Problems in Translation en Cien años de soledad

The last three chapters of Cien años de soledad is the culmination of the vast use of foreshadowing, repetition, and extended metaphors that are present throughout the book. Again, as I have mentioned before, Marquez minds continues to amaze me. I wonder if he ever outlined the book or he just wrote it without forethought. Cien años de soledad, without a doubt, is one of the greatest works of art of all time. Yet, the Spanish original surpasses the English translation. I have come to realized that the inefficiency of the translation is not a result of how the translator decides to translate the text, either literally or lyrically, but  is the result of the discrepancies between the two languages. No bilingual speaker or polyglot will ever be satisfied with a translation's adequacy, even if its one's own translation. Its impossible to fully translate a text because one can not fully translate an entire language. Idioms, sentence structure, and colloquial language are some of the things that cannot be fully understood and/or translated in a foreign language. Intentionality is the best way to translate a text, specifically a novel. Even then, footnotes should be added to further explain the significance of a phrase or word. I hope one day someone would add footnotes to this great book.

Translation:

"-Llevatelos- dijo en castellano-El ultimo hombre que leyo esos libros debio ser Isaac el Ciego, asi que piensa bien lo que haces."

"You can have them" he said in Spanish."The last men who read those books must have been Isaac the Blindman, so consider well what you're doing."

*Llevatelos, in my opinion, would be better translated as "take them". Castellano is Spanish but some may consider it as the finer and purest Spanish. A better translation would be Castilian. Fun Fact: In Latin American, students don't take Spanish class. They take classes in Castellano.

"...gaitero y cachucha de detective, pero cuando..."

"...gaudy socks, and a Sherlock Holmes cap, but when he was on foot he would dress..."

*Where did Sherlock Holmes appear in the original? Maybe the allusion is implied (I don't see it) but why insert something that wasn't there before? I love Sherlock Holmes but he is completely out of place here. The correct translation would be a detective's cap.

"El primero de la estirpe esta amarrado en un arbol y al ultimo se lo estan comiendo las hormigas"

"The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants"

After the storm comes calm or does it? There is an eerie feel about this chapter. The prosperity of the Buendia family seems to have been washed away with the 4 year storm. Even though the sun has come out, there is still a pestilence in Macondo.

Translation:

"<<A este paso terminaremos devorados por las bestias>>"

"If we go on like this we'll be devoured by animals"

*My translation of this phrase would be: At this rate we will end up being devoured by beasts. The literal translation of bestias is beasts but I'm assuming Rabassa chose animals instead to appeal to the Anglo-Saxon audience.

"Estas humildes replicas de las parrandas de otros dias sirvieron para que el propio Aureliano Segundo descubriera cuanto habian decaido sus animos y hasta que punto se habia secado su ingenio de cumbiambero magistral"

"Those humble replicas of the revelry of former times served to show Aureliano Segundo himslef how much his spirits had declined and to what degree his skill as a masterful carouser had dried up."

*The translation is fine but I do not like how the translation replaced cumbiambero with carouser. I would of preferred a footnote for this word. Cumbiambero is a Colombian colloquial term that refers to a person who likes to party a lot (like a carouser), specifically to Cumbia, a Colombian music genre popular throughout Latin America. The word itself derives from the Cumbia. 

"It rained for four years, eleven months, and two day", sounds like Oberlin.

Translation:

"La atmosfera era tan humeda que los peces hubieron podido entrar por las puertas yy salir por las ventanas, navegando en el aire de los aposentos"

"The air was so damp that a fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere of the rooms."

*I find it interesting that translation has inverted atmosphere and air. Either way, the meaning is not changed.

"Aureliano Segundo no tuvo conciencia de la cantaleta"

"Aureliano was not aware of the singsong until the following day after breakfast"

*Cantalenta is more like a annoying repetition. The word does derive from something musical, the root canta to sing. Yet, cantalenta is an annoying didactic speech. Singsong is good translation but there should be a better one. 

"...abrirle las puertas a un a cachaca, imaginese, una cachaca mandona, valgame dios, una cachaca hija de la mala saliva..."

"...when it opened its doors to a stuck up highlander, just imagine, a bossy highlander, Lord save us, a highlander daughter of the evil spit..."

*Cachaco/ais a derogatory word for a person from the interior of Colombia. Highlander is a good word but it is not a great one and not all the people from the interior are from highlands. In my opinion, it would of been better to leave the word as it is in Spanish and add a footnote.

