The Writing Life

A prize-winning translator and a distinguished Cuban novelist share ideas on how they work.

We invited the translator Edith Grossman and the novelist Mayra Montero to interview each other about their work. Grossman has translated many works from Spanish to English, including the recently published version of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote," Gabriel Garca Mrquez's "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" and Mario Vargas Llosa's "Feast of the Goat." Montero is the author of numerous novels, among them "The Last Night I Sleep with You," "Deep Purple" and, most recently, "Captain of the Sleepers."

Mayra Montero: The Puerto Rican novelist Luis Rafael Snchez once told me you were the best translator in the world.

Edith Grossman : Ay! Ay! Ay!

Montero : I sent you a letter after he told me that, and you answered that you were very busy. Somehow, eventually, I got your attention.

Grossman : Yes, you did! I find your work compelling both for its brilliance and for the incredibly interesting stories you have to tell. People often describe you as an "erotic writer." But I think you're an erotic writer in the same way that human beings are erotic creatures. In other words, you write extremely profound books with extremely complex characters, and their sensuality comes alive. It's a natural component. A couple of your books are more explicitly erotic than the others -- the intention is more erotic -- but I don't believe you're primarily an erotic writer.

Montero : I am not interested in sex for its own sake in my writing. Only two of my nine books are truly erotic. Even when I decide to write about sexuality, even in its more crude variations, I always have a safety valve. Curiously, maybe it's because of my education -- very Catholic, with lots of nuns -- I tend to soften the sex with a substantial dose of humor.

Grossman : No one can write about human beings truthfully and leave sexuality out of the picture. I think people are struck by women who write about sexuality, and so perhaps the erotic characteristics or moments in your books stay in people's minds more than if a man were writing the novel. What do you think?

Montero : I agree absolutely.

Grossman : I'm curious: How did you feel when you first read my translation of your work into English?

Montero : As though I were in front of a mirror. It was strange. I can still feel the rhythm, the connection, the spirit of my own story, like a heart beating within the text.

Grossman : Do you find something illuminated when you read yourself in another language? Is there anything in your own work that becomes clearer?

Montero : Yes! I see the whole idea of the novel in another light. Amazing things are revealed. What is surprising is that I can discover departures immediately. It's as if I carried the entire novel in my head. I can suddenly remember perfectly what I wrote in Spanish, even though I might not be able to recite it.