Victor Obiols was asked three weeks ago by the Barcelona publisher Univers to translate ‘The Hill We Climb’, the poem that Amanda Gorman presented at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden. The Catalan version would get a foreword from Oprah Winfrey. But suddenly, when his translation was done, Obiols got a message that he was “not the right person.”
“They did not question my qualifications, but they are looking for someone with a different profile, a young activist, preferably a black person,” the 60-year-old Obiols told AFP news agency. Obiols, who, among other things, has translated all of Shakespeare’s work into Catalan, takes it seriously. “If I can’t translate a poet because she’s female, young and black, a 21st century American, then I can’t translate Homer because I’m not a Greek from the eighth century BC. Or I could not have translated Shakespeare because I am not an Englishman of the sixteenth century. ”
Univers publishing house says it received a message from the American Viking Books after Obiols had finished his translation. The Americans want Gorman’s poem to be translated – if possible – by a female activist of African American origin. Obiols has been paid for his work.
Two weeks ago, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld also returned the translation assignment after there was criticism that a white author would translate the poem. Rijneveld responded to the commotion last weekend with a poem.
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