Six professional translators who work from other romance languages into Hebrew will attend the seminar, which (along with other training sessions) is designed to enable them to translate literary works written originally in Catalan into Hebrew. This year’s participants all took part in the Barcelona seminar: Tal Nitzan, Yossi Tal, Lía Nirgad, Dory Manor, Rama Ayalon and Dorit Shilo. David Ginebra, Professor of Catalan at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ofir Feuerstein, a former Catalan student who is currently working on his first translation into Hebrew, the novel entitled Quanta, Quanta Guerra [War, So Much War] by Mercè Rodoreda.

Itai Ron is the professor responsible for the seminar course. Currently one of the main Catalan > Hebrew translators, he also taught the 2017 seminar. Catalan authors translated by Itai Ron include the novelists: Mercè Rodoreda, Montserrat Roig, Carme Riera, Albert Sánchez Piñol and Rafel Nadal, and poets: Salvador Espriu, Montserrat Abelló and Manuel Forcano.

Seminar Participants

Spanish into Hebrew translators

Lía Nirgad

This writer and translator teaches translation at the Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba (Israel). She translates from Spanish, English and German into Hebrew. Her Spanish translations include works by authors like Antonio Muñoz Molina, Manuel Puig and Carlos Ruiz Zafón. She received an Israeli Ministry of Culture award for her work.

Tal Nitzan

This poet, novelist, editor and translator specialises in Spanish and Latin American literature. She has translated over 80 works of poetry and fiction into Hebrew, by authors including Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel Delibes, Julio Cortázar and Roberto Bolaño. She has written several volumes of poetry, a novel, and books for young people and children. She has won the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s Translation Award on two separate occasions.

Yossi Tal

Graduated in European History and gained his translation diploma from the University of Tel Aviv. His translations include works by Mexican, Brazilian, Argentinian and Portuguese writers. His first translation from Catalan into Hebrew hits the shelves this November: Escenes de Barcelona, a selection of various short stories by Mercè Rodoreda, published by young Israeli publisher 9Lives Press.

French into Hebrew translators

Rama Ayalon

Ayalon graduated in Philosophy and French Literature from the University of Tel Aviv before working as a researcher at the Paris Diderot University. She has translated several classic and contemporary works of French philosophy and psychoanalysis into Hebrew along with novels by Marguerite Duras, Milan Kundera, Michel Houllebecq, Delphine de Vigan and Leïla Slimani.

Dory Manor

This poet, translator and editor has published four volumes of poetry. He founded the prestigious Ho! literary magazine and is Chief Editor of the Israeli programme for the Arts and Humanities. Manor has translated numerous classic French writers into Hebrew, including Descartes, Voltaire, Moliere, Flaubert, Baudelaire and Apollinaire. In 2019, Ho! magazine plans to publish an edition of Catalan poetry translated into Hebrew by Itai Ron that will include work by various authors.

Dorit Shiloh

Having gained a PhD in youth literature, this editor and critic translates from French into Hebrew. She teaches Biblical Hebrew at ENS Lyon and has translated both novels and academic publications. She is currently one of the editors of the National Library of Israel website. 

One of the main objectives of the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL) is to promote Catalan literature internationally. The role of translators and translation into other languages is key to this goal. Promoting all aspects of literary translation and training literary translators is therefore very important.

This seminar has been organised as part of IRL’s work to promote the translation of Catalan literature into other languages through a range of instruments.

The goal is to allow participants to translate works written originally in Catalan professionally, following further educational activities.

IRL also recently organised its first seminar on translating Catalan into Turkish. This pilot project was held in Barcelona and designed to make it easier for romance language translators to add Catalan to their portfolio of working languages.