Dear colleagues and collaborators,

I have occasionally mentioned here renowned translators. Today I would like to recall Gregory Rabassa, who passed away last year at the age of 94 and was a major intermediary of Spanish and Portuguese literature to the Anglo-Saxon world. Born in New York, Rabassa was the son of a Cuban emigrant. The translator received several awards for his translations, including authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Julio Córtazar. Márquez even waited three long years for the translation of his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, because he did not wish to leave it in the hands of a translator other than Rabassa. The wait was worthwhile, as the translation pleased the writer more than the original text. As for Portuguese language, Rabassa was particularly known for his translations of Clarice Lispector, Jorge Amado and António Lobo Antunes. The title of the novel by Lobo Antunes As naus was adapted to The Return of the Caravels, which is not only true, but also sounds better.

Yours

Ester Ramos

 

Gregory Rabassa (1922 – 2016)