Literary bridges between Croatia and the Spanish speaking world

Željka Lovrenčić presented at the recent Zagreb Festival a reflection of her own work under the title:

"Reception of the Croatian literature in its translation in the Spanish -speaking countries"

The reception of literature in its translation depends upon a variety of factors: selection of a work, quality of translation, acquaintance with the country in which it is intended to represent it as well as upon its promotion. As a translator and promotor of the works of our Croatian authors in the Spanish-speaking countries I will refer in this text to my work done so-far.

Literary Translation

The literary translation is the transfer of an original literary work from one language and one cultural environment into another one. Although an exceptionally responsible job is in question, it brings a lot of pleasure as well. It is amazing - after a hard and demanding work, coordination of words and expressions, consultations with native speakers, searching through dictionaries and the network - to see the work, with which the translator "has lived" for a couple of months and which has - thanks to some magic skill, "pouring" of verse or prose from one language into another - finally seen the daylight in a new environment. A special pleasure is caused by the works published in a language not been a mother tongue because this is a real challenge, indeed. And when you once enter this magic word of the translatorship, it is very difficult to leave it because one work "draws" the other one. The fact is that the literary translation is a deed of art and that the translator in some way writes a new work, which sometimes can be better than the original one. Perhaps we may use an Italian saying going: a "traduttore" is a "traditore"; however, if there were no hardworking translators, the literary works would remain a part of one culture only. And our literature would be what so ever poor without excellent translations of the works written by numerous world-famous writers and poets - from Dante through Boccaccio to Jesenjin, Lorca and Neruda.

Through transfering the thoughts from one language into another one specific, very solid bridges are created between individual countries. The translation, first of all, the literary one, has been always attractive to me so it can be understood that it has become a part of profession to me. I, really, enjoy while translating the works written by the authors from the Spanish-speaking countries into Croatian. I like a solitary way of living with my computer and deciphering of thoughts of some writer which I then transfer into our culture and adapt to our atmosphere. It seems that the translation of some work is a very smart job: a publisher requires a translation, a translator accomplishes his/her work within a certain time-limit, it is published and here the translator's connection with this work is finished. But, my business is much more creative because in addition to translating I research the market by myself, find authors and propose their works for publishment and then I work on their promotion writing about them or representing them on rostrums. At an earlier stage, I was mainly doing it for the authors from the Spanish-speaking countries, whose works I have translated into the Croatian language but lately I have been more engaged in the promotion of our authors on the huge territory "covering" the Spanish language.

The promotion of the culture in general and especially of the literature is significant for each country and particularly for such a small and from the viewpoint of culture such a rich and diverse country like Croatia. The cultural promotion in rich European countries is more a matter of institutions and less of individuals. Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Great Britain are known by their cultural institutions and auditoriums as well as by a powerful cultural presentation in diplomatic missions. To be a cultural attachė (if this duty exists any more at all) in some of Croatian embassies) is something entirely different. It seems to me that in Croatia the promotion of our culture (first of all of the literature) is still mainly reduced to a good will and efforts of the individuals. The role of our Ministry of Culture is great as it offers within its programms a support for the translations of our authors abroad and through this it significantly contributes to their publishing. Because, it is difficult for a publishing house from the other side of the world to decide for an author from an unknown and somehow exotic country about which little or nothing is known notwithstanding the fact that a certain work has been good.

Our authors are traditionally mainly translated into German or English, and there exists a significant co-operation with Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia. The publishers like Založba Tuma, Wieser Verlag, Daedalus Verlag ...are some of the publishing houses editing the works of our authors. However, in each country there must exist also some "good spirit" translating and/or promoting our authors. For example, this is Alida Bremer in Germany and Jan Jankovič in Slovakia.

Bridges

The historical and literary connections between Croatia and Spanish-speaking countries are interwoven from the earliest periods. It is believed that also Croatian seamen being in the Spanish service sailed on the Columbo's ships and our missionaries left significant traces on the territory of Mexico. Even not to mention our numerous diaspora who started to settle down the territory of Latin America due to either economic or political reasons. Our emigrants mainly reached success in these countries and enabled their children to educate and to successfully incorporate into the new environment. However, still little or not enough is known in these countries about us, our culture and history. We began to "discover" the descendants of Croats in Chile during the nineties and until then few of us have known that in the Chilean literature about two hundreds of authors are said to be of Croatian origin. Some of our specialists today are engaged in studying their works; they have been the theme of my doctoral dissertation and in addition to the discovery of numerous successful authors of Croatian roots for our public I have tried to represent also Croatian authors in Chile.

