Barbara Wright (translator)

Barbara Winifred Wright was an English translator of modern French literature.

Early life

Wright was born on 13 October 1915 in Worthing, West Sussex. After attending Godolphin School in Salisbury, she studied to be a pianist at the Royal College of Music in London and trained under Alfred Cortot in Paris. Wright taught at Dora Russell's Beacon Hill School from 1936 to 1937. In 1938 she married Walter Hubbard, a kinsman of the Barons Addington – the couple had a daughter in 1944, before separating in 1957.
Though she never formally studied as a translator, Wright believed that her work as an accompanist helped her capture the rhythm of the text. Her first major translation was Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, published in 1951 by Gaberbocchus Press.

Translator

Wright specialised in the translation of poetic prose and drama with a focus on French surrealist and existential writing. While working on a translation, she immersed herself in the author's world. Reading other texts by the writer, conferring with francophones about French idioms and, where possible, forging relationships with the authors were all aspects of her process. Over the course of her career Wright worked closely with, and befriended, Raymond Queneau, Robert Pinget and Nathalie Sarraute. In addition to her translations, Wright authored literary criticism and was a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement as a reviewer.
After she had completed translations of two short stories by Queneau, the author proposed that Wright translate his Exercices de style. The work had been deemed 'untranslatable' due to Queneau's reliance on unique French writing styles and language. Trusting her skill, Queneau encouraged and endorsed Wright's improvised English equivalents of French turns of phrase. The result was a resounding success with her text becoming the basis for translations of the work in other languages. In 2008 it was recognised as one of the best translations during a 50-year period by the Society of Authors.
In 1953 Wright was elected a member of the College of Pataphysics, as Régente de Zozologie Shakespearienne. She was elevated to Satrape in 2001, a position she held alongside Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. In 1986 Wright was appointed Commandeur of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She was also a two-time recipient of the Scott Moncrieff Prize. Wright was recognised in 1987 for her translation of Pierre Albert-Birot's Grabinoulor and again in 1992 for Michel Tournier's The Midnight Love Feast.
After separating from her husband, Wright lived at Hampstead in north London, and died on 3 March 2009. Her literary translation papers are held by the Lilly Library at Indiana University. The authors she translated who are represented in the collection include Jean Hamburger, Eugène Ionesco, Alfred Jarry, Pierre Lauer, Robert Pinget, Raymond Queneau, Nathalie Sarraute and Stefan Themerson. Correspondence from publishers of Wright's works, including Gaberbocchus Press, John Calder, Doubleday, Faber & Faber, New Directions, the Atlas Press and Red Dust, are also present.

Translations

[Pierre Albert-Birot]

The First Book of Grabinoulor.198631 Pocket Poems. 2003

[Fernando Arrabal]

Orison; The Two Executioners; Fernando and Lis; The Car Cemetery in Plays. vol. 1 1962.Guernica; The Labyrinth; The Tricycle; Picnic on the Battlefield; The Condemned Man's Tricycle in Plays. vol. 2. 1967.

[Elisabeth Badinter]

The Unopposite Sex . 1989

[Samuel Beckett]

Eleutheria. 1996

[Simone Benmussa]

The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs. 1979Three Plays. in collaboration with Donald Watson 2000

'Appearances' in Gambit No. 35. 1980

[Sylvia Bourdon]

Love is a Feast. 1977.

[Muriel Cerf]

'Blitz-Fortune' in Real Life – Writers from Nine Countries Illuminate the Life of the Modern Woman. 1981

[André Couteaux]

Portrait of the Boy as a Young Wolf/My Father's Keeper. 1968.

Roland Dubillard

The House of Bones. 1971.The Swallows. 1969

[Marguerite Duras]

The Long Absence. 1966.

[Romain Gary]

King Solomon. 1983

[Jean Genet]

The Balcony. 1971.

[Alberto Giacometti]

The Dream, The Sphinx and The Death of T. in Grand Street in Space No. 54. 1995

[Christian Dietrich Grabbe]

Comedy, Satire. Irony and Deeper Meaning. 1955.

Henri Guigonnat

Daemon in Lithuania. 1985

[Jean Hamburger]

The Diary of William Harvey. 1992

[Eugène Ionesco]

Journeys Among the Dead. 1985

[Ludovic Janvier]

The Bathing Girl. 1976

[Alfred Jarry]

The Supermale. 1968.Ubu Roi. 1951.

[Yves Klein]

Selected Writings.. 1974

Monique Lange

The Catfish in New Writers 1. 1960.

Pierre Lauer

The Suns of Badarane. 1971.

Herbert Le Porrier

The Doctor From Cordoba. 1979.

[Andrée Martinerie]

Second Spring. 1962.

[Patrick Modiano]

Honeymoon. 1992

[René de Obaldia]

Monsieur Klebs and Rosalie in Plays Vol. 4. 1985

[Robert Pinget]

A Bizarre Will. 1989.Abel and Bela.. 1987.Be Brave. 1994.Between Fantoine and Agapa. 1982.Fable. 1980.Film script: 15 Rue des Lilas. in Renouard & Kelly. 2013Monsieur Songe with The Harness, Plough. 1988.Passacaglia. 1978.Recurrent Melody. 1975.Someone. 1984.That Voice. 1982.The Apocrypha. 1986.The Enemy. 1991.The Libera Me Domine. 1972Theo, or The New Era. 1994.Traces of Ink. 1998.Trio. 2005.

Pol-Dives (Vladimir Polissadiv)

The Song of Bright Misery. 1955.

Aude Yung-de Prévaux

Jacques & Lotha. 2000

[Raymond Queneau]

Exercises in Style. 1958.Zazie in the Metro. 1960.A Blue Funk and Dino in French Writing Today. 1968.Alfred in Journal of Literary Translation. vol. XXIII. 1990Between Blue and Blue. 1967.Five Stories: Panic; Dino; At the Edge of the Forest; A Blue Funk; The Trojan Horse. 2000.Pierrot Mon Ami. 1987.The Bark Tree. 1968.The Flight of Icarus. 1973.The Last Days. 1990.The Sunday of Life. 1976.The Trojan Horse; At the Edge of the forest. 1954.We Always Treat Women Too Well. 1981

Introduction and comments with extracts from Zazie, Pierrot, and The Flight of Icarus, in "Tolling Elves 5" February 2003 to celebrate Queneau's centenary.
publication of script for radio adaptation of Exercises in Style broadcast on 25 December 1959 by the BBC with introduction by Barbara Wright. 2006.

[Pascal Quignard]

Georges de La Tour. 1991

[Alain Robbe-Grillet]

Snapshots and Towards a New Novel. 1965.In the Corridors of the Underground in French Writing Today. 1968.The Secret Room in The Penguin Book of French Short Stories. 1968.

[Jean Rouaud]

Of Illustrious Men. 1996The World, More or Less. 1997

[Nathalie Sarraute]

Childhood. 1983Here. 1997It is There and other plays. 1980The Use of Speech. 1982You Don't Love Yourself. 1990Fragments From Darkness. 1998

Coline Serrau

Lapin, Lapin. 1995

Liliane Siegel

In the Shadow of Sartre. 1990

[Stefan Themerson] and [Franciszka Themerson]

Mr Rouse Builds His House. 1950