The painting Maltese Folk Characters, by Giorgio Preca, has been translated into words to be enjoyed by people who are visually impaired.

“Hello there. I’m the boy living in the painting in front of you… a long time ago, in 1954, an artist named Giorgio Preca used oil paint to create this artwork and I’ve been living in it ever since. The size of the painting is comparable to a desk you might know from school,” reads the script of the audio translation for children that will be voice recorded and made available to visitors at MUŻA, the National Community Art Museum, where the painting is exhibited.

“I’m not alone in the painting, don’t worry, my grandfather and our donkey are with me. We are sitting on a cart in the middle of a bumpy road surrounded by some fields in Malta.

“The artist drew many simple black outlines and coloured it with a lot of paint but he still left most of the background unpainted. Maybe he forgot,” the translation reads as it gives a sense of the expressionist oil on canvas.

The audio translation was scripted by the University of Malta’s Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies, in collaboration with Heritage Malta.

Giorgio Preca (1909-1984) was an outstanding Maltese artist, considered by many post-war artists as one of the finest local exponents of modern art, if not the best among them.

He spent a good part of his life in Rome and attracted the attention of international entities.

Preca’s ‘Maltese Folk Characters’ was chosen for one of the department’s course programme projects. Audiovisual translation students scripted the audio description for adults in English and in Maltese and created a version for children.

These will be voice recorded and made available to the public.

This project was supervised and reviewed by Giselle Spiteri Miggiani who teaches and also coordinates audiovisual translation.

The Master of Arts in Translation and Terminology Studies (Faculty of Arts) offers three specialisation streams: technical, literary and audiovisual translation.

For more information on the project visit www.um.edu.mt/arts/ translation.