Bilingual Latgalian/English poetry book published in London

Take note – story published 3 years ago

London publishing house Francis Boutle Publishers has issued a bilingual poetry volume "Pādejais modeļs / The Last Model" in English and Latgalian, Latvian Radio reported November 6.

The book includes works of the Latgalian poets Ligija Purinasa, Raibīs/Spotty (Oskars Orlovs) and Ingrida Tārauda. The English translation was done by the American translator Džeids Vils (Jayde Will). 

Latgalian is a Baltic language spoken by 150,000 - 200,000 people mainly in eastern Latvia, particularly in Latgale region.  Over the past few years, a total of four poetry volumes in Latgalian have been nominated for the Latvian Literature Annual Award. Although the number appears to be unremarkable at first, it shows increasing attention and appreciation for the performance of the Latgalian authors. 

Translator and writer Džeids Vils told Latvian Radio how the translation of poetry in Latgalian took place: “I knew there was some particular difficulty with the vocabulary and with the composing of sentences. Then we talked to one of the founders of the language house. The language house functions both as a library and as a venue for events and language and book clubs. We talked to him and he was happy to arrange Latgalian language courses, I visited those together with five or six Latvians, and that was very good, because I got good grounds so I could translate more quickly and better."

He found that the translation process itself was in close contact with the authors:

“I always ask a lot of questions, because I may think I understand, but there can be something that I don't know, maybe the author understands his own text differently than the reader.”

Francis Boutle Publishers focuses on rare languages, also those on the brink of extinction, such as Welsh and Catalan. Despite the narrow niche in which the publisher works, the translator pointed out that the purpose is to draw attention to the representatives of rare languages in literature.

 

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