Poetry Translations during Political Transformation: The Case of Spanish

Abstract

This paper explores the changes that took place in publishing poetry translated from Spanish into Estonian between 1988 and 2017, a period of profound political transformation. Within the framework of this research, ‘Spanish’ is understood as the Spanish-related literary system, encompassing also the co-official languages of Spain and indigenous languages of Spanish-speaking America, thus also the role of Salvador Espriu and the first direct translation from K’iche’ are discussed. An overview is given of general trends in publishing during the 1990s and early 2000s. The cultural and political importance of the revised editions published in the 1990s is discussed. For poetry translations from Spanish, the new era started in 2009 and is characterised by bilingual editions and the predominance of academic publications, but also by self-publishing and the emergence of a new generation of translators (Carolina Pihelgas, Mariliin Vassenin).