Claudio Magris reports his experience as an author owing a lot to translation, the task of self-translating and the fact of being translated in many different languages. In general, “translations” are underestimated in their intellectual value. As far as literary translations are concerned, they should be considered as real creative activities. Literary texts themselves – such as the short stories “Averroës Search” (“La Busca de Averroes”) by Borges and “Bad Nature” (“Mala índole”) by Javier Marìas – often reflect on translations and on questions dealing with translating issues. Moreover, Magris points out specific translating difficulties concerning his works (such as rhythmic, metaphorical and cross-cultural questions).
