I was not sure what I had expected when I started reading this book. The first surprise was how the book was very readable. Secondly I did not have a clue what was involved in translating a book from one language to another. As I have had many years of Spanish and German I knew that it is really not possible to do a word for word translation; one ends up with a text that lacks life.

Daniel documents the problems and the joys of translating a text from Chilean Spanish into English (British English). To make problems more interesting the author is known for both her subtly and ambiguity in her writing. I leave it to the reader to follow this conversation.

What I got out of this book is a new appreciation of well written books and that one (namely) me should not just read for entertainment but also how the author plays with the language. Highly recommend the book. ( )

The Naked Translator
Review of the Charco Press paperback (April 2022) based on the original online diary (January - May 2021)

Doing that one chapter with much more care than my usual first drafts allowed me to learn things about the intensity of the writing, about the rhythms and repetitions and the precisions of the writing, which will help me to make my decisions as I go on. Well-written books teach you how to read them. How to translate them, too, I think.
[...]
One of the difficulties (as so often) is coming up with something that is helpfully familiar to the reader, so they understand the weight of what you're talking about, but also which isn't loaded with associations that are in fact un-helpful and potentially distracting.

Catching Fire is translator Daniel Hahn's observations recorded during his translation process of Chilean writer Diamela Eltit's novel Jamás el fuego nunca (2013) (the original Spanish title literally translates as Never the Fire Never) published later as Never Did the Fire (April 2022). It reveals all the uncertainties and possible inaccuracies of the translation process with Hahn being open enough to even display his own initial efforts where not all issues can be solved immediately, but for which many require additional research.

See photograph at https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/583cb891be659429d113b712/161167034...
Title page of Daniel Hahn's rough draft translation of Diamela Eltit's "Never Did the Fire". Image sourced from Charco Press.

This research can entail everything from understanding the different possible usages and meanings of words in their original language (Spanish in this case) and then the nuances or possible idiomatic character of the locality (Chile in this case). It involves spotting areas where certain features of a writer's style become a recurring feature in a book and also where a particular word or phrase perhaps echoes throughout the book. It then requires turning all of that into a different language which perhaps does not share all of those usages and definitions, but for which you still have to make a decision on a best compromise.

I found this book to be completely intriguing. Partially this is because I dabble in translation myself, from my heritage language of Estonian into English. My experience is not extensive, it is mostly from poems or song lyrics and the occasional afterword, biography, or CD booklet note. There were still many recognizable aspects of the translation process which made me love Hahn's diary all the more. I think many readers of translations, and especially of Spanish to English translations, will be just as intrigued by it.

I read Catching Fire through my subscription to the Charco Press 2022 Bundle. Catching Fire is part of Charco Press' Untranslated series, a recent addition of original works in English alongside its base catalogue of translations of Latin American literature and its source language publications of Originales. ( )