GUR CAKE: Translation, Editing Services, Academic Writing and Reviewing, Conference/Workshop Organising

GUR CAKE EDITIONS was established in 2007
General Editor: Aintzane L. Mentxaka

Main translator/editor: Dr. A. L. Mentxaka, PhD from University College Dublin, NUI Postdoctoral Fellow.
Currently teaching history and theory of theatre, English literature, and Modern Art history and theory the American College Dublin. I have experience working as film programmer for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Libraries, and Arts Educator-Mediator for the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Previously Lecturer at University College Dublin, and Assistant Lecturer at St Patrick's College, Dublin City University, and for the Arts Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Ireland.
http://www.ucd.ie/research/people/englishdramafilm/draintzanelegarreta/

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TRANSLATION SERVICES

Language Proficiency:
Fluent in English, Spanish, and Basque.
I specialise in literary and academic translation from Spanish into English.

Areas of Expertise:
My main background is Literature, and I have expertise in producing translations of short literary texts, and in translating literary criticism. I also have specialised knowledge in other areas, such as  film studies, philosophy, political science, history, sociology, psychology, pedagogy, arts and crafts, visual arts, and cookery.

Ethos:
My translation practice is guided by respect for the original, in spirit as well as in content. If someone’s writing is rather poetic, or slightly pedantic, or a little convoluted, or heavy on the technical side, I always endeavour to retain the original style as far as it is feasible without compromising clarity.

Literary Translation:
I am particularly interested in the translation of texts which straddle the literary. One of my commissions was the translation into English of a lengthy, dense, and somewhat lyrical letter by an experimental visual artist to a well-known filmmaker. The letter (a sample is included below) consisted of a discussion on film and philosophy, pondering on objectivity, representability, and the specificity of the medium of film. I have considerable experience in creative writing in the English language -- I have published a book of poetry. I have written several plays, including 'A Pair of New Eyes', premiered at the Sean O'Casey Theatre Dublin in November 2013.

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SAMPLE OF TRANSLATION

translation:
“This brings to mind that comment of yours about Giuseppe De Santis defining neorealism as a cinema of Christianity or related to Christianity. I guess in that, a kind of expiatory gesture which tries to redeem cinema. In Rossellini we would see it in the way he films beyond that which is filmed by the piety-driven gesture itself, the technical deconstruction which operates there (what you were saying about the intrusion of chance, of the sequence-shot, of non-professional actors…), a disarticulation of the mechanism of apprehension of the visible, giving back world to the world. Here technology operates in favour of the dead moments which are inherent to the event. (I also think that painting has always sensed this. Curiously one has the impression that neorealism takes a turn towards a certain stasis in framing, at least in relation to the speed of inserts in the frames of contemporary American cinema).”

original text:
“Me viene a la cabeza aquello que comentaste sobre Giuseppe De Santis definiendo al neorrealismo como un cine de lo cristiano o en relación a lo cristiano. Adivino ahí una especie de gesto exculpatorio que intenta redimir el cine. En Rossellini sería el cómo filma más que lo que filma el gesto pietista en sí, la deconstrucción técnica que opera (lo que decías de la intrusión del azar, del plano secuencia, de actores no profesionales…), una desarticulación del mecanismo de apresamiento de lo visible devolviéndole mundo al mundo. Aquí la técnica opera a favor de los tiempos muertos que son inherentes al acontecimiento (también creo que esto la pintura lo ha intuido siempre. Curiosamente da la impresión de que el neorrealismo se vuelve hacia cierta estaticidad en el encuadre, al menos en referencia a la velocidad de insertos en el encuadre del cine americano de la época).”
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Academic Translation:
Translation has been an important part of my work as an academic, and it continues to be so. Translation was crucial during the research for my PhD thesis, which was concerned with the Spanish links in the work of the Irish novelist Kate O’Brien. My investigation required the sourcing, research, and translation into English of a great number of texts published in the Spanish language (and some in the Basque language). My book 'Kate O’Brien y Euskadi' (tr. Kate O’Brien and the Basque Country), published by Academica Pres, is written in Spanish and English, and it includes extended translations from English into Spanish, and a discussion of the translation problems encountered by translators of O’Brien’s work into Spanish. My book 'Kate O’Brien and the Fiction of Identity', published by McFarland, includes very many examples of translated texts in different styles and formats, from letters, history books, novels, and poetry, to newspaper articles and philosophical treatises. My forthcoming book, 'Intermedial Modernism', includes a case study of Basque modernism which required the sourcing and translation of a number of texts from Spanish into English.

