Carme Serrallonga i Calafell (Barcelona, 1909 - 1997) was an educationalist and translator. She had an Arts Degree from the University of Barcelona and was one of the founders of the Institut Escola (1932), an educational project of the Second Republic that was created in the image of the progressive Spanish Institución de Libre Enseñanza (Free Educational Institute). After the end of the Civil War, she founded the Isabel de Villena School along the same pedagogical lines. In 1960 she joined the teaching staff of the Adrià Gual School of Dramatic Art (EADAG), where she gave classes in voice training.

Thanks to her interest in theatre and her notable linguistic skills, she was urged to start translating works for the stage from German, English, French and Italian. She translated into Catalan some twenty famous plays by such renowned authors as Genet, Brecht and Dürrenmatt. She also translated novels by Goethe, E. M. Forster and Pirandello, inter alia, as well as books for children and young people by authors including Michael Ende, Lois Lowry and Christine Nöstlinger. The great number and high quality of her translations has placed her among the greatest translators in the world of Catalan letters.

Her contributions as an educationalist, teacher and translator were widely recognised and she was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi (Saint George Cross) in 1989, the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona (City of Barcelona Prize) in 1992, and the Premi Nacional de les Arts Escèniques (National Prize of the Dramatic Arts) in 1993.



Web page: Nausica Solà for AELC.
Translation: Julie Wark.
Photograph: © Lluïsa Julià.