Re: new southamerican fish

I'm very glad to hear that two Argentinians are on the list, one of them
living in Brazil (there's an old joke in Uruguay that goes, more or less:
"What else is Uruguay than Brazilian territory full of Argentinians?"). OK,
it's a joke, but it always makes me laugh... it's very sane I think, as I
hate National enthusiasm. I love my country but when I'm feeling too much of
an uruguayan I always think that we don't even have a name for our country,
only a vague geographical indication about where are we in case you get
lost: Eastern Uruguay River Republic. (República Oriental del Uruguay). I
wish United States called themselves Southern Canada Bunch Of States (no
offence).

I have seen the Sudamericana translation of CITR somewhere, but it's very
difficult to get. I ended up with the Alianza version, full of spanish slang
like "puñetas" and "gilipollas". We are used to these expressions, but you
end up skipping them for the sake of sanity of the text itself. But what
annoys me more are the stupid mistakes, like the one I've pointed out on my
first post. There's no excuse for that kind of mistakes.
I don't think Holden mannerisms, reactions and behaviours are alien for
South Americans. We are so permeated by American culture, that maybe we are
more familiar with it than with our own past. But I agree that a translator
should go and take risks to depart from the original.

On the other hand I don't completely agree with Daniel and Jim: Holden is
always Holden despite being read in good and even on quite bad translations.
The character always find its way through. You always get the feeling. It's
obvious that is better if you are able to read the original text, but if
Holden's feelings, points of view, etc. weren't strong enough to be quite
universal, Salinger wouldn't be read (even in english) anymore. We keep
reading Quixote, although we don't speak his spanish anymore, although
there's a big gap between our culture and Cervantes'. OK, I'm saying the
obvious: a classic is a classic a no bad translator would completely fuck up
genious.
It's very strange for me that Jim find Holden voice rather impossible to
translate ("Holden with spanish accent isn't Holden anymore") but speaking
of García Márquez he thinks that "a parrot is always a parrot, even if
it's an annoying, colorful parrot." Does García Márquez write about parrots?
Are his characters colorful parrots? I'm sure Jim doesn't think so, why the
difference when considering the possible success in the translation of both
authors, then? Even if García Marquez characters WERE parrots... would you
accept anyone saying that parrots with english accent aren't parrots
anymore? I don't think parrots would agree, their parrotness will get all
the way through the unlikely accent...

I have recently read 1984 in english and I was blessed with a lot more
empathy with the text than when I read it in spanish. I was fascinated with
newspeak, that made a lot more sense read in english, than in spanish. But
although I enjoyed the reading a lot more, I felt that I was re-reading the
book, enhanced.
No matter how good the translation is, there always lots of things lost and
I'm sure you would enjoy García Márquez a lot more if you read it in
spanish, despite the effort, that is worth. But you still understand what's
good about his writing read on translation.

I remember an specific passage of 1984. Its deep, profound, tragic meaning
is completely lost in spanish and it's a shame that it is so difficult to
translate. Please forgive me for being such a bore, but let me type the
paragraph where Winston Smith met his former colleague, Ampleforth, in jail.
Smith enquires about the reasons that took Ampleforth to prison.

'These things happen,' he began vaguely.
'I have been able to recall one instance -- a possible instance. It was an
indiscretion, undoubtedly.
We were producing a definitive edition of the poems of Kipling. I allowed
the word "God" to remain at the end of a line. I could not help it!' he
added almost indignantly, raising his face to look at Winston.
'It was impossible to change the line. The rhyme was "rod". Do you realize
that there are only twelve rhymes to "rod" in the entire language? For days
I had racked my brains. There was no other rhyme.'
The expression on his face changed. The annoyance passed out of it and for a
moment he looked almost pleased. A sort of intellectual warmth, the joy of
the pedant who has found out some useless fact, shone through the dirt and
scrubby hair. "

At the end of the day, Ampleforth is in jail for being unable to translate.
I think this passage should be the epitaph (a rather long one, humorosly) of
every translator. Big headstones for translators recommended, ample ones in
memorian poor Ampleforth...

Sorry for this long post. Fortunately, my enthusiasm won't last and I'm
afraid I would fade away from the list in a couple of months, going back to
the shadows of reading-only mode. It's hard to keep up but I'll try to
emerge from time to time.
All my best
María

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Received on Fri Dec 5 21:59:36 2003