Lost and found IN TRANSLATION

Pasuree Luesakul paves the way in making Latin American literature accurate and accessible in the Thai language

For fans of foreign literature, nothing kills the joy of reading more than knowing that the translated book which you are reading contains wrong meanings and phonetic mistakes — the names of people and places that are unrecognisable when you repeat them to native speakers. Of course, the translator does his or her job in giving you the basic and necessary information such as the names of the country, a general understanding of why A loves or hates B and getting inside the intrigue of the character’s emotions, such as love (of course), hate and other forms of emotional disenfranchisement.

But how can bookworms be satisfied when the aesthetic beauty and sensibility in the sounds of names, as well as the cultural content, are diminished, or at least watered down during the translation process?

Unfortunately, those mistakes are almost inevitable when translating a book from one language to another. The faux pas are likely to increase when the book is translated from an already translated version. Indeed, most translated books of non-English writers in Thailand are indirect translations from the English versions.

“Ideally, the book translator should translate directly from the original language of the book and the translator should at least have consulted native speakers about the names, the culture and cultural context of the book,” said Asst Prof Pasuree Luesakul, director of the Centre of Latin America Studies at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Arts. Pasuree is a recipient of this year’s Phraya Anuman Rajadhon’s Award, the prestigious prize received by book translators, as a result of her work Sood Korb Loek ( The Edge of The World). The original name of the book was Finisterre. It was translated into Thai from the original Spanish version and addresses the history of Argentina. It was penned by the esteemed Argentine writer María Rosa Lojo. The translation project received support from a translation fund provided by the Argentinian embassy in Thailand.

Finisterre is a showcase of ideal translation as the translator works from the original language and has a chance to consult with the author. Fluent in the Spanish language, Pasuree received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Salamanca, the oldest varsity in Spain. At master’s level, she studied the anthropology of Latin American culture and for her doctoral degree she did a thesis on the historical context of Latin American literature. The topic of her thesis, La Visión De Los Otros: Mujer, Historia Y Poder En La Narrativa De María Rosa Lojo, is based on the books of Rosa Lojo.

During the translation of Finisterre, Pasuree travelled to Buenos Aires to meet the writer and ended up staying at Rosa Lojo’s home for weeks. The writer did not only treat Pasuree as a member of the family, she also made sure that Pasuree understood the book and the historical and cultural context of Argentina inside and out. Pasuree was sent to Buenos Aires’ heritage museums just to see the carts and other objects from the 19th century which were described in the book.

Finisterre is about the Spanish immigrants who fled the Spanish-Franco War and moved to the “New World” in the 19th century. Like all imperialists, Spain expanded her territory in the same manner as the others did by purging the local indigenous people and having the new land repopulated by “white” Westerners.

“The book is a question about real civilisation and who indeed is the barbaric one? Is it the local indigenous people in this book who are barbaric, or is it Western civilisation?”