“At Editorial Presença, we deeply feel this loss. Filipe Guerra was more than a brilliant translator; he was a true companion in our journey. He leaves an indelible mark on our house’s history and in the hearts of everyone who had the privilege to work with him,” the company stated in a communiqué.
Translator Filipe Guerra passed away on Sunday at the age of 77 at Hospital Garcia de Orta in Almada, succumbing to a long-term illness.
For decades, Filipe Guerra dedicated himself to translating directly from Russian, collaborating with his wife, Nina Guerra, forming one of Portugal’s most respected literary translation duos, the publisher highlighted.
“Together, they signed translations of pivotal works in our catalog, including ‘War and Peace,’ ‘Anna Karenina’ [by Tolstoy], ‘Demons,’ ‘Crime and Punishment,’ ‘The Idiot,’ ‘The Gambler’ [Dostoevsky], and many other works that have shaped our readers’ imagination.”
The publishing group recalls Filipe Guerra’s remarks in one of his rare interviews, where he stated, “Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are the primary heirs of a novel writing style that is unprecedented and innovative, rooted in realism, initiated by Pushkin and Gogol.”
For the translator, “the books of these two authors, as artistic works, remain contemporary: they are the source, the still-living spring of what is written today.”
Presença commits to “continuing to honor the legacy they built together.”
Besides translating Russian classics for this publishing group, Filipe Guerra and Nina Guerra also signed translations for other publishers such as Relógio d’Água and Assírio e Alvim.
Born in 1948, Filipe Guerra took a degree in Romance Philology at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, which he combined with a Linguistics course at Université Paris VIII (Vincennes).
He devoted his entire professional activity to culture and books, having worked and been part of the management of the Esteiros Book Cooperative from 1975 onwards.
Filipe Guerra also wrote and directed weekly radio programs about books, especially for RDP1 and Antena 2, between 1979 and 1982.
Additionally, he collaborated with literary newspapers and magazines, where he published his articles.
From 1986 to 1989, Filipe Guerra worked in literary translation at Editorial Progresso in Moscow, where he met Nina Guerra, who later settled in Lisbon.
Between 1989 and 1991, he worked in literary revision and translation at Editorial Caminho and, from 1994 onwards, exclusively translated from Russian in collaboration with Nina, with over 70 titles translated together.
Individually, Filipe Guerra translated from French, Spanish, and Italian, amassing over 40 titles.
The duo of Filipe and Nina Guerra received an award from the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores and the Portuguese PEN Club in 2002 for their translations of Dostoevsky and Chekhov works and a special jury prize from LER/Booktailors in 2012 for their literary translations.