*En la Región Caribe de Colombia, el término cachaco se ha utilizado comúnmente para referirse, en la mayoría de los casos despectivamente, a todas aquellas personas del interior de país, provenientes de ciudades andinas, independientemente de sus condiciones en cuanto a clima o altura, como la Región Antioqueña, los Santanderes, el altiplano Cundiboyancense y el Tolima, entre otras. Si bien popularmente el término cachaco tiende a ser usado para referirse a las personas provenientes de la ciudad de Bogotá, no debe ser confundido con gentilicios ampliamente reconocidos como bogotano y rolo ya que bogotano hijo de bogotanos se denomina cachaco, mientras que el bogotano hijo de foráneos se menciona como rolo.

En Bogotá, el término cachaco es normalmente usado para referirse a una generación de bogotanos nacidos o influenciados por la cultura y la moda de la ciudad durante la primera mitad del sigo XX y que con el trascurso del tiempo se ha ido desvaneciendo de la escena capitalina. Se caracterizaban no solo por su elegancia y rigor al vestir, sino por su dialecto.2

Marquez gives us 100 years of (fictional) history in the small town of Colombia. He takes the reader from the Spanish Colonial period to the peasant and worker protests in the 1928 against the United Fruit Company, which this chapter explains through the first hand account of Jose Arcadio Segundo.

"The global expansion of the culture of capitalism has benefited many; but it has also brought suffering to others.  Perhaps the greatest loss was borne by peasant farmers who, with the expansion of large-scale agriculture, were transformed from relatively self-sufficient food producers to dependent laborers.   The transformation was sometimes accomplished slowly as large-scale producers either bought up or pushed out small farmers; or it was accomplished rapidly, as colonial powers expropriated land to redistribute to settlers from the colonizer's nation-state.  More recently, economic globalization and the withdrawal of government support has made it difficult, if not impossible, for small-scale farmers to compete with multinational agribusiness.  In any case, the transformation was marked by resistance that was sometimes passive, and other times violent." (http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/legacy/peasant_readings.htm)

Translation:

"vio la ultima mariposa amarilla destrozandose en las aspas del ventilador"

"when she saw the last yelllow butterfly destroyed in the blades of the fan"

*Destrozandose is a self-inflicting action. Detrozandose es romper o hacer trozos una cosa (breaking into pieces something). The word also has a very violent undertone. A better translation would be shattering itself or breaking itself into pieces. It is a destroying of the butterfly but the tense in the sentence is wrong because the action of the butterfly is happening before Meme's eyes not in the past.

"Cabrones!-grito- les regalamos el minuto que falta"

"You bastards!" he shouted. "Take the extra minute and stick it up your ass!"

Meme is unlike other Buendias. Meme is social and does not seem to carry the curse of solitude. She is not beautiful but is a bit vain, in the best way possible. She is amiable, a quality that she has inherited from her father, Aureliano Segundo. She is constantly escaping the rigidness of her mother. In one of her escapes, Meme encountered love; his name, Mauricio Babilonia. Yellow butterflies represent their caprice.

Problems in the translation:

"Los invitados admiraron, mas que su arte, su rara dualidad."

"More than her art, the quests admired her []duality."

* The translation is missing a word, rare.

"En el embotamiento del alcohol, Meme pensaba con deleite en el escandalo que se habria suscitado si en aquel.."

"In the haziness of the alcohol, Meme thought with pleasure about the scandal that would have taken place..."

* Embotamiento, seems to me is a play on words of botella (bottle) and torpor or haziness, its meaning. Also, I love how deleite sounds. It is pleasurable to the ear.

"-Lo que me choca de ti-sonrio-es que siempre dices precisamente lo que no se debe."

"What shocks me about you" she said, smiling,"is that you always say exactly what shouldn't be said."

The banana company was the perdition of Macondo. Marquez illustrates how disastrous it is when foreign investors come into power in a small town. The daily activities are changed and the landscape is altered to marginalize the natives and endanger the fauna and flora of thel town. The native aristocratic class is  hostile towards the newcomers, because they are dethroned in the new system of hierarchy. Marquez implicitly presents his own ideas in the text. Also, I love how Marquez describes old age and how even without vision, Ursula is still more lucid than some of the other characters in this book.

Problems in the Translation:

"En el aturdimiento de los ultimos...."

"In the bewilderment of her last years.."

*A better translation of Aturdimiento would be daze. Bewilderment does produce somewhat of the same effect on the reader but I feel like daze is a better word to describe Ursula's old age.

