SOURCE: Corral, Irene del. “Humor: When Do We Lose It?” Translation Review, no. 27 (1988): 25-7.

In the following essay, Corral discusses the reasons why the satire in Ibargüengoitia's Los relámpagos de agosto translates well into English.

We seldom question the generalization that “humor gets lost in translation,” an idea that seems to suggest some failure on the part of the translator. When a transfer of humor is unsuccessful, the problem is rarely one of deficient interpretation; rather, the reader of the translation—through no fault of his own—is unable to perceive the text on the same terms as the reader in the society that produced it. However, some types of humor are equally appreciated in the cultures of both origin and new access. This article will identify some broad areas of humor and point out those that defy and those that are susceptible to successful translation...