Libraries feature

Translating Bartol

During the spring of 2015, Michael Biggins, head of the Libraries’ international studies units and librarian for Slavic, Baltic and East European studies, spent a sabbatical in Llubljana, Slovenia, doing research for a literary biography of one of the leading Slovene writers of the 20th century, Vladimir Bartol (1903-1967).

In Biggins’ words, “the story of Bartol’s life and work provides the single most colorful perspective on the intellectual life of Slovenia in the first half of the 20th century. It also adds a much-needed Slovene dimension to our otherwise Italocentric image of literary Trieste.”

Born in 1903 in Trieste, Bartol grew up in what was until 1918 the most culturally vibrant and cosmopolitan of all Slovene urban centers, which during his youth was home to such diverse writers as James Joyce, Italo Svevo and Umberto Saba. His mother was renowned as an early feminist essayist and Slovene prose fiction writer.

Forced out of Trieste with his family in 1919 by the Italian authorities, he spent his student years and young adulthood in Ljubljana, where he earned a doctorate in psychology and philosophy before turning to literature. He was among the earliest serious proponents and interpreters of the works of both Freud and Nietzsche in Slovenia, and their presence is palpable in his fiction.

Among Biggins’ sources for the biography was the Manuscripts Division of the National and University Library (NUK), which holds the primary corpus of Bartol’s papers, maintained in over 92 three-inch-thick file folders containing photographs and official documents, datebooks, sketchbooks, diaries, correspondence, manuscripts and much other material in which Bartol documented his impressions, plans and experiences.

In addition, he drew on papers held by Bartol’s direct descendants which have not previously been made available to researchers. “No biography has been written about Bartol, even in Slovene,” Biggins said. “The reasons for that are complex, but the upshot is that the first biography published about him may well be in English – which I think Bartol would have appreciated, since he was very cosmopolitan himself.” Another important source are the records of the Yugoslav secret police (UDBA), which from 1945 to 1990 maintained surveillance files on all prominent intellectuals.

While in Slovenia, Biggins was called on to accept the 2015 Lavrin Diploma award, conferred by the Slovenian Literary Translators’ Association for major contributions in the transfer of Slovenian literature to other nations, on June 11. The association honored Biggins for “his translation oeuvre, his aesthetic perfection and his role as an intermediary between Slovenia and the English-speaking world.” Biggins has been contributing to the promotion of Slovenian literature in the US for over three decades and “is satisfied only with highest quality, which is proven by his translations of books and essays,” the association said.

Biggins translated Bartol’s Alamut into English; his other translations include fifteen novels and collections of poetry by Slovenes Boris Pahor, Drago Jančar, Tomaž Šalamun and others. His translation of Bartol’s Al-Araf was published in a European edition this year.