We already have Ulysses in Basque by James Joyce. On September 7, the editorial Igela presented the translation of the work considered the summit of 20th century literature. Xabier Olarra has done so and, given the peculiarities and difficulties of the text, it seems that it will be a milestone in the literary translation to the Basque country.

The intention of the Irish writer to translate her most praised work into Basque is not that of yesterday, as explained by Olarra himself when presenting her book in Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea. Among other things, Gabriel Aresti was ahead of an important part of the work, but in a control of the Civil Guard he withdrew it.

Many years later, the need for this translation was made public again. Olarra remembered with humor two literary dinners in company. The topic was in the air, it had to be done, but the translation was ready to intervene at the table, until at the second dinner it was addressed by Olarra himself: they included it in the list of publications, they would do it. And when the Tolosarra translator withdrew from the obligations that secure the bread of every day, he got into the task of translating the novel into the Basque language.

It was 2012. Olarra gave a period of ten years to carry out the work, so that he could translate to Euskera a text with many difficulties at a rate of 500 characters a day. It subsequently received a subsidy from the European Union for the promotion of literary translations and thereby a time limit, June 2015.

Commented edition and some specialties

The work is over and is already here for the reader: Igela has prepared an issue with contributions from several researchers who have analyzed Ulises. Not only that, to better understand the structure of Ulysses was added the scheme that Joyce had prepared to his friend Carlo Linati, known as the “Linati scheme”, at the end of the edition in Euskera, but also an analysis of the rhetorical figures of the seventh episode of the novel.

Therefore, the Basque edition it uses also has a specificity: although it is written in unified Basque, the numerous English records that the novel uses in episode 14 of the original version also required other sources, from classic Basque texts to the current language – English does it from the imitation of Latin to the language of the Dublin neighborhoods.

Olarra’s decision to differentiate gender from the protagonists can also mean: returning from English, to overcome the barrier of the “he” and the inseparable “she”, the determinants that refer to the women of Ulises will have an accent mark – for example, “oura”. Therefore, the translator has been brave. The work demanded it.