Literature in translation is a great way to get a glimpse of other cultures. Translated works are generally shelved with works in the original language, so if you are looking to broaden your reading horizons, don’t be afraid of exploring sections of languages you don’t speak (yet!).

If you have moved to Aberystwyth for study or work and don’t have knowledge of the Welsh language, translations found in in the Celtic Collection can be a good way into the literary culture of Wales. Classics of Welsh literature (Kate Roberts, Islwyn Ffowc Elis, Saunders Lewis, the Mabinogion) have been translated widely (including editions in French, German, Italian, in addition to English).

Contemporary Welsh language novels also find an international audience. Recently, Manon Steffan Ros’s novel, Llyfr Glas Nebo has already been translated into Polish, Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Turkish and Korean with translations into a dozen more languages in preparation. You can find the author’s own English translation of Llyfr Glas Nebo (The Blue Book of Nebo) shelved with the original in the Celtic Collection.

The Celtic Collection is inherently international in nature, featuring materials about and in the languages of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall and Mann. A particularly intriguing aspect of the collection is translations of works in other languages into Welsh. In the collection you can find works by Albert Camus (Y Dieithryn = L’Étranger), Jean-Paul Sartre (Caeëdig ddôr = Huis clos) Franz Kafka (Metamorffosis) among many others. Also, in Hugh Owen Library, Asterix the Gaul speaks Welsh and Irish and Tintin speaks Breton.

A university library is always a mirror of what is taught and researched at that institution. In addition to the eight languages that are taught between the departments of Modern Languages and Welsh & Celtic Studies, you will also find translations of literature from many other languages currently or previously researched at the university.

Here’s a selection of our favourites:

• Axtage, Bernado, The lone man, (Euskera [Basque County])
• Doyle, Roddy, Deireadh seachtaine craiceáilte = Mad Weekend, (Gaeilge trans.of original English)
• Dương, Thu Hương, Novel without a Name, (Vietnamese)
• Ibrāhīm, Ṣunʻ Allāh, Zaat, (Arabic)
• Kadare, Ismail, The general of the dead army, (Albanian)
• Keret, Etgar, Suddenly, a knock on the door, (Hebrew)
• Kurniawan, Eka, Man Tiger, (Indonesian)
• Laurent Binet, HHhH, (French)
• Libera, Antoni, Madame, (Polish)
• Ogawa, Yōko, The Memory Police, (Japanese)
• Owain Owain, The Last Day, (Welsh)
• Qurratulʻain Ḥaidar, River of Fire, (Urdu)
• Roberts, Kate, Feet in Chains, (Welsh)
• Steffan Ros, Manon, The Blue Book of Nebo, (Welsh)
• Zhadan, Serhiy, The Orphange, (Ukranian)
• Yu, Hua, Cries in the Drizzle (Mandarin Chinese).

Pop in to the Hugh Owen Library to see our literature in translation display on Level F this month.

Visit Primo, the library catalogue, to search our library collections