"I produce as good a text as I can," Costa said. "If it needed a lot of editing, I would feel I didn't do my job. If you feel involved in his novels, it is because Saramago is a beautiful novelist. He is a self-educated, humble man of great curiosity. He gets an idea and he wants to follow it up. He is very interested in politics. He is strongly against determinism. He believes we make our own lives and can't blame our character flaws on other people."

Costa feels tremendous responsibility to the author, even though it is the publisher who actually hires her. For her difficult work she is paid modestly and gets little recognition, mostly never seeing her name on the cover with that of the author. Critics, she said, rarely notice a translator is involved, and if they do, and see a flaw, they are inclined to attribute it to the translator.

The idea is to "convey the intentions of the author and the sound of his voice," Costa said. Although she considers her work very creative, "it is a different kind of creativity than that used by the novelist. He must create something out of nothing."

A native of England, Costa studied English at Leeds University, earning a Fulbright scholarship to Stanford, where she took a master's in Spanish and Portuguese. "Reading a great deal as a young person helped me, and I have always been interested in language and writing. Translation is the pleasure of writing. If you don't feel the joy of translation, you shouldn't do it."

Besides Saramago, she has translated the novels of Antonio Tabucchi, Octave Mirbeau, Eca de Queiros and Javier Marias. Costa said it was the latter who best prepared her to translate the "idiosyncratic" writing style of Saramago. Both authors have a tendency to write long sentences with very little punctuation.

In a paper she gave at King's College in London when Saramago was awarded his Nobel Prize, she asserted that Saramago uses only small amounts of punctuation because he wants to "reproduce speech rhythms on the page" — it must have "the right music."

For friends who have trouble reading his work, Saramago has advised them to "read it out loud." Costa maintains that while translating his work, she continually reads "the English text out loud."

This is essential she said because "the rhythm of the sentences often also carries the sense." The ultimate product must "reproduce that seductively seamless quality."

Costa said that what she cherishes most about Saramago's novels is "their absolute affirmation of life and love."

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com