I have decided to translate the works written by our authors into the language I speak but which is not my mother tongue after numerous inquries of acquaintances and friends put about the Croatian literature. I have searched for the information about our authors translated into Spanish throughout Mexican, Chilean and Spanish national libraries, but I have not been content with the results obtained so I have begun to translate by myself. I have brought this decision in Punta Arenas, a Chilean town in Patagonia, where I gave lessons of the Croatian language to our emigrants. My students wanted to know also somewhat more than the programmes and the lectures offerred to them; they wanted to get acquanted with the modern Croatia country, its way of living, its culture, history and its contemporary literature, which is the closest to me, after all. Initially, I translated several poems of Drago Štambuk, who was born on the island of Brač as the majority of Croatian descendants living in that country. They were particularly delighted with his short but deeply thoughtful poem "1918" speaking about the emigrants and in which they perhaps saw also their ancestors. Many of them learned it by heart. One of my students recited it even in Spanish to Mr. Štambuk whom she met by chance one summer on the island of Brač ... I have to admit that this has really been a right impetus for me to continue with my work.

Selection and Promotion

The Spanish-speaking area is huge. Spanish is spoken by 328.518.000 people and it is one of five important world languages. Besides the countries, in which Spanish is an official language, the books translated into this language can be placed also in Brazil and in the USA. Except for its quality, our literature may be interesting to the readers from this area for the reason that we are exotic and unknown to them. The fact that the descendants of the Croatian emigrants who left Croatia looking for a better life live now in some countries of Latin America (Chile, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia) may help in publishing and the reception of our literature in its translation, but we cannot really boast of the fact that "the roses are blooming" for us also in them. The situation with Spain is much better probably because of its vicinity, although it could even be significantly changed for better. The centuries long literary connections tie us with this country and as an evidence for this I quote the fact that Fray Luis de Granada translated Marko Marulić's poem Carmen de Doctrina Domini nostri Jesu Christi pendentis in cruce from Latin into Spanish, which was published in the year 1576 and was incorporated into the work Memorial de la vida cristiana (Remembrance to the Christian Life).

Due to the fact that I have lived for six years in Latin America i.e. in Mexico and Chile, it is normal that these two countries are particularly close to me because I know them very well. Besides, almost every year I travel to some of the Latin-American countries from this area and almost every day I am in a contact with the writers from "my continent". As a result of this I decided to build literary bridges with these countries by myself and to select the Croatian authors for whom I consider that they may be interesting to their readers. In the continuation of this text I will make an analysis of their reception given by countries.

Chile

My literary connections with the Chilean writers of the Croatian origin - Andrės Morales Milohnic, Juan Mihovilovic, Antonio Skάrmeta, Astrid Fugelie Gezan, Desenka Vukasovic de Draxler, Óscar Barrientoso Bradacic, Jaime Brstilo and others - were deepened when I moved from Punta Arenas to Santiago, where I met also many other Chilean writers not of Croatian origin such as Roberto Ampuerto, Diego Muñoz Valenzuela, Fernando Jerez etc. Beside a permanent promotion of the Chilean writers in Croatia I began translating the works of our writers for their readers. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the readers from these countries accepted them. In the year 1998 Andrės Morales Milohnic and me published bilingual collected poems of five Croatian poets under the title Poesia Croata Contemporάnea published by the publishing house RIL Editores from Santiago. The authors represented are Maja Gjerek, Vesna Parun, Milivoj Slaviček, Drago Štambuk and Ante Zemljar. In the preface we have explained our intention that we would like to present a selection from the contemporary Croatian poetry to a country where 1% of the inhabitants is of the Croatian origin in order to bring closer our culture to the people of Chile. A support for publishing this book was given by numerous Croatian associations from Antofagasta to Punta Arenas and it was also presented at the Book Fair in Santiago. Quite a lot was written about it in the press as well.

