From Translations to Traducciones: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

When researching how hedge schools were represented in literary sources, I realized Brian Friel's depiction in Translations had become the most iconic. Even though he is regarded as a major Irish playwright, whose work has been translated into several languages, hardly any of his plays could be found in Spanish. Therefore, bringing together my interests in Irish and translation studies, I took the opportunity to render this seminal play into the Spanish language with the purpose of making Friel more widely available. When contemplating the work ahead, I was not unaware of the challenges posed by the linguistically complex nature of Translations, shown in its very title. However, soon other less obvious difficulties emerged, like the translation of some Irish cultural elements. Last but not least, some features of orality, related to the intrinsic nature of drama translation, were also challenging. While addressing these issues, I aimed at giving readership the impression that the text had originally been written in Spanish.

Keywords: Brian Friel; Translations; Traducciones; Literary Translation.