Therese Pace

The Sunday Times, August 7th 2005.

SALOMÉ by Oscar Wilde  Translation into Maltese by Alfred Palma (Palprint Press pp40)

          It is a known fact that Alfred Palma is no newcomer to the literary scene in the Maltese Islands. His numerous books published, poetry or otherwise, his numerous awards acquired both locally and overseas make him a distinguished writer. He has recently embarked on many translations, the most notorious being the Divina Commedia written by Dante Alighieri and most of Shakespeare’s plays. Now he adds Salomé, the one act play by Oscar Wilde as the latest feather in his cap.

It is through dedicated people like him that we now can enjoy these works in our mother tongue, and he was responsible for many enjoyable evenings at the theatre these last few winters when one or other of Shakespeare’s plays would grace the Manoel’s stage.

         Salomé has been translated into most European languages including Slav, Oriental and Greek, so why not Maltese as well? And as is his norm, Alfred Palma stuck to the original to be as faithful as possible to Wilde. 

        Let us encourage him to keep on putting pen to paper to give us as many of these translations as is humanly possible to enrich our libraries with the great works of the past centuries that the whole world lauds. Them being arduous tasks gives better credit to the man behind them and makes us all proud that our nation is ready to give credit where credit is due.