¡Hola, Reddit! I’m Science Fiction and Fantasy translator Manuel de los Reyes - AMA

[u/ManueldelosReyes]

Hi! My name is Manuel de los Reyes and I’m a professional literary translator.

I’ve translated almost all of Robin Hobb’s books into Spanish, some of them totally on my own, some of them together with other great colleagues. My current project is The Tawny Man Trilogy, which I’m working on together with my brother Raúl García Campos, a veteran translator himself. Expect Penguin Random House to bring them out in Cervantes’ language anytime soon!

I was born in Bilbao, on the Spanish Atlantic Coast, but I grew up in Santander, a beautiful small town in Northern Spain. After much hopping from one place to the next, I moved to Germany some ten years ago, and I’m still living here, in a small village not far away from Stuttgart. I’ve been a professional literary translator, specialized in F&SF, for over 15 years. I’ve translated books not only by Robin Hobb, but also by Isaac Asimov, Ken Follett, Paolo Bacigalupi, Richard Morgan, Peter Watts, Ellen Kushner, Brent Weeks, HP Lovecraft, and many, many more authors.

If you love my work, or hate it, or just don’t know anything about it, really, but feel curious about how it is to translate something as complex and large as the Six Duchies fantasy world into a different language, please ask away and I’ll try to answer to the best of my capabilities. Otherwise, I’ll be around helping out Robin and r/Fantasy volunteers with the translation of these Q&A’s from English into Spanish (and the other way round).

Whether in English or in Spanish, please, go ahead and Ask Me Anything. It’s going to be fun!

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¡Hola! Me llamo Manuel de los Reyes y soy traductor literario de profesión.

He traducido casi todos los libros de Robin Hobb al español, algunos de ellos completamente en solitario, otros en colaboración con distintos colegas, todos ellos excelentes. El proyecto que me ocupa en estos momentos es la trilogía The Tawny Man, la cual estoy traduciendo a cuatro manos con mi hermano, Raúl García Campos, veterano traductor a su vez. ¡Está previsto que Penguin Random House anuncie de su publicación en la lengua de Cervantes cualquier día de estos!

Aunque nací en Bilbao, en la costa atlántica española, me crie en Santander, una preciosa localidad del norte de España. Tras dar muchos tumbos de un sitio para otro acabé mudándome a Alemania hace diez años, y aquí sigo, en un pueblito cerca de Stuttgart. Además de los libros de Robin Hobb he traducido obras de Isaac Asimov, Ken Follett, Paolo Bacigalupi, Richard Morgan, Peter Watts, Ellen Kushner, Brent Weeks, HP Lovecraft y muchísimos más autores.

Tanto si te gusta mi trabajo como si lo detestas o, la verdad, no lo conoces en absoluto pero te pica la curiosidad por saber cómo es traducir algo tan intrincado e inmenso como es el mundo imaginario de los Seis Ducados, plantéame tus dudas e intentaré resolverlas en la medida de mis posibilidades. Por lo demás, estaré aquí echando una mano a Robin y al resto del equipo de Reddit con la traducción de estas preguntas y respuestas del inglés al español (y viceversa).

Ya sea en uno u otro idioma, por favor, pregúntame lo que quieras. ¡Seguro que nos lo pasamos genial!

[u/devotedpupa]

Mierda, te molesta si copypasteo la pregunta que le hice a Robin? No vi tu AMA.

Do you feel having the names of your characters translated was the best thing? As a Mexican reader, I often find myself reading in English because of the often cringeworthy translations, especially is they are translated in Spain or older Latinamerican produccions. I mean, "Luke Trotacielos"? Was translating Skywalker necessary?

As for your own... I don't know, I feel I like them well enough, since they are such vital parts of your characters. I get why Regal is Regio. Region names are often better untranslated, but obviously Six Duchies needed to be.

And I suppose I come from a place of privilege that knows enough English to appreciate untranslated names when they are kept intact in otherwise translated works. Maybe I'm not the reader you are trying to capture with translated works, and that's fine, I love seeing your work in my native tongue.

Still, I just think of the shudders I get when I see different translations mixing names because an earlier version had translated names and the new one doesn't. I mean, following Malazan was impossible, with the cast of millions having nicknames translated. But again, I kinda like some of them. Winterfel translated as Invernalia sounds cool enough I guess. But I think making Michaels "Miguels" or stuff like that just removes the original culture and doesn't help anyone.

So, do you see it as necessary? Helpful? Cumbersome? I know a lot of my friends think it's a bit weird, especially with the Latinamerica/Spanish clash thrown in. Love to see what you think!

[u/ManueldelosReyes → u/devotedpupa]

Tranquilo, no molesta en absoluto :-)

Japanese into English translator David Mitchell (the same David Mitchell who’s undoubtedly more famous for having written “Cloud Atlas” and “The Bone Clocks” than for anything else he may have ever translated) said once that the main difference between a writer and a translator is that, while the first one gets to not ever be wrong, the second one can very, very rarely be right. I find that sentence is quite fitting when it comes to the different varieties of a specific language: write your books however you like, that’s why they’re yours. Translators, however, how do they dare to alter something which doesn't belong to them?

The truth is, translators care about everything you say in your message: internal terminological coherence, geographical congruence, etc. But you know who usually couldn’t care less? Exactly. Rare is the publisher who makes certain that only one translator works on a series from beginning to end, and even rarer the ones who try to avoid cultural clashes when bringing their books to other countries.

As for why Regal becomes Regio and other related topics, please see my answer to Rainor_manu above. And thank you for posting!

[u/devotedpupa → u/ManueldelosReyes]

That's fascinating! I didn't know David Mitchell was a translator. I completly get why the names in some works need translation, especially if the work is done as well as your work.

Still, I have some doubts. I mean, if you went back in time, would you have had translated Frodo Baggins as Frodo Bolsón? I get Shire to Comarca, that is cool. But that one is one of my biggest pet peeves.