​© Gaby Jongenelen Photography for CELA EU

Ana Cristino
​Emerging translator Italian into Portuguese

'Translating literature is something very special. You’re not just converting a text from one language into another. It’s not language in isolation. It demands heart.'

Ana Cristino (1973) was born in Leiria and moved to Coimbra to pursue academic studies in 1991. She became a single mother in early 1994, and she could only go back to college in 2006 to finish her studies. She now holds a pre-Bologna Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures (Portuguese and English Studies) and a Specialization in Translation, and she has completed three-year study of Italian language. Languages and writing have always been her passion, and translation makes it possible to work with both. So, after 15 years working for several tax offices, at the end of 2010 she took a leap of faith and started a new career.

​Ana now works as a freelance translator and proofreader. She translates from English, Italian, French, and Spanish into Portuguese. Currently, she is also working with subtitling. Ana shares her life with her son, three amazing cats and a handful of true friends. She is a very reserved person and avoids the spotlight at all costs. Besides translation, her dream is writing, and one day she will also take that leap of faith and try to be published.

‘It’s disconcerting to be a part of the CELA project,’ Ana Cristino explains. ‘The project really focuses on the translator, on our craft. There’s the awareness that it’s not just writers who create something, but translators too. I’m not used to that. I want my work to be noticed, whereas I myself prefer to disappear. I’m a perfectionist; I want to produce a flawless translation at all times. That’s why literature is such a challenge. I also translate contracts, articles and legal texts and I like doing that, but the translation of a short story or a novel requires more. Translating literature is something very special. You’re not just converting a text from one language into another. It’s not language in isolation. It demands heart. A translator who uses his or her soul.’

Education

​Licenciate degree (pre-Bologna Process) in Modern Languages and Literatures (Portuguese and English), from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra

Postrgraduate degree in Translation, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra

CELA live dates

Lev – Literatura em Viagem, Portugal, 10-12 May 2019

Contact

​Connecting Emerging Literary Artists: noortje@wintertuin.nl