Catalan Books in English

[Comte Arnau]

Well, the lack of translators into English in the Catalonian areas might be because they perceive a lack of interest in the Anglosphere.

Well, the lack of interest probably comes from the lack of visibility, something that happens when you are not an independent country. Smaller countries like Denmark surely receive more attention, for instance. And it is a pity that because of it many great writers are mostly ignored by the average reader. American famous critic Harold Bloom included several Catalan writers in its Western canon and praised poet Salvador Espriu, saying he certainly should have received a Nobel. Others praised short stories by Calders, comparing him with Pirandello, Poe and Kafka, just as they praise Monzó these days. It's just they are mainly unknown because they don't belong to a major literature. Recently, though, it seems as if more and more publishing houses from around the world have realized about the vigour of this invisible literature.

But it is not as if the interest of the Anglosphere is that little. English is still the third or fourth language to which most Catalan books have been translated. (Obviously Catalan shouldn't be compared to Spanish, but to languages of a similar size: Swedish, Czech, Greek, Hungarian...) It's rather the choice of the translated works what surprised me. But I'm convinced this will be gradually solved.

In the U.S. there's no exposure to Catalan as a language or Catalonia as a region.

I know, I shiver whenever I ask where people locate Barcelona. I'd better not hear their answers.

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!)

Well, I guess that, if the girl hadn't any connection or roots at all with the Catalanosphere, she must have wondered what the heck you were asking her.

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.

I guess so. A pity, because some of the first settlers in Florida were Catalan-speaking Majorcans. Apparently some typical surnames persist in the area.

Well, at least you know about us.


On a regular basis, I use this one:



There are also several online ones.

Is there an Aztec - Catalan society?

Hmmmm, not that I've heard of. I know many Catalans went to Mexico after the Spanish Civil War, so there must be societies or "casals" there, but an Aztec-Catalan one... I doubt it.

L'Occitan aussi c'est une langue belle.

It is.

One of the oldest, if not the oldest, literary writings in a Romance language is the Canço de Santa Fe (written in the 1060s), and it is impossible to say if it is in Occitan or Catalan. At that early stage, two very close languages still.

[Teyrn]

Well, the lack of interest probably comes from the lack of visibility, something that happens when you are not an independent country. Smaller countries like Denmark surely receive more attention, for instance. And it is a pity that because of it many great writers are mostly ignored by the average reader. American famous critic Harold Bloom included several Catalan writers in its Western canon and praised poet Salvador Espriu, saying he certainly should have received a Nobel. Others praised short stories by Calders, comparing him with Pirandello, Poe and Kafka, just as they praise Monzó these days. It's just they are mainly unknown because they don't belong to a major literature. Recently, though, it seems as if more and more publishing houses from around the world have realized about the vigour of this invisible literature.

But it is not as if the interest of the Anglosphere is that little. English is still the third or fourth language to which most Catalan books have been translated. (Obviously Catalan shouldn't be compared to Spanish, but to languages of a similar size: Swedish, Czech, Greek, Hungarian...) It's rather the choice of the translated works what surprised me. But I'm convinced this will be gradually solved.

I'm a reader of world literature, translated into English of course. I've tried to find examples of Catalan literature in English but, outside of a few examples (poems, short folk tales and such) in Spanish anthologies, there's not much that I've been able to find. There aren't any particular publishing firms that specialize in English translations of Catalan books and the Catalans who write in English that I've found tend to be slightly on the amateur side and usually located online (i.e. I've got an e-book that this fellow wrote, in English, about the British involvement in the Catalonia region during the War of the Spanish Succession). Ties in with my interest in European history as it leads up to the American Revolution and in European literature in general. Try introducing Cervantes or Malory or some other noted European writer to the usual American idiot, people used to Harry Potter or those awful Twilight books, and you can see why I usually won't talk to people about what I'm reading.

[Comte Arnau]

Teresa Pàmies, an intellectual woman who had to live in exile but started to write when she came back to Catalonia in the '70s, has died today in Granada at the age of 93.



I've searched online one of her first and best-known works, Testament a Praga (1970), which she wrote in collaboration with her father. And yes, apparently it exists in English.