In addition to translating the great Russian classics for this publishing group, Filipe Guerra and Nina Guerra also contributed translations to other publishers such as Relógio d’Água and Assírio e Alvim.
In a statement regarding his passing, Relógio d’Água’s editor, Francisco Vale, reflected on the nearly 30-year collaboration with the translation duo in bringing authors like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Akhmatova, Bely, Zamyatin, Chmeliov, Bunin, and Maria Stepanova to Portuguese readers.
“Their dedication even led them to contact the publisher to praise or highlight errors in Russian translations made by others that we published. Over time, we learned to appreciate their precision, competence, and generosity,” wrote Francisco Vale.
For the editor, Filipe Guerra “certainly stands as an example for the new generations of translators and holds a special place among the main contributors” to the publisher.
Assírio e Alvim also paid tribute to him, expressing sorrow over the news and remembering Filipe Guerra as an “inexhaustible translator” and “demanding reader.”
Questioning what a publisher would be without its people and its readers, Assírio e Alvim expressed a sense of gratitude and indebtedness to Filipe Guerra “for his work and friendship.”
Filipe Guerra is reported to have passed away on July 6 due to a prolonged illness, in the Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, as mentioned by his son.
Born in 1948, Filipe Guerra graduated in Romance Philology from the Faculty of Letters at the Classical University of Lisbon and also studied Linguistics at Université Paris VIII (Vincennes).
He had a career deeply tied to culture and books, having worked and been part of the direction at the Esteiros Book Cooperative from 1975.
Filipe Guerra also wrote and produced weekly radio programs about books for RDP1 and Antena 2, between 1979 and 1982.
Concurrently, he collaborated with literary journals and magazines, where he published his articles.
From 1986 to 1989, Filipe Guerra worked on literary translations at Editorial Progresso in Moscow, where he met Nina Guerra, who later settled in Lisbon.
Between 1989 and 1991, he was involved in literary revision and translation at Editorial Caminho, and from 1994 onwards, he focused exclusively on translating Russian, in collaboration with Nina, achieving more than 70 translated titles together.
Individually, Filipe Guerra translated works from French, Spanish, and Italian, amounting to over 40 titles.
The translation duo was awarded in 2002 by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores and the Portuguese Pen Club for translating the works of Dostoevsky and Chekhov. In 2012, they received the special jury prize from the LER/Booktailors magazine for their literary translations.
Among the main works translated by Filipe Guerra in collaboration with Nina Guerra are Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” “Crime and Punishment,” “The Idiot,” “The Gambler,” “White Nights,” and “The Double,” Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” and “Resurrection,” Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Uncle Vanya,” “Three Sisters,” and “The Cherry Orchard,” the complete poetry of Osip Mandelstam, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog.”
Filipe Guerra passed away at the age of 77.
