Grossman is responsible for translating most of Garcia Marquez’s works, including Love in the Time of Cholera (1988), The General in His Labyrinth (1991), Strange Pilgrims: Stories 1993, Of Love and Other Demons (1995), News of a Kidnapping (1997), Living to Tell the Tale (2003), and Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2005).For example, she would use “without haste” instead of “slowly” when translating “despacio” instead of “lentamente”. This is a great example of translation as art: to honor her author’s style, Grossman had to get creative.

Edith Grossman claims that Marquez hated adverbs that ended in -mente (equivalent to adverbs ending in -ly, in English).Because he wrote so well in Spanish, he felt confident giving creative control over to Grossmand and Rabassa, allowing them to re-create his works in English, some of which would turn out to be preferred by Marquez himself. Marquez praised Grossman and Rabassa for “placing intuitiveness above intellectualism” he regarded them as exemplary translators, not only translating word for word but meaning for meaning. Edith Grossman and Gregory Rabassa, the two who have translated most of his works, are not only tested and trusted by Marquez but have had lucrative careers themselves.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a renowned Colombian fiction writer, and pioneer of magical realism is one of the authors who favored and supported his translators. “I knew this Colombian writer was eccentric when he wrote me saying that he doesn’t use adverbs ending with -mente in Spanish and would like to avoid adverbs ending in -ly in English.” She remembers thinking, what do you say in English except slowly? “Well, I came up with all types of things, like without haste.” -Edith Grossman, on translating Marquez.

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