Sound effects

First off, I still have to say, after reading the play I still do not like plays. Although I do have to admit that the descriptive words of the sound effects was rather cool. I also agree with Kristy that the exercise of translating the passages into English really did help because as I was reading I looked up the words but it was frustrating to try and break it down to figure out what it was actually saying. I had the passage about the Montemar hearing the sounds of the people he killed coming back to haunt him. The sounds in the play are very descriptive and I think it helps make the play what it is. As we talked about in class I also believe this would be a really cool movie (and I would probably have more appreciation for it). With the technology that's around it would be rather easy to reproduce the sounds that are portrayed in the book and make it very interesting to watch and I think it has the ability to be successful.

El Estudiante de Salamanca

I was amazed by Espronceda's work, especially after doing the exercise on Wednesday. It really helped to translate it into English and discuss the passages, because I felt like I finally started getting a grasp on the language and began to understand how Espronceda expresses himself and his emotions through his writing. I have always been intrigued by the sound, and flow, and passion in different languages, which is one reason why I started studying Spanish. I love the different ways people express themselves. Interestingly, just today I was talking with my boss at work, who is from overseas, and she learned Russian, German, and French while growing up, and taught herself English. We were talking about how she feels like she will never be able to express herself in English in the same way Americans do, as she just can't get the right tone or the right phrases. We saw this when translating Espronceda's passages on Wednesday, as sometimes translation just doesn't have the equivalent words, or the equivalent expression of emotion. Also, this is what made it more difficult to read this poem. I had a lot of trouble, as I had to look up every second word (or at least it felt like it!), because there were a lot of adjectives that I had never heard of. Between looking up all the words and going back and forth, I didn't feel like I got the real essence of the play when I read it the first time, so going back through it this week really helped. I have also started to recognize and respect Espronceda's immense talent and the work he put into writing this play- as rhyming all these words just can't possibly come naturally :) He writes in a way that truly paints a picture for the reader, which is not an easy task.

El estudiante de Salamanca

Para mí se me hace algo irónico como a Don Félix las mujeres le trajeron tanta felicidad pero también lo llevaron a su desgracia. La gente siempre cosecha lo que planta y Don Félix planto una tempestad por jugar con los sentimientos de una mujer enamorada e inocente. El la hizo sufrir por amor, y como Elvira era totalmente una romántica y se entrego cuerpo y alma, y así sufrió. Se podría decir que ella en su larga agonía y por ser tan dramática lloro un rio de lagrimas por su amado. Pero también yo creo que el castigo que le pasó a Don Félix de ir al infierno no solo fue por Elvira. El siempre tenía una mujer nueva y a todas las dejaba por otras, yo creo que tal vez todas eran como Elvira inocentes cuales creían en todas las palabras de ese hombre sínico y se entregaron como Elvira a su amado. Pero todas las mujeres fueron vengadas por la mujer cubierta en blanco que llevo a ese desgraciado a pagar por el sufrimiento que le causo a cada dama, por cada lágrima que les hizo llorar él lo pagara por toda la eternidad porque en el infierno el estará.

El Estudiante de Salamanca

Yo he estado pensando mucho sobre el parte final de “El Estudiante de Salamanca.” Es muy abierto y hay mucha discusión sobre lo que sucede actualmente. Personalmente, no pienso que don Félix está muerto. En mi interpretación, este parte es completamente un sueño. Pienso que estos pensamientos están ocurriendo en su subconsciencia y él siete culpabilidad por la primera vez. En los partes anteriores, él suprime sus emociones y sentimientos. Peo en este sueño, él siente algunas emociones, como él tiene miedo por un instante breve. Pienso que en este parte, finalmente no puede suprimir su culpabilidad nada más. Pienso que él tiene culpabilidad por sus acciones contra Elvira, como es evidente en el parte que todos los personajes le dicen que él tiene casarse con Elvira. También, tiene culpabilidad para el muerto de don Diego. Pienso esto porque él ve su mismo funeral. Pienso que en algo parte de su mente, don Félix sabe que el funeral debe ser su mismo. Esto es simplemente mi interpretación. Me gustaría oír los pensamientos de otros en este parte del poema.

El estudiante de Salamanca

El estudiante de Salamanca was a very difficult story to read yet it also opened up my eyes to a new style of writing. I found it interesting that the author had poetry in longer lines, then choppy, and then he started into a play layout. I find it difficult to read poetry in English, so this poem was even more difficult partly due to the different setup. Jose used a lot of description in his writing that I would seem to get lost in and would have no idea what is going on. When we did the excercise in class, it helped being able to break down one part and analyze what he is trying to get across and describe. By understanding the description, I was able to imagine the scene and understand more about what Felix de Montemar was going through or what Elvira was feeling. He is a very powerful writer, and he truely writes in the time of Romanticism. He truely tapped into the emotions of the readers, and he did that well by describing and using different work choice when describing Felix and Elvira. You were able to relate to Elvira and feel her pain while I wanted Felix to have some punishment for his actions. I also liked how this story was a different twist on a Don Juan story. It really offered fresh ideas and way of writing to a new story. Lastly, I think it is amazing the power love can have on people's emotions. How Elvira killed herself because Felix no longer wanted to be with her. While it hurts when one's first true love leaves you, you should never result to killing yourself. Jose really captured Elvira's true pain, and I wish that people did not have to feel those emotions. El estudiante de Salamance was truely an interesting story.