"<<Los anos de ahora ya no vienen como los de antes.>>"

"The years nowadays don't pass the way old ones used too"

*The English translation lacks structure. In this case, the literal meaning does not convey the meaning or appeal, in my opinion. My translation would be "Nowadays, years don't pass as they used too." It may or may not make a difference but I prefer that sentence structure in English. The sentence structure shouldn't always be translated exactly because different languages have different grammar rules and sentences formations rules. (I don't know much about grammar, I just go with what I feel sounds right)

"No bien Remedios, la bella, habia subido al cielo en cuerpo y alma, y ya la desconsiderada Fernanda andaba refunfuñando en los rincones porque se habia llevado las sabanas."

"No sooner has Remedios the Beauty ascended to heaven in body and soul than the inconsiderate Fernanda was going about mumbling to herself because her sheets had been carried off."

Like almost every post I make on this blog, Marquez is just an absolute genius. Remedios the Beauty may perhaps be my favorite character in this book of lunatics. Although being beautiful, she is not a conventional beauty at all. She does not conform to society's standards of what is considered beautiful. Her negation of what she considers "simple" and absurd (big ornate skirts, long hair, etc.) is what makes apparently more beautiful than the rest. She is bald, unkempt, and stupid according to everyone (except Coronel Aureliano Buendia who considers her a lucid creature). The only way the audience knows she is truly beautiful (because her physical description is inconceivable as conventional ideal of beauty) is through every male's fascination for her. Marquez makes the reader question what truly is beautiful and intelligent. Can someone be mentally and spiritually lucid while still being completely absent from daily life? Is beauty and intelligence a social construct? Or is it a more extraordinary primal essence? I don't know.

Anyways, back to translation:

"Amaranta se escandalizo de tal modo con la invasion de la plebe, que volvio a comer en la concina como en los viejos tiempos."

"Amaranta was so scandalized with the plebeian invasion that she went back to eating in the kitchen as in olden days."

* The term la plebe is a colloquial term to describe the plebeian. Yet, I feel plebs would better put in place here. La plebe is also a very derogatory term because it describes the lowest of low.This also suggests the Buendia's aristocratic tendencies. Fernanda and Amaranta are the main culprit of acting as if they were better than everyone else.

"Luego se echaba agua de la alberca con una totuma"

"Then she would throw water from the ciscern over herself with a gourd"

*Just to clarify, La totuma es una vasija de origen vegetal, fruto del árbol del totumo (Crescentia L) que en Colombia, Venezuela y Panamá utilizan generalmente los pueblos originarios como implemento de cocina. Se usa para contener líquidos y sólidos, beber agua y otras aplicaciones. La palabra totuma viene del chaima. (wikipedia)

Allusion of Marquez other book and regional folklore:

"Se encontro de pronto padeciendo la misma indignacion que sintio en la juventud, frente al cadaver de la mujer que fue muerta a palos porque la mordio un perro con mal de rabia."

"He suddenly found himself suffering from the same indignation that he had felt in his youth over the body of a women who had been beaten to death because she had been bitten by a rabid dog."

Unfortunately, the translation will never be as great as the original. Sometimes, the creativity of a Nobel Laureate cannot be reproduced. Some of the imagery in this particular book come from the intricate combination of sounds and meanings specific to the Spanish language. No literal translation or lyrical paraphrase can never uphold the grandeur of the original thought of the author. Just the sound of each word is magnificent. Spanish is such a beautiful language and the great Spanish writers know exactly how to use each syllable to produce a captivating melody that may even rival that of any produced by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, or Verdi.

Two sentences that caught my attention and I feel are examples of this:

"Siempre, a toda hora, dormida y despierta, en los intantes mas sublimes y en los abyectos, Amaranta pensabe en Rebeca, porque la soledad le habia selecionado los recuerdo, y habia incinerado los entorpecedores montones de basura nostalgica que la vida habia acumulado en su corazon, y habia purificado, magnificado y eternizado los otros, los mas amargos."

"Always at every moment, asleep and awake, during the most sublime and most abject moments, Amaranta thought about Rebeca, because solitude had made a selection in her memory and had burned the dimming piles of nostalgic waste that life accumulated in her heart, and had purified, magnified, and eternalized the others, the most bitter ones"

"Las semanas precedentes se habia visto las cuadrillas que tendieron durmientes y rieles, y nadie les presto atencion porque pensaron que era un nuevo artificio de los gitanos que volvian con su centenario y desprestigiado dale que dale de pitos y sonajas pregonando las excelencias de quien iba saber que pendejo menjunje de jarapelllinosos genios jerosolimitanos."