In the year 2003 a book of poetry written by Drago Štambuk was published under the title El viento de las estrellas oscuras. The publisher was again RIL Editores, and the Chilean poet and the youngest member of academy Andrės Morales Milohnic and the translator Andres Rajevic helped me with their suggestions in translating it. The preface was written by the world famous Chilean writer of Croatian roots Antonio Skármeta. When the book was presented in the Chilean National Library and at the faculties Universidad de Chile and Finis Terra, a numerous audience was present there, first of all, the representatives of our community.

After Štambuk, also Miro Gavran was presented to the Chilean public. His novel Forgotten Son (El hijo oividado) was published in the year 2010 by a publishing house which is very fond of publishing our literature thanks to a long-year co-operation with Andrės Morales Milohnic. The preface to this unique work was written by one of the most significant Chilean writers Roberto Ampuero. This publishing house intends to publish soon also the book written by Zvonimir Balog The child who did not want to be born.

In addition to the books, the Chileans publish the translations of the poems, stories andextracts from the novels of our contemporary writers on the web portal of the Literary Association Letras de Chile, being among others edited also by Diego Muñoz Valenzuela, as well as on that of Andrés Morales Milohnic - so far about thirty works of our authors have been published. It has been established in a poll that the translated works of our writers on the web portal of Letras de Chile are even more read than those of the Spanish writers.

In promoting our literature in Chile, first of all, Andrės Morales Milohnic, Diego Muñoz Valenzuela and Roberto Ampuero have helped me. I have translated their works in Croatia. Besides the books of literary themes, significant are also the books of Croatian authors in the Spanish-speaking countries Los Croatos y América of Ljubomir Antić and Al Servicio de mi patria of Hrvoje Kačić with historical and political themes.

Bolivia

Thanks to the Bolivian writer Manuel Vargas and his publishing house Correveydile a book under the name Puentes was published in Bolivia in the year 2007 comprising ten poems of ten contemporary poets (Burazer, Cindori, Derkač, Rosandić, Gjerek, Mihalić, Machiedo, Stamać, Šalat, Tadijanović). It was presented in La Paz at the Bolivian Academy and in Cochabamba. At the presentation I was accompanied also by the writer Diana Rosandić. The epilogue to the book was written by one of the most significant Bolivian writers César Verduguéz Gómez, whose works have been published in our literary journals. Both the media and the press have excellently accompanied the book and it could be bought in all significant bookshops. A successful promotion was supported by our presentation on the television as well.

Mexico

In Mexico, Croatia participated at the biggest Book Fair in Latin America being held for years in Guadalajara - in the year 2008 for the first time thanks to a co-operation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb with the University from this town. The Mexican authors were presented at our place and five of our writers stayed in Guadalajara being Diana Rosandić, Lana Derkač, Davor Šalat, Davor Velnić and me. In addition to numerous rostrums, our authors were presented also in literary journals. On this occasion a selection of poems was published under the title Murmullo sobre el asfalto of the authors Lana Derkač and Davor Šalat in the edition of the publishing house "La Zonάmbula". This publishing house published in the year 2010 a selection of ten Croatian poets under the title Bajo la ceniza del antiguo fuego. The book was presented at the University in Guadalajara and Hariet Quint and Wolfgang Volf were speaking about it. The represented poets were Diana Burazer, Ružica Cindori, Diana Rosandić, Dunja Detoni Dujmić, Lana Derkač, Ante Stamać, Davor Šalat, Borben Vladović, Joja Ricov and Luko Paljetak. In this year the same publishing house is publishing a book of the member of academy Dubravko Jelčić under the title Historia de la literatura croata.

The literary journal Babel being published in Ciudad de México will soon publish the poems of Ana Horvat and Enerika Bijač. The books of our authors are being sold in the Mexican bookshops and the Book Fair in Guadalajara lasting nine days is a real occasion for our authors to be presented at secondary schools, to meet the professors from the University in Guadalajara, its president and deans, Mexican writers and artists as well as journalists and the audience at the Fair.