Lost in Translation

Strangely enough, the song "Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield was stuck in my head last night and for whatever reason I caught myself trying to sing it in Spanish... "La chica de Jesseeee"..... yeah, it doesn't work. This got me thinking about our discussion yesterday on translation of literary works. El estudiante de Salamanca has so much rhythm and flows so beautifully (and horrifically!) that we could barely do it justice with our English translations. I think the same goes for songs. There is so much more than trying to create a rhyming pattern like in the original song. Like we talked about, English and Spanish sound differently to a reader and when translating one to another, you really lose a lot. One of my favorite Spanish songs is "Dejame Vivir" por Jarabe de Palo (check it out, it's good). Whenever I listen and translate the words back to English in my head, it just sounds choppy and weird. Like Profesora emphatically expressed, we SHOULD keep works in their own languages. However, I can't help but think about all the great stories we would be missing if we could only read in our own language(s). I guess that would be an incentive of learning all the languages in the world!

One a side note, I read Popol Vuh for Spanish 555. It was translated to English from the Quiche language and I thought it was very well done.

Week 4 Blog

In class today, someone mentioned the fact that a work is always better in its original language. This seemed to be true after we completed the exercise in class. Although our translations were correct and sent the same message, the translation does not produce the same effect on the reader that the original version can. I did some research on the OSU databases and I found an interesting book review about "The Student of Salamanca", an English translation of the work.

Certainly, one always can quibble with anyone's attempt at verse translation of a poem, and Davies's is not without its defects. His rendering of the dialogue, for example, occasionally strikes me as more wooden and less dynamic than Espron- ceda's original. At other times the specific image Espronceda evokes is sacrificed to salvage a semblance of the original's metre. For example, in the opening lines Espronceda's gothic evocation of the living dead ('los vivos muertos parecen I las tumbas los muertos dejan' is rendered by an attenuated 'Dead men appeared to be living, The living corpselike in slumber' (p. 43). On other occasions Davies's translation moves from Espronceda's colloquial register to a more ethereal tone: 'Ha dado en no responder' becomes 'Her wordless whimsy persists' (p. I5), and at times the demands of the rhyme create some unhappy results ('admiro vuestro candor' becomes 'your faith fills me with amaze' (p. 9I) ). Each lover of the Spanish original will undoubtedly have his or her own list of unfortunate renderings, yet to dwell on them would be to miss the fun of Davies's work taken as a whole. Stanzas such as the following are the norm and may compensate for an occasional lapse: A face of an angel he saw in illusion It came as illusion comes charming the mind, Yet clouding the brow in tense wrinkled confusion, For never may reason its true meaning find. (P.99) Davies's translation generally catches the rhythm and energy of the original, his images are vivid, and his solutions to some difficult passages are often ingenious. The translation, thirty-eight years in preparation, stands on its own as a readable, riveting story, accessible to anyone interested in a good tale. Cardwell's introduction and notes are predictably precise and useful. The introduction is largely a synthesis of material he has published elsewhere, but it is organized in an intelligent and disciplined fashion that makes it an appropriate, though not overwhelming, introduction to the work of Espronceda. At the same time, the commentary and notes provide the specialist with helpful bibliography and useful reminders of the centrality of the poem in Spanish Romanticism. The notes are used judiciously both in number and length, avoiding the excesses of some recent editors who seem intent on supplanting the original work with their own often irrelevant erudition. In short, the Davies-Cardwell team has produced that rare combination in books: a text that is instructive, important, and entertaining.

This is where I found the review:

The Student of Salamanca ('El estudiante de Salamanca'). By JosE DE ESPRONCEDA. Trans. by C. K. DAVIES, with an introduction and notes by RICHARD A. CARDWELL. (Hispanic Classics) Warminster: Aris & Phillips. I991. viii + 152 pp. ?30 (paperbound ?9.95). http://www.jstor.org/stable/3734994?seq=2

In contrast to our discussion, this review thinks that this translation is a good one that is able to evoke similar feelings that the poem did. I put in red some lines that really demonstrate the strong liking that this reviewer took to the translation. When the person doing the review refers to the "lovers of the Spanish original" being able to have a list of things wrong with a translation, I think that he is missing the point, at least how I see it. I think the reason that the reason that people like a work in the original language is because a translation will never capture the word for word, exact meaning and effect of the original. This is what is so unique about literature in different languagues because each language has a different technique and power in works. Translations are made to allow other cultures and people who speak different languages to enjoy, with the best effort to give the full effect, a work that is so powerful in its original language.