黒人詩人作品でまた騒動、「属性」理由に白人翻訳者の契約解除

【バルセロナＡＦＰ＝時事】米国のジョー・バイデン大統領の就任式で詩を朗読したアマンダ・ゴーマンさん（23）の作品をめぐり、カタルーニャ語版の翻訳者が10日、性別、年齢、人種などの「属性」が合致していないとして契約を解除されたと明らかにした。（写真は米国のジョー・バイデン大統領の就任式で詩を朗読するアマンダ・ゴーマンさん）
　この翻訳者は、スペイン北東部カタルーニャ自治州の州都バルセロナ出身のビクトル・オビオルスさん。英劇作家ウィリアム・シェークスピアや英作家オスカー・ワイルドらの作品の翻訳実績がある。
　オビオルスさんによると、米国側から「ふさわしくない」と連絡があった。翻訳者としての能力が問題視されたわけではなく、２３歳の米黒人女性であるゴーマンさんの作品を訳すのは、「女性で、若く、活動家であることが必須で、黒人が望ましい」と伝えられたという。
　オビオルスさんは、「非常に複雑な問題なので、軽々しく扱うことはできない」と前置きした上で、「２１世紀の若い米黒人女性でないという理由で詩の翻訳ができないなら、紀元前８世紀のギリシャ人でないからホメロスだって訳せない。１６世紀の英国人でないからシェークスピアも訳せなかったはずだ」と述べた。
　ゴーマンさんの作品をめぐっては、オランダ人作家、マリエケ・ルーカス・ライネベルトさんも、白人ではなく黒人が翻訳すべきとの批判を受けて、翻訳を辞退していた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/03/12-13:01）

The Catalan translator for the poem that American writer Amanda Gorman read at President Joe Biden's inauguration said Wednesday that he has been removed from the job because he had the wrong profile.
It was the second such case in Europe after Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld resigned from the job of translating Gorman's work following criticism that a black writer was not chosen.
They told me that I am not suitable to translate it, Catalan translator Victor Obiols told AFP.
They did not question my abilities, but they were looking for a different profile, which had to be a woman, young, activist and preferably black.
Gorman, a 23-year-old African American, was widely lauded for her reading of her poem The Hill We Climb at Biden's January 20 inauguration.
The poem was inspired by the US Capitol attack and touched on how democracy can never be permanently defeated.
She was the youngest poet ever to recite at a presidential inauguration, a role first given to Robert Frost by John F. Kennedy in 1961.
It also came at a time of intense debate in the United States over the country's history of racism toward its Black population and the legacy of slavery.
Obiols, who has translated works by William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, received a request from Barcelona publisher Univers three weeks ago to produce a Catalan version of Gorman's poem with a foreword by US television personality Oprah Winfrey.
After he had finished, his publisher received word from the United States that he was not the right person, said Obiols.
He does not know if the rejection came from the original publisher or from Gorman's agent.
It is a very complicated subject that cannot be treated with frivolity, said Obiols, who is from Barcelona.
But if I cannot translate a poet because she is a woman, young, black, an American of the 21st century, neither can I translate Homer because I am not a Greek of the eighth century BC. Or could not have translated Shakespeare because I am nota 16th-century Englishman.
Univers could not be reached by AFP for comment. Obiols said the publisher promised to pay him for the work nonetheless.