"During the previous weeks they had seen the gangs who were laying ties and tracks and no one paid attention to them because they thought it was some new trick of the gypsies, coming back with whistling and tambourines and their age-old and discredited song and dance about the qualities of some concoction put together by journeyman geniuses of Jerusalem."

Nabovok

"The Clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase"

"The person who desires to turn a literary masterpiece into another language, has only one duty to perform, and this is to reproduce with absolute exactitude the whole text, and nothing but the text....The problem, then, is a choice between rhyme and reason:can a translation while rendering with absolute fidelity the whole text and nothing but the text, keep the form of the original, its rhythm and its rhyme?"

"One of the main troubles with would-be translators is their ignorance."-culture agree

"I want translations with copious footnotes, footnotes reaching up like skyscarpers to the top of this or that page."

* Although, Nabovok is strictly talking about the translation of Pushkin's Onegin he still speaks of the universal translator experience. I do not completely agree with him. There are certain times where a lyrical paraphrase is good or even better than the literal translation, especially when discussing text that are lyrical and their essence is more about the appeal and imagery it produces to the reader than literal meaning. Reproducing sounds that are pleasing to the ear of the reader should also be considered. Nabovok does mention the inevitable choice of the translator. "rhyme or reason". Something that I completely do agree with is the importance of culturally knowledgeable translators.  It is important that the translation also explains cutural specific signals and allusions. Footnotes are a great tool. In my reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude, I find that footnotes would greatly benefit the translation as it is now.

Wilson: Response to Nabovok's Translation

Nabovok was very bitter in his article about many Onegin translators. Wilson somewhat discredits Nabovok's assertions about literal translation being better than a lyrical paraphrase and he also de-legitimizes his works as a translator.

"..attempted it is oaf and an ignoramus, incompetent as linguist and scholar , usually with the implication that he is also a low-class person and a ridculous personality,"

"..Has produce a bald and awkward language which has nothing in common with Pushkin or with the usual writing of Nabovok"

"There are also actual errors of English...You cannot "listen the sound of the sea" in English; this is Russianism; in English you have to listen to something.

Especially with Chapter 10, the progression of the book is through flashbacks. "Años despues, en su lecho de agonia, Aureliano Segundo habia recordar la luviosa tarde de junio.." Yet the flashbacks in this book are a bit different from what I have experienced in many other books. Marquez presents the flashback but has not described the current moment. Only through another flashback does he explain the past current moment (if does makes any sense). I think it adds to the essence of the fantastic in this book. It also shows how incredible Marquez' mind is and its ability to construct an idea and later, in distant moment, expands the idea with the accuracy as he first presented but always with an unexpected twist.

Personally, I prefer the original to the translation because of regional and lyrical appeal. Yet, I have come to acknowledge that the translation is not all that bad. Of course, like all translation, it has it's problems.

"-No seas pendejo, Gerineldo-dijeron los signos-"

"Don't be a jackass, Gerineldo", the signals said."

*Jackass is a great translation of pendejo. Pendejo literally means "anal hair" or "pubic hair" but it used to refer to someone who is being naive. It also translates to dumbass, stupid, or idiot.

"<< Esto es un atropello>>"

"That's an outrage"

I absolutely love this book. I think the reason I like it so much is the fact that Marquez uses regional ignorance and gossip to slip in the incredible, the magically realistic. Magical realism at its best!

"-No se preocupe, comadre-dijo enigmaticamente el general Moncada-"

""Don't worry, dear friend-said enigmatically"

*Comadre is literally means godmother or mother of godchild but in Spanish-speaking countries it is used as dear friend. There is no better translation.

"-!Cabrones!-alcanzo a gritar-"

"Cowards!" he shouted"

*Cabrones is the plural of cabron, which means male goat. Cabron translates colloquially to dick, asshole, or bastard (pardon my language).  Cowards is again not as strong as the author intended it to be but it is a close substitute. Alcanzomeans reached or was able to. A better translation of the phrase would be was able to shout. The translation lacks the agitation in Aureliano Jose's voice as he is about to get shot.

"Vestia un uniforme de dril ordinario, sin insingnias de ninguna clase, y unas botas altas con espuelas embadurnadas de barro y sangre seca"

"He was wearing an ordinary denim uniform with no insignia of any kind and high boots with spurs that were caked with mud and dried blood."

The more I read Cien años de soledad, the more I'm realizing that perhaps the only thing the translation is missing is a good translation or understanding of Colombian colloquialisms. As Rabassa mentioned in the Venuti article, the translator gives preferences to certain phrases because of their  life experience. Growing up in a Colombian household is probably the reason why I focus my attention on the slang present in the book.