Spain

In Spain, a book of poems of Dragutin Tadijanović under the title Poesia escogida (Cien poemas para el centenario) was published in the year 2006 and it reached the Royal Palace as well. The Spanish writers Alfredo Pérez Alencart, Fernando Sabido Sánchez, José Luis Reina Palazón and Graciliano Martín Fumero wrote about our poets and published their works on their web portals. The poems of Diana Rosandić and Davor Šalat were published in the book under the title El color de la vida dedicated to a great Spanish painter Cristóbal Gabarrón, among poems of sixty one poets from five continents inspired by his paintings. The university professor, poet and member of the Academy for Language of Castile and Leon Alfredo Pérez Alencart presents reviews about our poets Ante Stamać, Ana Horvat, Diana Rosandić, Delimir Rešicki in the journal "El Adelanto". The Canarian poet Martín Graciliano Fumero writes about the poetry of Irena Vrkljan and Delimir Rešicki in the journal "El Dia" in a section "Ventana Literaria". They got acquianted with the Croatian poetry thanks to the book under the title El roce de la mariposa published in the book collection "Most/The Bridge" (DHK - Association of Croatian Writers, 2010), containing by ten poems of 25 Croatian poets. During these days also a selection from the poetry of twelve Croatian poets has been published under the title Dulce Libertad. The publishers are Verbum from Madrid and Trilce Ediciones from Salamanca. The editor - Alfredo Pérez Alencart says in his preface that "the twelve Apostles of the Croatian poetry being selected to go round a huge territory of the Spanish-speaking countries" are in question. These are: Zvonimir Balog, Enerika Bijač, Boris Domagoj Biletić, Branimir Bošnjak, Ružica Cindori, Mate Ganza, Ana Horvat, Mladen Machiedo, Davor Šalat, Stjepan Šešelj and Irena Vrkljan. As in the style of the poem of Dragutin Tadijanović "If they do me" he begs for forgiveness those who have not been included this time.

The poet Fernando Sabido Sánchez included about thirty our poets in his network anthology of the world poetry and the Belgian poet living in Spain - Germain Droogenbroodt published on his web portal the poetry of Lana Derkač and Zvonimir Balog. The journal "Redacción 2318" being published on the web is going to publish the poetry of three Croatian authors (Balog, Biletić, Cindori) and the same will be done in the Columbian journal "Alitrava". I do suppose that the co-operation will proceed and extend.

Argentina

In Argentina, I have published the works of our poets on web sites and in literary journals, and the Paraguayan poet and member of academy, recepient of the National award for poetry Jacobo Rauskin, who has shown a special interest for the work of Branko Bošnjak, had recommended our poetry to be published in Mexico.

Conclusion:

Out of this presentation it is evident that there exists an interest for our literature in the Spanish-speaking countries; it is only necessary to find a right track for the translations of the works written by selected authors to be presented to the publishers who want to publish them. Upon presenting the books my mission is finished and foreign publishing houses continue with their activities. In the meantime, I present the writers from the Spanish-speaking countries in our country, among them also those who promote our authors in their own countries and in this way I create strong and stable bridges between Croatia and the Hispanic world.

I am interested exclusively in contemporary authors, and in this selection I have been supported a lot by the journal for literary connections of DHK (Association of Croatian Writers) "Most/The Bridge", as firstly I published my translations in it and then I published them abroad in a form of books. The fact is that there are a lot of high-quality literary works in our country which should be presented beyond the frontiers of our country so as well in the countries I am dealing with; however, I am aware of the fact that my activity in the promotion of our literature is a drop in the ocean only. So like Tadijanović and Alencart I say it as well: With my apologies to all others!

When we speak about the reception of the works written by our authors which I have translated into Spanish let me mention that they are presented within restricted circles, first of all, within university and literary ones, because, mainly, poetry is in question. Among the countries of the Hispanic world Spain is, no doubt, the country with greatest possibilities for publication and distribution of the literature in translation, however, Mexico can praise with very good publishing houses and a high-quality promotion as well. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Bolivians through their quality of professionalism.

Owing to the fact that a special interest has been shown for Štambuk and Machiedo in Chile, for Ricov and Stamać in Mexico and for Šalat, Irena Vrkljan, Diana Rosandić, Ana Horvat, Stamać, Biletić and first of all for Delimir Rešicki in Spain, perhaps, the time has come - instead of poets' collections with works of various authors - to begin with publishing one-poet collections of selected authors more often. I will make every effort to do it.

Željka Lovrenčić

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