Warren Bartolo, the talented local artist best known for his idiosyncratic illustrations, has translated David Horvitz’s quirky artbook How to Shoplift Books into Maltese. As the book suggests, it is a guide on how to steal books, detailing 80 ways one could do so, ranging from the practical to the bizarre.

Horvitz’s book is a re-issue of an art project first published in 2013 by Automatic Books. This first edition was published in English and included an Italian translation.

Following the publication of the first edition, Horvitz then collaborated with Edition Taube (a publishing house based in Munich, Germany) to turn the book into a cultural translation pro­ject, collaborating with translators and publishing houses all over the world. It has so far been translated into 22 languages, with Bartolo producing the translation into Maltese.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Bartolo described how he chanced upon How to Shoplift Books in Paris. He noticed how the book had been translated into many languages and wondered why Maltese was not included.

“Of course, I know why,” he said tongue-in-cheek, alluding to how the Maltese language is generally overlooked in such projects. He then decided to contact the artist on the matter, who thought it would be a great idea to include a Maltese translation. Bartolo started work on it a few days later.

“The artist wanted the translations to pertain to the translator’s country, therefore sometimes I went for a cultural translation rather than a literal one,” Bartolo said when asked about how he approached the task of translating the book.

The artist wanted the translations to pertain to the translator’s country

“Horvitz also gave the translators the liberty to completely change sentences if we could think of more culturally appropriate ones. It was a fun exercise, since, while translating, I was seeing how other translators carried the meaning of a particular sentence in their own languages.

“For example, Horvitz’s English sentence ‘Put the book inside a super-sized soda cup and walk out pretending to drink the soda’ was rendered by the Portuguese translator as ‘Coloque o livro dentro de uma garrafa gigante de guaraná e saia andando, enquanto finge que está bebendo’ (Place the book inside a giant bottle of guarana and walk out while pretending to be drinking).

“My Maltese translation of this sentence reads: ‘Poġġi l-ktieb ġo tazza enormi tal-Kinnie u oħroġ ’il barra waqt li tippretendi li qed tixrob il-Kinnie’.”

Bartolo also mentions the Times of Malta in one of the book’s thieving suggestions: “Poġġi l-ktieb ġot-Times of Malta mitwija li qed iżżomm f’idejk” (Place the book in a folded Times of Malta newspaper you’re holding).

Reflecting on the project, Bartolo posited that while a book can be translated, each language and culture leaves its own unique mark on it.

“When you look at all 22 books together, it’s as if you’re hearing all the languages say the same thing, but then suddenly you hear a differing discordant fissure marked by the cultural translation of that particular language,” he said.

He added that, for him, the most important aspect of the job was that it showed him how one language or culture sheds light on the other.

“To read the same book in English, Lithuanian, Hindi, Maltese, Georgian and so forth, works to thin the lines between literary borders and, as such, challenges the historical hegemonic ways of who gets to be translated.”

Bartolo eventually set up a Zoom call with Jan Deckkraft (the founder of Edition Taube) and Horvitz to discuss his cultural translations.

“It was funny explaining to them who Eileen Montesin is, the cultural signifi­cance of pastizzi and how the Maltese word for ‘friend’ is extremely gendered,” he remarked.

Kif Tisraq il-Kotba was published in 2020 by Edition Taube, Munich, and Sendb00ks, Paris. One can get hold of a copy through their websites or by getting in touch with Warren Bartolo himself.