Hello all,
Today at pjbermanbooks.com we have another interview, where we will be getting to know Giuseppe Raccosta who, along with myself, is the voice of Vengeance of Hope's Italian translation, La Vendetta della Speranza.
PB: So, Giuseppe, welcome to pjbermanbooks.com! What made you decide to become a translator?
GR: Since I was a kid, I have always loved languages and books, in fact I studied for five years at a linguistic high school to improve my knowledge. In the meanwhile, I extended my readings and started to buy English, German and French novels to learn more about dialects, styles etc. During the first year of university, I started to think about what to do next, so I decided to give it a try and become a freelance translator.
PB: Tell us a bit about your background and hometown.
GR: I am almost 21 years old and I was in born in Germany, although I have always lived in Italy, in a small town near Reggio Emilia. My hobbies concerns reading novels, watching my favourite soccer team, which is Juventus, and sometimes going for a walk to relax. I am currently studying at the University of Verona, hoping to become a translator, and editor or a teacher. Everything that has to do with languages is fine!
PB: What was your first job as a translator?
GR: I became a freelance translator on April 2018, signing up on Babelcube, a website in which people like me can translate almost everything they want. My first work was a collection of short stories, called "The Adventures of Captain Nothing", written by Steve Vernon. Although it was my first translation, I am very pleased with it, and I hope the author is satisfied too!
PB: What is your favourite fiction genre and why?
GR: I love to read almost all novels, but also essays and short stories. My favourite genres are Fantasy and Science Fiction, because I really love when authors create vast worlds with unique races or species and infinite adventures to read. When I read these books, my mind relaxes and I follow the protagonists through their journeys till the end with awe and wonder for all the original work the authors have put in the pages.
PB: Tell us a bit about the process that went into translating Vengeance of Hope into Italian.
GR: The process is simple and direct: First of all, I try to use the same font and the same size of it, because I want to keep the translated book as much similar to the original one as possible. Then I begin to read a few sentences in English. If I find a word or two that I do not know, I search their meaning and then I search the best translation possible, regarding the moment, the style of writing etc. The process goes on like this till the end of the book. An example regarding the title of "Vengeance of Hope": if I translated it literally, it would have become "Vendetta di Speranza". Since it did not sound good, I decided to add an article at the beginning and change the other one, so I obtained "La Vendetta della Speranza", which is in my opinion a better Italian translation.
PB: How do you spend your free time when you’re not translating?
GR: I usually read books both in Italian and English or play videogames. During the evening I go for a walk to relax my mind and listen to some music, like Queen, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and others.
PB: What are your long term ambitions career-wise?
GR: My dream is to become a translator working for Mondadori, the most important publisher in Italy, but I look forward to finding my true love and create a lovely family!
PB: What's next for you?
GR: I have a few other fantasy novels to translate from different authors, but I hope to translate also the sequels to "Vengeance of Hope"!
PB: And finally, tell us a random fact about yourself.
GR: A random fact? Uhm... I really love cats! My last one died due to illness, but this will not stop me from taking another one into my house to cuddle it and play with it!
Well, thank you very much Giuseppe Raccosta for speaking to us at pjbermanbooks.com. Don't forget to look out for La Vendetta della Speranza, which will be coming to Italian online marketplaces very soon!
If any of you would like to contact Giuseppe about getting your work translated into Italian, you can contact him here:
Instagram: @nocturnis98
Babelcube: Giuseppe Raccosta
Until next time folks!
Peter