of Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, and especially Gabriel García
Marquez. But he also translates from Portuguese. In his highly
entertaining memoir, If This Be Treason: Translation and its
Discontents (2005), he confesses:
"At risk of offending or dismaying many friends who speak Spanish, I
must admit here and now that I prefer Portuguese, especially in the
Brazilian oral mode with all its unique sounds and rhythms. Some of
the sounds, like the open O and the dark L, are closer to Slavic
noises than to those of other Romance languages."
"As I have noted, Portuguese, and most especially the Brazilian
variety, is eminently supple, matching English in this respect,
unlike French and Spanish, and therefore it renders translation
equally free and easy, less restricted. With Spanish I have to walk
that narrow line between tight and loose structure, careful not to
betray one language or the other. With Portuguese I can let myself
go, in a manner of speaking, careful to avoid the other vicissitudes
involved."
