Matthias Friedrich: "Verdaguer's continued popularity has been an absolute surprise"

After seeing an advertisement in a group of literary translators, German literary translator Matthias Friedrich decided to embark on a residency in Vil·la Joana without knowing anything about it. This experience turned out to be a unique opportunity to work on the translation of Picadura de Barcelona, an essay by Adrià Pujol Cruells that deals with the cultural situation in post-Olympic Barcelona. Friedrich describes the author’s Catalan as ‘extremely rich’ and explains how he had to ‘foreignize’ the German language in order to create an equivalent to Catalan linguistic phenomena, a challenge he has tackled with creativity and dedication.

During his stay, Friedrich took advantage of the serenity of Vil·la Joana – the place where the poet Jacint Verdaguer spent his last years – to solve various translation challenges, such as word games and allusions to texts that were difficult to find. The visit guided by Teresa Macià introduced him to the history of the space and the popularity of the ‘national poet of Catalonia’, a phenomenon that surprised him, since in Germany, he says, national poets are treated with a formality that he finds boring. ‘Minstrels singing Goethe‘s verses would be barbaric there’, informs the translator.

One of Friedrich’s highlights was his meeting with Adrià Pujol Cruells, during which they discussed translation, current Catalan literature and the specific challenges of Picadura de Barcelona. The German hopes to return to Barcelona as a ‘translator-tourist’ and continue his exploration of the Catalan literary world, possibly with a new residency organised by the Institut Ramon Llull. Meanwhile, he continues to assist his American colleague Max Lawton with the translation of Michael Lentz‘s Schattenfroh and has plans to translate the novel Jo! Memòries d’un metge filòsof by Prudenci Bertrana, an author who, he says, is practically unknown in Germany.

More information about the residences in Vil·la Joana, in this link.