“Una semana de siete días” as “A Week is Seven Days”: Translating Magali García Ramis for my Senior Thesis Project

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2006

Type of Work

Department

Spanish

Program

Bachelor's Degree

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Abstract

“Una semana de siete días as A Week is Seven Days” is my reflection on my senior thesis project, in which I translated the above story by Magali García Ramis from Spanish into English. During my tenure at Goucher I became fascinated with the field of literary translation and the question of how a translator makes literature written in one language and one culture accessible to people of another language and culture. The thesis project was an ideal opportunity in which to explore this question, not only because it gave me an entire year to grapple with scholars’ divergent ideas about translation, but also because I had the expertise of three esteemed Goucher faculty, Professors Cristina Saenz de Tejada, Irline François, and Michelle Tokarczyk to guide me along the way. In addition, devoting my year to one short piece of fiction allowed me to learn the craft of literary translation through trial and error and to give A Week is Seven Days the number of edits it needed to become a worthy translation of García Ramis’s story. My goal in undertaking the project was to give the English-speaking reader at least some idea of the profound strength and heart-rending beauty of García Ramis’s writing, and I am glad that, through this publication, people will have the chance to read the translation and decide for themselves whether I achieved my goal.