"-Usted querra decir-corigio el official con una sonrisa amable-que es la señora madre del señor Aureliano Buendia."

"You must mean" the officer corrected her with a friendly smile,  'that you are the mother of Mister Aureliano Buendia'"

*As someone may suspect, Spanish is a very proper  language and Colombians sometimes take it a bit further at times (for example, I direct my mother not as mama but as señora when she has asked for me). The English translation is lacking the importance given to Ursula with la señora madre,or Mrs. Mother. It sounds silly in English but it is important to note that the importance of formality is not only given to Aureliano Buendia but also his mother. It is just proper to direct to someone older with señora/o.

"<<Ya sabe usted que soy adivino>>"

"You knew all along I was a wizard"

*He is not a wizard, he is not Merlin or Harry Potter. Adivino means soothsayer, fortune-teller, diviner. One word can completely change the meaning of the entire phrase, paragraph,or even the plot. If anyone is following this blog  with their English translation (with all due respect to the translator), please scratch out wizard and substitute it with one of the above words.

"<<Tanto joderse uno>>,...<<Tanto joderse para que lo maten a uno seis maricas sin poder hacer nada.>>"

"A person fucks himself up so much",.."fucks himself up so much so that six weak fairies can kill him and he can't do anything about it"

And then, Marquez starts with the more obvious historical fiction. There are always so many things going on in this book. One thing, I want to mention is how Marquez actually gives dimension to female characters, especially Ursula. She is more than just a house wife. She is leader, an innovator, a protector of moral order, and a care taker. I just in love with the detailed characterization.

So, today I found some idioms that could be better translated...

"Fue un truco de doble filo, porque el gobierno no se atrevio atacar la plaza durante diez meses, pero cuando lo hizo descargo contra ella una fuerza tan desproporcionada que liquido la resistencia en media hora"

"It was a double-edge deception, for the government did not dare attack the place ten months, but when it did unleashed such a large force against it that resistnace was liquidated in a half-hour."

*The idiom un truco de doble filo would better translate to "a double-edged sword" but deception is good translation too. una fuerza tan desproporcionada que literally translates to "a force so disproportionate that liquidated the resistance in a half-hour." I do not like the english translation of this phrase because the Spanish phrase is an exaggeration and has so much force that "a large force" doesn't cut it.

"-Por supuesto--contesto el emisario--no lo traigo"

""Naturally" the emissary answered, "I have brought nothing of the sort"

*Por supuesto is "of course", instead of naturally but it can mean this in this context.No lo traigo is "I didn't bring it" but I feel "I have brought nothing of the sort" adds some lyrical appeal to the English translation.

"...donde esperaba reclutar exiliados de todo el Caribe.."

"...where he hoped to recruit exiles from all over the Caribbean.."

I have a great affinity with all the characters. I find the way Marquez strips the characters for all superficiality, incredible. In a way, this book speaks of a common human experience of inevitable solitude and nostalgia. The more I read the more I fall in love with this book. Yet, the Spanish original has incomparable grandeur. If was not a Spanish speaker, I would learn Spanish  just to experience this book and the state of mental, physical, and emotional seclusion.

Again, the dialogue/frases are a bit wrong..

"<<No tienes por que preocuparte tanto>>, le decia Jose Arcadio Buendia a su mujer. <<Ese hombre es un marica.>>"

"You don't worry too much" Jose Arcadio told her. "The man's a fairy""

* Un marica translates directly to a gay or a homosexual. Using a fairy implies gay but I don't find it accurate.

"Pilar Ternera en combinacion, desclaza, desgreñada, alumbrándolo con una lampara y pasmada de incredulidad"

"Pilar Ternera stood in her slip, barefoot, her hair down, holiding a lamp over him, startled in disbelief"

*Instead of giving an explanation, I'll give my translation. "Pilar Ternera in a combination, barefoot, disheveled, giving light to him and stunned by disbelief." My translation is pretty literal.

"El amor es una peste"

"Love is a disease"

*"Love is a pest" rather than disease. I feel pest is a stronger word and I feel like that was the intention of Marquez. A disease can be benign but a pest is strictly malignant.

"Me cago dos veces en natura"

"Fuck nature two times over"

* This is one of those frases that the translators creative license and word choice comes into place. The literal translation is "I shit two times on/in nature". The translation does transfer the intention of the signified pretty well but lacks to transmit the double entendre of the phrase. It is fuck nature two times over but it also might be a reference to actual shitting two times a day on nature. I'm not quite sure but it might be a possibility.