Lluís Capdevila i Vilallonga: un traductor de l’època de preguerra entre la memòria i l’oblit

Abstract

Lluís Capdevila es troba en la llarga nòmina de traductors — tots escriptors reconeguts— que traduïren al català abans de l’esclat de la Guerra Civil espanyola i que, pertanyents a les files dels vençuts, quedaren relegats a la clandestinitat i a l’exili durant decennis. De Capdevila se n’ha estudiat àmpliament les facetes periodística, política i dramatúrgica; però sorprèn que mai, fins ara, no s’hagi prestat atenció a la de traductor al català. Capdevila, republicà convençut, visqué a cavall entre Barcelona i París, on s’exilià, abans d’establir-se definitivament a Andorra. Fundà la revista Los Miserables i, posteriorment, dirigí L’Esquella de la Torratxa, La Campana de Gràcia i La Humanitat. Aquest estudi intenta aportar una mica més de llum a la seva figura, sobretot al vessant traductor, força desconegut.

Lluís Capdevila is one in a long list of translators — all of them renowned writers that translated into Catalan right before the breakout of the Spanish Civil War— who were relegated for decades to clandestine life and exile for being members of the vanquished Republican ranks. Special attention has been paid to his work as a politician, journalist and playwright but, surprisingly enough, his translations have been inadequately studied. Capdevila, a determined and committed Catalan Republican, spent most of his life in exile, first in Paris and then in Andorra. He founded the periodical Los Miserables and he subsequently became the editor of some others, such as L’Esquella de la Torratxa, La Campana de Gràcia and La Humanitat. Therefore, with this paper, attention is going to be drawn to Capdevila’s activity as a translator in order to complete his bio-bibliographic outline and shed light on this overlooked aspect of his life.