Catalan Books in English

[Comte Arnau]

Just a little taste (or Part One), in chronological order, of probably the best among invisible literatures in terms of quantity and quality. I selected a few great writers from Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Aragon.

· Note: These are great books. Yet for some reason, some of the great books in Catalan modern literature have been translated into several languages but not into English yet...


Medieval Catalan:

1276) THE BOOK OF DEEDS (LLIBRE DELS FEYTS), by King JAMES I

1284) THE BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED (LLIBRE D'AMIC E AMAT), by Ramon LLULL

1381) BOOK OF FORTUNE AND PRUDENCE (LLIBRE DE FORTUNA E PRUDÈNCIA), by Bernat METGE

15th century) CURIAL AND GUELFA (CURIAL E GÜELFA), unknown author

1490) TIRANT THE WHITE KNIGHT (TIRANT LO BLANCH), by Joanot MARTORELL
~ ' The best book in the world ', said Cervantes ~

......

Modern Catalan:

1905) SOLITUDE (SOLITUD), by Víctor Català (real name Caterina Albert)

1961) THE DOLLS' ROOM (BEARN O LA SALA DE LES NINES), by Llorenç VILLALONGA

1962) THE TIME OF THE DOVES (LA PLAÇA DEL DIAMANT), by Mercè RODOREDA

1975) HORSES INTO THE NIGHT (CAVALLS CAP A LA FOSCA), by Baltasar PORCEL

1986) O'CLOCK, 16 stories by Quim MONZÓ

1988) THE TOWPATH (CAMÍ DE SIRGA), by Jesús MONCADA

Postwar and contemporary Catalan poetry, translated by Rosenthal.

2002) COLD SKIN (LA PELL FREDA), by Albert SÁNCHEZ PIÑOL

[Teyrn]

Interesting post, thanks and as to your comment:

Note: These are great books. Yet for some reason, some of the great books in Catalan modern literature have been translated into several languages but not into English yet...

Probabably because Catalan isn't widely-spoken outside of its home area? There's probably only a few hundred Catalan speakers in the U.S. in comparison to the millions of Spanish speakers.

[Comte Arnau]

Interesting post

Thank you.

Note: These are great books. Yet for some reason, some of the great books in Catalan modern literature have been translated into several languages but not into English yet...

Probabably because Catalan isn't widely-spoken outside of its home area? There's probably only a few hundred Catalan speakers in the U.S. in comparison to the millions of Spanish speakers.

Oh, but I'm not complaining about the number of translations. Last year, more than 125 books in Catalan were translated into other languages, not bad at all for a literature mainly addressed to just 10 million people, similar to the Swedish one. What I found weird is that I've noticed some of the main works by important Catalan authors have been translated into languages such as Hungarian, Dutch or Japanese, but not into English, language in which often you'll find instead a minor work by that same author. It is a bit weird...

[Teyrn]

Thank you.

Oh, but I'm not complaining about the number of translations. Last year, more than 125 books in Catalan were translated into other languages, not bad at all for a literature mainly addressed to just 10 million people, similar to the Swedish one. What I found weird is that I've noticed some of the main works by important Catalan authors have been translated into languages such as Hungarian, Dutch or Japanese, but not into English, language in which often you'll find instead a minor work by that same author. It is a bit weird...

That does seem kind of odd because there are organizations that are dedicated to the support of Catalanism in the English-speaking world:

Anglo - Catalan Society (UK)

http://www.anglo-catalan.org/ << Their books are interesting if you can find them.

North American Catalan Society

http://nacs-catalanstudies.org/

And others.

Lack of Catalan authors translated into English might be because of its use being limited to native speakers and scholars? I dunno.

[Racial Observer 1814]

Catalan is a beautiful language. 10 million speakers? I did not know there were that many, that makes me happy.

[Teyrn]

Catalan is a beautiful language. 10 million speakers? I did not know there were that many, that makes me happy.

It's like Occitan- one of the lesser-known Romance languages.

[Comte Arnau]

That does seem kind of odd because there are organizations that are dedicated to the support of Catalanism in the English-speaking world:

Anglo - Catalan Society (UK)

http://www.anglo-catalan.org/ << Their books are interesting if you can find them.

North American Catalan Society

http://nacs-catalanstudies.org/

And others.

Lack of Catalan authors translated into English might be because of its use being limited to native speakers and scholars? I dunno.

That is why I actually find it weird. Yes, Catalan is not a language you can learn everywhere (although there are more universities to learn it in Germany and the UK than in Castilian-speaking Spain ), but there are certainly scholars and English writers/translators living in Catalonia with a very good command of the language. And some of the difficult translations are even promoted. But it seems that the Germans and sometimes the French are more interested than the English about it. Obviously most of the translations from Catalan are always into Spanish.

Catalan is a beautiful language. 10 million speakers? I did not know there were that many, that makes me happy.

10 to 11 millions speakers, although this number includes L2 (Second language) speakers. Native/Bilingual speakers are 7 to 8 millions.

It's like Occitan- one of the lesser-known Romance languages.

Occitan was vigorous in the Middle Ages (the most vigorous Romance literature in the 12th/13th centuries) and it had a significant rebirth in the late Romanticism, with the great Mirèio by Mistral (Nobel Prize was going to be given to Occitan Mistral and Catalan Guimerà in 1904, but Spaniards didn't allow the Catalan to have it, so the Nobel was shared between Mistral and a second-rate Spanish playwright). Yet after that, Occitan literature has not been what it used to be any more. Unfortunately, one can't compare the vigour of Occitan today with that of Catalan, a language working as any official country language, despite the fact we aren't one yet.

[Teyrn]

That is why I actually find it weird. Yes, Catalan is not a language you can learn everywhere (although there are more universities to learn it in Germany and the UK than in Castilian-speaking Spain ), but there are certainly scholars and English writers/translators living in Catalonia with a very good command of the language. And some of the difficult translations are even promoted. But it seems that the Germans and sometimes the French are more interested than the English about it. Obviously most of the translations from Catalan are always into Spanish.

Well, the lack of translators into English in the Catalonian areas might be because they perceive a lack of interest in the Anglosphere. In the U.S. there's no exposure to Catalan as a language or Catalonia as a region. For example I was talking to this Puerto Rican girl I work with and the subject of languages came up and I said to her something like Okay I'm going to say something to you. Hola! Que parla el catala? I probably said it shittily and incorrectly- but I was just saying what I've read here in there. That's about all I can say outside of stock phrases like "good day," "hello," "good bye," etc. My Catalan is about as good as my Spanish (shitty!) and, unlike English to Spanish dictionaries, finding an English to Catalan dictionary in the U.S. is impossible (I've tried), which might be an example of the lack of awareness of the language in the U.S.

[Neanderthal]

Is there an Aztec - Catalan society?

[Racial Observer 1814]

L'Occitan aussi c'est une langue belle.