One of the most difficult texts to translate is the literary one. In these, not only do you have to transmit the message, but also what the writers refer to as the “spirit”.
A literary work, unlike a scientific text, not only gives information; it sets a rhythm of reading and allows us to play with language in order to create an atmosphere. On more than one occasion reading allows us to escape and forget many problems in that the text occupies all of our minds. This is achieved by creating this “spirit” or literary rhythm.
The translator of literary texts has to be able to provoke these sensations in the reader of the new language.
Let’s imagine for a moment how the ’s novel, The Road would be if translated to Spanish: punctuation would be added and the scenes would be separated one by one in order to make it more comprehensible. This of course would be a very different work and it would lose its “spirit”.
There doesn’t exist a secret formula for translating and in these types of translations the translation memories help somewhat. Therefore, the only way to prepare ourselves for this type of work is through reading. Read, read, and read until you can read no more. By doing so we will be prepared not only to rescue the ‘spirit’ of each novel, but we will also be able to transform our way of writing and conform the work to what the original author wanted to convey.