How exactly do translators work?

Daniel Hahn has translated three novels by Angolan novelist José Eduardo Agualusa, Creole, The Book of Chameleons – which won the 2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – and most recently My Father's Wives.

Throughout the process of translating a fourth Agulausa book, Estação das Chuvas (Rainy Season), from October 2008 to April 2009, Daniel wrote a diary about the process from start to finish. The diary appeared exclusively on this website, but will also appear as an appendix to Rainy Season when it is published by Arcadia.

19 April
The last post

13 April
Rounding up

8 April
The edit

2 April
Jacket design

30 March
Done!

29 March
So very close ...

10 March
Consulting the oracle

26 February
Still nothing from JEA ...

9 February
While we wait ...

23 January
Breaking my duck

15 January 2009
Book 2 – in English

15 December
A little break

12 December
More comments ... and replies

28 November
Pe? Peo? Peopl?

20 November
Advocating for the book

14 November
Two communist puns

10 November
Finding a voice

5 November
A little something to worry about

23 October
Answering your questions

20 October
Tackling the first draft

17 October
Agualusa's literary DNA

10 October
To footnote or not to footnote

7 October
Anticipating general problems

29 September
What this blog is for

If you would like to comment on this blog, email translationblog@booktrust.org.uk

Daniel Hahn (pictured right, with champagne) is a freelance writer, editor, researcher and translator.

As well as working with José Eduardo Agualusa, he has translated the autobiography of Brazilian footballer, Pelé, which was shortlisted for Best Sports Book of 2006 at the British Book Awards.

He has been assistant editor or acting editor of The Oxford Companion to English Literature (with Margaret Drabble); The Good Fiction Guide (with Jane Rogers); The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (with Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer); and most recently,  The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland (with Nicholas Robins).

With Leonie Flynn and Susan Reuben he has co-edited a multi-award-winning series of reading guides for young readers.

Since 2002 Daniel has worked regularly with Human Rights Watch. He is also a member of the Council of Shakespeare’s Globe and the Writers in Translation Committee at English PEN. He is on the committee of the Translators Association; on the literature committee of the International Translators Federation; and on the non-executive board of Arcadia Books.

As well as translating Estação das Chuvas, Daniel is currently researching and writing two short works of literary biography for publication March 2009; and has begun researching a new work of narrative history for provisional completion in spring 2010.

José Eduardo Agualusa (left, with champagne) was born in Huambo in 1960 and is one of the leading literary voices from Angola, and from the Portuguese language today. His first book, The Conspiracy, a historical novel set in São Paulo de Luanda between 1880 and 1911, paints a fascinating portrait of a society marked by opposites, in which only those who can adapt have any chance of success.

Creole, which has evoked comparisons with Bruce Chatwin's The Viceroy of Ouidah, was awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature, and was Agualusa's first book to appear in English; while The Book of Chameleons won the 2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

The third Agualusa novel to appear in English, My Father's Wives, was published in summer 2008. Agualusa divides his time between Angola, Brazil and Portugal.

Estação das Chuvas © José Eduardo Agualusa
English translation © Daniel Hahn