In a recent interview with Casi Dylan for Words without borders, Manon Stefan Ros (1983) talks about her experience as a self-translator from Welsh into English for her two novels Blasu/The Seasoning and Llyfr Glas Nebo/The Blue Book of Nebo. One of the advantages of self-translation is the ability to express one's own voice in both languages:
"Because I’m translating my own work, I have the freedom to change it as I choose, to work out what my voice is in English."
However, translation also means transformation if intended or not and that can be challenging to face:
"It’s so strange; even if you translate something word for word it’s never the same. The thing that emerges—it might be as good, better than the original even, but it’s never the same thing. Blasu in Welsh is a very dark novel, difficult to read, but in English it felt much lighter, and I couldn’t work out why."Manon Stefan Ros also discusses the question of how much adaptations are needed for a different audience. Click here to read the full interview:
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/the-privilege-of-language-manon-steffan-ros-on-self-translation-welsh-liter?src=fb
In a youtube interview with Gŵyl Haf, Manon Stefan Ros talks in more detail about the joy of self-translating for the first time, which was her novel Blasu/The Seasoning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YimUQglEB4o&ab_channel=G%C5%B5ylHaf
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