RESOURCES

Translations

Text and selection of content: Rosa María Rodríguez Abella

According to the latest statistics of the Index Translationum, the database compiled by Unesco which measures the number of texts translated from Spanish into other languages, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán is one of the most translated Spanish writers into foreign languages.

If we also consult the Instituto Cervantes’ Mapa Mundial de la Traducción, a tool which, for the moment, is only available in 10 languages (English, Mandarin Chinese, French, Arabic, Russian, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian), we find that 615 translations of Vázquez Montalbán have been recorded, compared to 1,386 for Cervantes, who is in first place.

The analysis of the information gathered in both platforms shows that, diachronically, the first work by Vázquez Montalbán to be translated into another language/culture was the essay Las noticias y la información (Salvat, 1973) published in Italian under the title L’informazione (Istituto geografico De Agostini, 1977). Later, also in Italian, the version of the political essay Manifesto subnormal (Manifesto subnormale, Pellicanolibri, 1980) was published. The third work to be translated was Los mares del Sur (Marquises, si vos rivages, Le Sycomore, 1980), the fourth novel in the Carvalho crime series, which in 1979 had won the Planeta prize and in France the prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (1981); as the writer himself acknowledges, both prizes probably influenced his international success:

(…) by chance a French critic, Michel Lebrun, bought it, liked it and was awarded a prize in France, which brought him great prestige. From here came the translations, including the Chinese translation, which I know circulates in photocopies (Moret 1997).

From this moment on, Vázquez Montalbán began his unprecedented success in foreign markets, especially in Italy, France, Germany, etc. However, from the point of view of translation, there is no doubt that both the Carvalho series and the rest of his work, with its rich and varied presence of cultural references of all kinds, represent a challenge for translators. Some studies on the stimulating challenge involved in the translation of Montalban’s work are:

• Rodríguez Abella, Rosa Marúa: “Retraducir a Manuel Vázquez Montalbán: el caso de Los mares del Sur“: Oslo, CEMVM, 4 (2019): 17-36 https://journals.uio.no/MVM/article/view/7578
• Magdalena Tosik: “Algunos aspectos del universo carvalhiano sometidos a la traducción”. Oslo, CEMVM, 3 (2017): 45-62 https://journals.uio.no/MVM/article/view/5962
• Rosa María Rrodríguez Abella: “Problemática de la equivalencia translémica español-italiano a través de una novela de Manuel Vázquez Montalbán”. Oslo, CEMVM, 2 (2015): 75-97 https://journals.uio.no/MVM/article/view/2533
• Rosa María Rodríguez Abella: “Un delitto per Pepe Carvalho: referencias culturales y traducción “: Oslo, CEMVM, 1 (2013): 63-86 https://journals.uio.no/MVM/article/view/595

Resources on the culture of Spanish-speaking countries

He also wrote many works characterizing the culture of Spanish-speaking countries, above all Spain, but also the culture of Argentina. In addition, a prologue that he wrote about the situation of women during the Franco regime is especially noteworthy.

• Crónica sentimental de España. Barcelona: Editorial Lumen, 1971
• Introduction to the Cancionero general.
• “La literatura en la construcción de la ciudad democràtica” (excerpt). A: LiTeCa.
• Sobre la probable inexistencia del pueblo. Conference (1999)
• Maquis: Guerrilla antifranquista. Un tema en la literatura de la memoria española.
• El escriba y la ciudad democrática.
• Acordes transatlánticos: Vázquez Montalbán y el tango como educación sentimental y política.
• Prologue to the book by Carmen Alcalde (1996) Mujeres en el franquismo: Exiliadas, nacionalistas y opositoras (Women in Francoism: exiles, nationalists, and resistors) (Vol. 3). Flor del Viento Ediciones.