Spanish Literature and Opportunities for Young Translators

Some Latin American literary works are translated into Vietnamese.

In Vietnam, the most familiar literary works from Spanish-speaking countries are probably “Don Quixote de la Mancha - The Ingenious Nobleman of La Mancha” by Miguel De Cervantes (Spain) and “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Columbia). If the knight Don Quixote has been “familiar” to many generations of Vietnamese students because it was introduced in the general literature program, then the story of the Buendia family in “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was found by readers through the translation of Nguyen Trung Duc.

The name of translator Nguyen Trung Duc is associated with Latin American literature with nearly 40 books, including famous works such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Love in the Time of Cholera", "The Perfidy of the Method", "The Colonel Waiting for Letters", "Autumn of the Elder"... According to translator Tran Tien Cao Dang: "Latin American literature was widely introduced in Vietnam during the subsidy period, with translator Nguyen Trung Duc being the representative. The subsidy period can be considered the golden age of translated literature, including Latin American literature, because the output was "guaranteed", so many classic literary works, even difficult to read, were translated and introduced to Vietnamese readers".

One of the difficulties in introducing Spanish and Latin American literary works in Vietnam, in addition to the "eternal" problems of copyright and "output", is the most important lack of translation staff. Ms. Vu Thi Quynh Lien - Deputy Director and Editor-in-Chief of Kim Dong Publishing House said: "Currently, Kim Dong Publishing House only has about 10 translated books from Spain and other American countries in general, mainly due to the limitation of translation staff".

According to Ms. Tran Le Thuy Linh, translator, Head of Copyright Department of Nha Nam Culture and Communication Joint Stock Company: "We do not have specialized staff in Spanish, so we have to rely heavily on translators in "non-literary" stages such as purchasing copyrights". According to Ms. Linh, there are currently a number of Spanish publishing houses that provide a lot of support in translation, even preparing English translations for partners to easily re-translate, but most of them are only for children's works and books with simple content. For good, famous literary works, if they cannot invite translators to translate from the original language, publishing units will organize translation into a second language such as English, French, Russian.

However, translating into another language causes the work to have more or less changes in style, form of address... compared to the original work. Therefore, readers want to access the original work, not translated into many languages, not translated or translated. In recent years, many Spanish literary works continue to be introduced to Vietnamese readers, such as "The Speed of Light" by Javier Cercas, "The Shadow of the Wind", "The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, "Hachiko the Waiting Dog" by Luis Prats, "The Donkey and I" by Juan Ramón Jiménez... but mainly translated into other languages.

The lack of Spanish translation staff is a current difficulty, but it is also an opportunity for young people who study the language and love translation work. A representative of Kim Dong Publishing House shared that the unit is always ready to receive manuscripts. To have good manuscripts suitable for publication in Vietnam, translators can look for opportunities from highly rated works in book fairs, on e-commerce sites such as Amazon, eBay Books...

Copyright is also a barrier, so young translators can choose to try their hand at classic works whose copyright has expired under the Berne Convention. However, according to Ms. Vu Thi Quynh Lien, to have a good translation manuscript, being good at foreign languages is only one factor, young translators need to read a lot to broaden their cultural background, improve and master Vietnamese vocabulary. When entering the translation field, make sure to translate correctly first, or later.

Spanish language is now an official major in some universities in Vietnam. The Embassy of Spain also has many activities to promote the development of Spanish language in Vietnam such as organizing literary composition competitions with the theme "Learn Spanish and enjoy life", introducing authors and works or organizing seminars on translation, language... Therefore, readers who love Latin American literature can completely hope that literary works of these countries will be translated into Vietnamese more and more, more and more abundantly.

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