By Ravi Kumar

Video: Beyond Drugs in Colombia: Born to Die (Modlingua Live)

How do you translate a book about drugs, gangs and urban violence without losing its force or its humanity? This Modlingua Live session looked at that question through Born to Die in Medellin, Alonso Salazar's account of life in Colombia's cartel era.

The session

• Presenter: Ms. Sharmila Bhushan, translator of Born to Die
• Expert observer: Dr. Soraya Caro, expert on India-Colombia relations
• Moderator: Ravi Kumar
• Date: Monday, July 13, 2020, 8:00 PM IST

What the discussion covered

Sharmila Bhushan spoke about bringing a Colombian book on crime and violence to Indian readers. Street slang, the language of gangs and references to the drug trade rarely have neat equivalents, so the translator has to decide how much to explain and how much to leave raw.

Dr. Soraya Caro added the Colombian view, placing the book in its social and historical setting. That context matters: a translator who understands the people and places behind the text is less likely to flatten it into stereotype.

The session also touched on something often ignored: the emotional strain of translating violent material. Living with difficult stories for months takes a toll, and translators need ways to manage it.

Why it matters for translators

Literary translation from Spanish is about more than vocabulary. It needs cultural knowledge, careful judgement on tone and sensitivity to real people's suffering. The same care applies to any Spanish-English or Spanish-Hindi project. Learn more about Modlingua's quality translation services.