After discovering the Romanian language more than half a century ago and transformed it into a career, Jean-Louis Couriol began to translate the masterpieces of Romanian literature into French, especially in love with Liviu Rebreanu’s writings.
Jean-Louis Courriol, a great lover of Romanian Literature Photo Filit
Considered the best French translator of the works of Mihai Eminescu and Liviu Rebreanu, Professor Jean-Louis Courriol (76 years old) is extremely attached to Romania and Romanian literature, which he has promoted very much in France and Switzerland through his exceptional translations.
Present at the latest edition of the International Festival of Literature and Translation Iași, the Frenchman Jean-Louis Couriol told, for “Weekend Adevărul”, how his passion for Romanian literature was born, but also how he waited for five years until he was approved by the communist authorities his marriage with the Romanian translator, who had been in love with him.
“Weekend the truth“: When you first discovered
language Romanian?
Jean-Louis Courriol:
Over 50 years ago. I learned from one of my teachers in France that there was a country in Eastern Europe where many Romanians had been established in the second century and that the Romanian language originates in Latin. I learned 15 years Latin and Greek to become a teacher of classic languages later. At one point, in 1972, I made a trip to Romania with several college colleagues. I spent several days in Romania. After we arrived, we said, “Finally, a Latin country.” We were accommodated in Bucharest, and there I met my future wife. I started to correspond with her after I returned to France. I bought the Romanian manual of Boris Cazacu (NE-Romanian linguist and philologist, a correspondent member of the Romanian Academy). After I started studying this manual, I said: “Romanian is modern Latin.” This is my concept of Romanian, a concept with which, of course, not everyone agrees. In any case, the Romanian language is the closest to the Latin language.
Liviu Rebreanu, one of the largest Romanian Photo no novelists
And with Romanian literature when you met?
Through Florica, my future wife, I discovered Romanian literature. I started translating for myself and I returned to Romania. We decided to get married, which in those times was a problem-we waited a total of five years. My luck was that they received me in Iasi to teach French at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University. And I started to translate it constantly. Iasi is a Francophone and Francophone city, and that helped me a lot. I taught French through literature. After Iasi, I went to Craiova for two years. Then, I was proposed to teach Romanian language and literature at the University of Lyon, which I did for 34 years, from 1980 to 2014-I retired ten years ago.
How long did you take to learn Romanian?
I learned Romanian in about three years.
The first translation, in the capital of Romanian literature
Camil Petrescu was the first Romanian writer you translated into French. How was this experience?
I can tell you that it was a very interesting experience. I translated Camil Petrescu and during the time I taught in Iasi. I lived right next to Unirii Square, where Filit takes place annually. I translated him with great pleasure, he was the first great Romanian writer I discovered. Then I discovered Mihai Eminescu and Liviu Rebreanu. I am the most attached to Liviu Rebreanu’s work. I published at one point, in 1988, the French version of the volume “La Lilieci”, by Marin Sorescu, at an important publishing house in France.
Florica and Jean Louis Courriol Photo Filit
Do you have a favorite quote or phrase in Romanian?
There are many phrases from Romanian literature I like. I also like Mihai Eminescu’s lyrics, and here I would like to say that his poems sound very good in French.
What was the most difficult phrase to be translated?
I can’t nominate a particular one, it’s very hard to say. When you translate a novel, the tension is much higher than when you translate a poem, in my opinion. The novel also has his rhythm. Not only the poetry is rhythmic and rhymed. I have translated more classic poetry than modern poetry. When you have a book like the “forest of the hangers”, which I translated in 2005, you are dealing with a poem of 300 pages. While in Eminescu, apart from “Luceafărul”, the poems have a page. But the difficulties remain. Of course, there are difficulties in prose. If you want to respect the style, it is the greatest difficulty as a translator. The translator is a very dangerous character. Why? Because it actually produces nuclear explosions, because style is background and shape. The translator must explode this atom that is the form, as in the nuclear fission, and restore and reproduce the style.
Rebreanu, the exceptional unknown
Why are you so attached to Liviu Rebreanu’s work?
I attached myself to Liviu Rebreanu’s work from the first pages read. I liked his modern language and his narrative style. I translated about 80% of his works. For me, Liviu Rebreanu is a monument of Romanian literature. But my great sadness is that Liviu Rebreanu, an exceptional Romanian writer, is little known in France. I did not translate the “journal”, which is huge. After the Revolution, I also translated the novel “Metropole” into French, before the volume was republished in Romanian.
From the perspective of the translator, who do you think are the masterpieces of Romanian literature?
I would put here the novels of Rebreanu and Eminescu’s poetry – he opened the path of the contemporary modern literary language. We must not forget Camil Petrescu, too little known. His love novel “Miss Romania” is, for example, extremely little known.
