Kristín Guðrún Jónsdóttir and The Black Sheep and Other Fables by Augusto Monterroso
The Icelandic Translation Awards 2013 were presented on 23 April, Iceland's Day of the Book.
The selection committee was unanimous in its decision to present Kristín Guðrún Jónsdóttir with the Icelandic Association of Translation and Interpreters' translation prize for her translation of The Black Sheep and Other Fables.
It is a delight to have the chance to become familiar with this author, who was born in Guatemala in 1921 but lived and worked in Mexico, where he died in 2003.
Kristín Guðrún adapts the stories to an Icelandic textual style with elegance and sensitivity, while still remaining true to the original text.
With her translation, Kristín Guðrún Jónsdóttir has given us a literary gem so polished that it is hard to see how it could have been done better.”
Other translations nominated for the prize were:
Och allt skall vara kärlek by Kristian Lundberg, translated by Þórdís Gísladóttir (publisher: Bjartur);
Ariasman by Tapio Koivukari, translated by Sigurður Karlsson (publisher: Uppheimar);
Hjaltlandsljóð (Shetland Poems), a dual-language anthology of poems by contemporary writers from the Shetland Islands, translated by Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson (publisher: Dimma),
Sá hlær best …! sagði pabbi by Gunnilla Bergström, translated by Sigrún Árnadóttir (publisher: Mál og menning).