Shelf Unbound October/November 2013 October 2013 | Page 11

trusting the criteria and decisions
of Heather Cleary and Margaret
Carson (they have translated my
books). Sometimes, during a translation a question makes me review
phrases or paragraphs in the original version, and almost always I
discover I have not been very clear.
I have the impression that every
writer has the privilege of being more
or less ambiguous
(not many take
advantage of it).
But that privilege
does not permeate to foreign languages. Therefore,
you have to pay
a price; the price
is translation, and
the translator is
the only one capable of permeating that privilege. Otherwise, the
review of the works to clarify to the
translator the significance or textuality is the most absurd experience I have gone through. As if the
translator were the guardian of the
palace and I had to find the password to enter.

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