Hispanic Literature in Estonian

The exhibition Hispanic Literature in Estonian has been compiled to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the speciality of Hispanic studies at the University of Tartu. It is dedicated to Estonian translators; more precisely, to those translators who translate from Spanish into Estonian. Naturally, it is also dedicated to Hispanic literature.

Luckily, there have been many of those who have translated Hispanic literature, and even more numerous are the books that they have mediated. Therefore, there was a wide selection of works to choose from, which, however, also increased the responsibility for the compilers of the exhibition. Not all of the most significant books could be fitted on the posters, and the same goes for the translators: inevitably, there are some that are not represented here. Thus, a selection has been made to include the most important translators, also bearing in mind the literary and cultural significance of the array of authors and their works. Neither was the chronological factor forgotten, so that the selected representatives would cover as varied periods of time as possible and, as a result, make this exhibition a sort of an overview of the history of Hispanic literature in Estonian. Originally, the intention was to select one book per author, but in the case of Gabriel García Márquez this proved to be impossible: he is represented by three novels, which, as a fact, also speaks volumes.

The first of the portrayed books was published in 1934, the last, in 2016. This gives us more than eighty years of the history of Hispanic literature in Estonian. These twenty-four books, however, are far from being the only valuable works that have been translated, edited, commented and published. This medley is based on both the contributions of the translators and the weight of the selected works and their authors.

Four translators, Aita Kurfeldt, Ain Kaalep, Jüri Talvet and Ruth Lias, stand out from the others for their special services and have their individual posters: Aita Kurfeldt and her Don Quijote and 100 Years of Solitude; Jüri Talvet and his contribution to Hispanic studies in Estonia, without which there would probably be no speciality of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Tartu, nor would this exhibition exist; Ain Kaalep and his poetry translations; Ruth Lias as an example of an extraordinarily diverse and prolific translator of the highest quality. The younger translators are, in part, already offspring of the speciality of Hispanic Studies at the University of Tartu (Maria Kall, Helina Aulis, Ruth Sepp, Triin Lõbus, Mari Laan and Klaarika Kaldjärv).

The compilers of this exhibition set out to portray these books just as they were: sometimes torn and worn, wrinkled and stained, because they had been read by real readers. What better fate could there be for a book! Enjoy your reading!