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COPYRIGHT 2005 Modern Humanities Research Association
The art of translation is fraught with difficulty. This is particularly the case with literary translation, where a whole series of strategies employed by the translator can alter both the nature and the tenor of the original. This article considers the case of the English version of Rodoreda's classic La placa del Diamant from this perspective and examines the extent to which David Rosenthal is successful in his version. The study is not primarily concerned with a listing of mistranslations. Its aim is rather to assess stylistic intrusions on the part of the translator and reflect on the impact of these on the reception of the novel overall.
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Translation is a notoriously parlous activity; and if it is thus when dealing with a major 'normalized' European language, then it is even more fraught in the case of a 'minority' idiom such as Catalan. In this respect, not only is the issue compromised by the thorny problem of the idiosyncrasies of a language standardized comparatively recently--whose agreed norm still remains severely questioned in some of its constituent areas--but also by a series of extra-textual considerations which the translator is obliged to take on board. These more objective criteria have been mentioned elsewhere but might be summed up by the formula that the apology for, and defence and promotion of, a marginalized culture habitually implicit in this particular type of activity can often be responsible for strategies of interference in the translation process which would not come into consideration in the renderings of material from one major linguistic medium to another. (1)
These pressures were no doubt familiar to the late poet and translator David Rosenthal as he undertook in the late 1970s an English version of Merce Rodoreda's seminal novel of 1962, La placa del Diamant. (2) The work in question is especially dear to the heart of the native population. In many ways the book captures the Zeitgeist of the pre-democratic period and the frustratedly plangent intimacy of its depiction of the travails of the downtrodden protagonist and her tortured attempts at survival elicit a sympathetic identification experienced collectively by a nation whose existence was similarly compromised so savagely by the exclusive uniformity of Franco's Spain.
What is more, within the context of culture as a means of national defence, there is a further consideration of a sociolinguistic nature. With the literary quality of its prose and the immediate international recognition it attained, the novel stood defiantly as proof that, despite the policy of linguistico-cultural extermination conducted by the regime, Catalan as a language--though apparently reduced to the status of a patois--could still be used successfully in the arena of high culture and was by no means lost to posterity as the dictator expressly wished. The point is crucial as, despite its proletarian ethos, linguistic purity and correctness are a major feature of the original and, as such, should be privileged in turn in the target language. As if these external pressures were not sufficient in themselves, the immensity of the translator's task was increased by the entire lack of philological support. At this time various dictionaries were available but not directly helpful for the task in hand. The rudimentary Catalan-Castilian manual was not the most reliable of tools, and the thought of a Catalan-English wordbook was little more than a pipe dream which would not be realized for another five years. (3)
Quite apart from these environmental pressures, the text itself, like all works of literary quality, would prove challenging for the translator. There can be little question, for example, that the fundamental feature of the novel--and one, therefore, to be rendered successfully at all costs in the target language--is the narrative voice, so crucial to an understanding of the book as a whole. It would be in no way excessive to posit that our appreciation of the work depends on our evaluation of the autobiographical narrator. And it is precisely through the analysis of her discourse that we get close to her as an individual and thereby close to an understanding of the complexity of the experience recounted.
The peculiarity of the interior monologue which, over a period of decades in the plot, remains unusually fixed in rhythm, tone, mood, and content is fundamental to Rodoreda's artistic achievement. The essential part of the translator's endeavour in the case in hand, therefore, will be to communicate this element as accurately as possible. And consequently our assessment of Rosenthal's version will focus primarily on his relative success in this area.
In this respect, semantic accuracy is of evident importance. Terminological precision is, of course, a goal of translation, yet in this particular case any significant inexactitude will produce confusion and thus inevitably compromise appreciation of the smoothness of the narrative flow in the target language. Happily, in terms of lexis the English version is generally sound. The long lists of items associated with the contemporary female experience as the narrator/ protagonist, Colometa, describes her proletarian life as confectioner's assistant, subservient homemaker, cleaner, and finally grocer's wife within the familiar terrain of the city are generally accurate: no mean feat given the paucity of lexical recourses available. As in any translation, however, oversights are apparent and the following are examples gleaned from a primary reading, together with a suggestion for a more satisfactory version.
Va sortir un nen A man [!] came out of the A boy [!] d'una entrada, amb building with a revolver un revolver al in his belt and holding aiming cinturo i una a shotgun and went by, escopeta apuntada, brushing against my shirt i va passar fregant-me and calling out, 'Meki, les faldilles i cridant, meki ...' [!] (p. 19) (5) meequi ... meequi (p. 71) (4) Fer el vermut (passim) To have a vermouth To have an aperitif i mataven jueus and were killing and were making per les parets i Jews [!] on the a racket (6) per terra (p. 85) walls and on the ground (p. 34) I va venir la festa And it came time And time came major [...] i el for the neighborhood for senyor que l'havia street festival encarregada li havia [...] and the man sortit jueu i l'havia who had asked him escanyat. (p. 108) to do it turned turned out to out to be a Jew be a penny- and had gypped him. pincher (p. 53) I que amb la fama que And with the reputation li feia, si no es he was giving her if she if she didn't casava amb ell didn't marry him she'd marry him she'd s'hauria de quedar per end up dressing saints. end up on the vestir sants. (p. 259) (p. 186) shelf [!]
This type of lexicographical oversight is clearly disappointing: though perhaps not so much for the mistranslation in itself as for the confusion visited on the tenor and drift of the narrative. Much more significant in this area, however, are a series of propositions which produce a more disconcerting effect through the creation of a qualitatively divergent impression in the readers of the target language from that experienced by their native counterparts.
First and foremost, of course, is the title of the piece itself. The toponymic reference, 'La placa...
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