series starring Norma Forester, a sub-inspector of the Mossos d’Esquadra with a very peculiar family, who is also the protagonist of *La casa de les papallones* and *Octubre*. Her work is characterized by her ironic view of society and her sense of humor. Since 2014, she has resided in the United Kingdom.
Xavier Mas Craviotto(born 1996 in Navàs, Catalonia) has a degree in Catalan Philology and a postgraduate degree in Language Assessment and Editorial Services from the Universitat de Barcelona. He was a lecturer in Catalan Studies at the University of Bristol (2020-2024) and now he works as a teacher and proofreader. He has published the novel La mort lenta (Premi Documenta 2018) and La pell del món (2023). As a poet, he has published Renills de cavall negre (Certamen Art Jove Salvador Iborra 2018), La gran nàusea and La llum subterrània (Premi Ausiàs March 2022). He has won around twenty literary prizes for narrative and poetry and has contributed to several collections of collective stories.
