​© Gaby Jongenelen Photography for CELA EU

Paula Caballero
Emerging translator Italian into Spanish

'Translation is a beautiful profession. You enter a state that’s comparable to swimming. You forget everything, and for a brief moment you rise above your work.' 

Paula Caballero (1983) holds a Bachelor’s degree in Classic Philology and a Master’s degree in Literary Translation (University of Malaga). In 2010 she was awarded a research grant at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC). In 2016 she obtained her European PhD in Classic Philology at the Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2008 she has developed her professional career in the fields of literary translation, research in Classic Philology and teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. As a literary translator from Italian into Spanish she works for several Spanish publishing houses.

‘Translation is a beautiful profession. You enter a state that’s comparable to swimming. You forget everything, and for a brief moment you rise above your work. You forget your surroundings, your diary, a lunch appointment. You keep thinking: let’s finish this word, this sentence, just this one page,’ Paula Caballero explains. ‘At home I have a small shelf of complementary copies of the books I’ve translated. They’re the copies the publisher sends you afterwards,’ says Caballero. ‘I haven’t read a single one of them. No, I’m afraid that if I open them I might find a mistake. It’s an irrational fear, I know, but still: I keep aiming for a perfect translation.’

Selected translations

La vida en tiempo de paz by Francesco Pecoraro (Original title: La vita in tempo di pace) (Periférica 2018)

Demasiada libertad sexual os convertirá en terroristas by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Original title: Saggi sulla politica e sulla società) (Errata Naturae, 2014)

Nueva york by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Original title: Pasolini rilegge Pasolini) (Errata Naturae, 2011)

CELA live dates

Hay Festival Segovia, Spain, 22 September 2018

Contact

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists: noortje@wintertuin.nl