Thomas Ligotti in Spanish

J

Juan Borgia

Mannikin
The situation of Horror literature in Spain is desperate. I keep telling my friends at Spain that there is a whole new world of horror and dark fiction to be found in the States (and elsewhere) with names such as Ligotti, Cardin and Cisco (among others), yet Ligotti is an almost unknown name in there. Since I'm currently stationed in northeastern Mexico, it is very easy for me to find all these authors by just paying a visit to the States (it's just a two hours drive!) or buying them through American on-line stores.

This far I have only found four Ligotti stories translated to Spanish/Castilian distributed in four different anthologies:

"The Eye of the Lynx", translated as "El ojo del Lince" in Caricias de Horror 2

"The last Feast of Harlequin", translated as "La última fiesta de Arlequin" in Cthulhu 2000

"The Frolic", translated as "La Diversión", in
Los Mejores Relatos de Terror de Fantasy Tales

and

"Alice's Last Adventure", translated as "La última aventura de Alicia" in Pesadilla

These four anthologies are Spanish translations of English language anthologies.

But this is, of course, not enough, and it definitely does not serve to showcase the true gems or the Ligottian corpus... Anyone knows if by mere chance someone has plans of actually translating a collection or two of Ligotti's fiction? (I'm thinking in the lines of "Grimscribe" and "Noctuary", perhaps)
 
Hallo Señor Borgia. Nice to see another Spaniard around here. A new victory over our chronic provincialism!
I don´t think there are plans to translate Ligotti into Spanish. However, his work would fit nicely into "Valdemar" and "Siruela" publishing houses.
Another thing is how to translate Ligotti, a most baroque, exquisite and subtle writer. Torres Oliver, Lovecraft translator have an excellent reputation, but I think he is a bit overrated.
If you want to check why some people think he made things too easy for himself when he translated Lovecraft you can read this article (in Spanish).
http://orbita.starmedia.com/~jornadaslovecraft/articulos/problemastrad.html
In anycase, translating Ligotti would be a challenge as well as a pleasure for anyone loving both languages and the arduous work of "translation".
 
Hasn't the short story collection "999" (edited by Al Sarrantonio) been translated into Spanish? There is this Ligotti novella "The Shadow, the Darkness". The anthology is available in many languages, even in Polish, thus making "TSTD" the only work by Ligotti which I could read in my native language.
 
Hallo Slawek! Google only gives one hit for Sarrantonio's Anthology "999" in Spanish, and the text's author is talking about the original English collection. So I don't think it was translated.
 
It’s really annoying how expensive it is to read Thomas Ligotti in Spanish.

For example, the complete Songs of a Dead Dreamer (including The Agonic Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein) costs 26 euros in the Spanish edition, but it ends up being even more expensive for those of us in the Americas (Chile, in my case). Grimscribe as a standalone volume costs 24 euros, yet the original English Penguin Random House edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer includes Grimscribe and is cheaper! I know the Spanish volumes are hardback and all, but… it’s still annoying to a certain extent.

And even with the new press publishing Thomas Ligotti, prices remain high.

Still, I’m glad I was able to read Noctuary and The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, even if the latter came with that Dead Silence puppet cover…

If you want to check the Spanish editions by Valdemar:

Ligotti, Thomas - Editorial Valdemar

www.valdemar.com www.valdemar.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top