Julio Broutá’s Translations of Bernard Shaw

Abstract

It is well known that Bernard Shaw was deeply concerned with the translations of his works, to the point that he kept a thorough record of the whole process of translation and performances of his plays in foreign countries, most particularly in Central Europe. On the recommendation of Shaw’s Austrian translator Siegfried Trebitsch (1868–1958), Julio Broutá became Shaw’s official translator into Spanish in 1907 and retained this position throughout Shaw’s lifetime. Born in Luxembourg in 1896, Broutá acquired Spanish nationality by marriage and lived in Madrid, where he worked as a correspondent for a number of English, Belgian, French, and German newspapers while also earning a living as a professional translator. Broutá was more than able to meet the requirements for his Continental translators: he had a good mastery of English, so he could translate directly from the original without an intermediate source (all of his translations are “from the English”); he also had a good familiarity with Spanish and worked quickly, so he could provide translations at a speedy pace, to the amazement and satisfaction of Shaw himself. Moreover, as a contributor to the left-oriented La Revista Blanca (1898–1905), Broutá was keen on socialism and Naturalism. This might have been a factor in Shaw’s sympathetic view of Broutá when he appointed him to be his authorised Spanish translator. All in all, Broutá could deliver what Shaw most appreciated: the rendering into Spanish of his entire canon in a timely fashion.