Teaching Translation Studies:
As a teacher in English literature at St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, Dublin City University, I included an introduction to Translation issues, which sought to make the students aware of the relevance of accuracy, and the pitfalls and potential to the open-endedness of language. Rather than being ‘stand-alone’ classes on Translation Studies, these classes were designed to supplement teaching on Critical Theory. For example, we considered the various available English translations of the famous opening of Simone de Beauvoir’s compendium 'The Second Sex', originally written in the French language, and this exercise was framed within a discussion of Feminist Criticism. For example, we compared Brendan Kennelly’s and Seamus Heaney’s English versions of Sophocles’ play 'Antigone', originally written in classic Greek, and this exercise was framed within a discussion of Postcolonial Theory. In both cases, we looked at how a specific bias in the translator can enrich or distort an original text.

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EDITING SERVICES

Areas of Expertise:
(a) Editing academic books, essays, articles, research projects
(b) Editing creative writing such as fiction and short stories
(c) Editing poetic prose/poetry/song-writing

Editing and Reviewing:
I have extensive experience in editing. In my capacity as General Editor of the artisan publishing house Gur Cake Editions, I have undertaken extensive revisions to a variety of texts, including a trilingual philosophical diary (with English as the main language) by a Japanese author. In addition, I have revised specialised English essays by university lecturers whose first language was Finish, Dutch, and Spanish. In a number of occasions, I have also proofread and edited academic writing by lecturers and researchers whose first language is English. I am a peer reviewer for several academic journals, including Studies in Travel Writing, Irish University Review, Etudes Irlandaises, European Messenger: Hournal of the European Society for the Study of English, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, and I am also a reviewer for FWSA online and other non-academic publications. I am also a correspondent for TSN (Transatlancid Studies Network) journal.  As you can see from the following sample, for my editing work I am happy to provide explanations for editing decisions, either in footnotes or in a separate document.

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SAMPLE OF EDITING

Note from the editor (GUR CAKE) to the author of the book 'Postcards from the Damned'.

Diary entry 15 Feb 2005: “...my factuality”

You wrote ‘factuality’ (which does not exist), I wrote ‘facticity’ (an existentialist term, I think meaning ‘factual existence’). Did you want to create a neologism? (if so, apologies). Did you mean ‘factitiousness’ (=made by art)? After considering the journal entry a few times I decided that you possibly meant ‘the fact of my existence’. The word ‘factuality’ can of course be kept if you want; it is a nice sounding word, and I am sure that readers will associate it with ‘the fact of existence’. ‘Facticity’ may be too obscure... for those readers who are not familiar with existentialism, but since the journal is steeped in philosophy, that is their problem! My suggestion for this particular entry is ‘facticity’, but I have used other alternatives to‘factuality’ throughout the Journal, according to the context of each specific journal entry.

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WRITING SERVICES

Areas of Expertise:
(a) Writing short texts on art and culture for e-zines, magazines, radio and television
(b) Writing film blurbs and film reviews
(c) Writing press releases for artistic and cultural events

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SAMPLE OF WRITING:
(Blurb for the film "Doña Herlinda and Her Son", written for the Dublin Film Qlub)

"An entertaining comedy-drama about a traditional Catholic family trying to adjust to the changing (gay) times.

Rodolfo is a doctor from a rather proper Mexican family. When he falls for a penniless music student, Ramón, he realizes that he may be the love of his life. But what is he going to do about the constant nagging of his devoted mother, who insists that he must get married to a nice girl? Rodolfo comes up with an unorthodox solution, which will derive into more complications, and will inspire an even less orthodox solution, until the whole idea of the traditional family unit has been blown up in a thousand pieces. The first mainstream Latin-American feature film with a gay theme, “Doña Herlinda and her Son” is a great satire of prim posh fakers, with the added unintentional amusement value (for Europeans) of the slightly overplayed style of acting which is a convention of Latin-American television soap operas. Leaving Rodolfo’s family arrangements aside, the film is worth watching for the extended open-air dancing scene alone, a shocking reminder of the full stylistic and choreographic horrors we indulged in the eighties."
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