La Celestina Ejercicio de Traducción (0)

5
Ryker Huffman
Spanish 432.001
4-15-2013
La Celestina Ejercicio de Traducción
Esta cita es en el auto uno, cuando Celestina y Sempronio hablan en privado. Calisto y Pármeno se acercan, de la habitación, y empiezan a escuchar la conversación. Celestina puede oír que se están acercando e instruye Sempronio “escucha y déjame hablar lo que a ti y a mí me conviene.” Después de escuchar a algunos de la conversación diseñada por Celestina y Sempronio, Calisto y Pármeno salen y Celestina y Sempronio continúan de hablar en privado. Entonces, Celestina explica a Sempronio que Calisto está "enfermo del amor." Eligio este pasaje porque explica la punta de vista de la Celestina sobre el “amor impervio.” En la cita ella explica de dónde viene el amor y qué podemos hacer.
Finch , 2003
Has de saber, Pármeno, que Calisto anda ‘de amor quejoso. Y no lo juzgues por eso por flaco, que el amor impervio todas las cosas vence. Y sabe, si no sabes, que dos conclusiones son verdaderas. La primera, que es forzoso el hombre amar a la mujer y la mujer al hombre. La segunda, que el que verdaderamente ama es necesario que ‘se turbe con la dulzura del soberano deleite, que por el Hacedor de las cosas fue puesto, porque el linaje de los hombres ‘se perpetuase, sin lo cual perescería.
(Finch p 36)
Literal Translation
You know , Pármeno, that Calisto is lovesick°. And you shouldn’t judge him for being weaker than it; undaunted° love conquers all things. And know that, if you don’t know already , that two conclusions are true. The first , that a man is forced to love a woman and the woman love a man. The second, that he that truly loves must be bothered by the sweetness of natural delight , which the Maker of things put onto us, for the lineage of men to continue , without which it would perish°. ( ° Denotes translations taken from Finch)
Literary Translation (that I would write in a book which keeps the spirit of Rojas)
It’s easy to see, Parmeno, that Calisto is lovesick. You shouldn’t blame him for succumbing to such a strong force ; true love conquers all. And you should, know, if you don’t already, that there are two universal truths about love. First, is that it is in man’s nature to love a woman, and in women ’s to love a man. Secondly, those who are truly in love must be driven mad by the force of the erotic fantasies that come so naturally, which God gave us in order for humanity to continue; we would perish without this driving force.
Literary Translation ( even more evolved, that way I would speak)
Calisto is obviously falling for her Parmeno. Don’t be mad at him for it, real love is too much to handle. There are two things about love: One, it’s natural, and two, the sexual fantasies it causes us to have make us crazy. God made it this way so that humans can continue populating… without these fantasies that make us crazy, we would all die.
James Mabbe, Ed. Dorothy Severin, 1631
CELEST. I would have thee to know, Parmeno, that Calisto is love-sick, sick even to the death . Nor art thou for this to censure him to be a weak and foolish man: for unresistable love subdueth all things. Besides, I would have thee to know, if thou knowest it not already, that there are these two conclusions that are evermore infallibly true. The first is, that every man of force love a woman, and every woman love a man. The second is, that he who truly loves, must of necessity be much troubled and moved with the sweetness of that superexcellent delight which was ordained by Him that made all things, for the perpetuating of mankind, without which it must needs perish.
(Mabbe p 63)
Prose
The most distinctive element of the original passage is it’s sexual tone in its explanation of “true love.” Celestina basically says that Calisto is suffering from being horny all the time, and that God made them that way so humans could propagate. In the same passage, “forzoso” is related to love between man and woman. Somehow men are, literally , forced to love women. I have a major in biophysics, so I’m thinking of a physical force that hypothetically pushes a man to love some woman. It’s also curious that he writes men are forced to love women, and not just men are forced to love. When he wrote this novel, his dad had already been burned alive for his Jewish heritage, and the Spanish Inquisition was still in full effect . The entire book is extremely agnostic; this passage referencing God ( Christian ) and the requirement of man and woman (homophobic) is very rare. I believe this to be one of the main differences between the first act and the next twenty . I also think that the agnostic nature of the work is one of the reasons behind the mystery of the book’s authorship. Although the passage has a sexually explicit overtone, it makes references to man and woman (only), and the Christian God. Which might leave the reader confused. My biggest question about this part is: Why is everyone forced to love? I think that most of us would agree, when you’re attracted to someone , or in love with someone, you would bend to there will. There may be some things that are out of your control; be it because you want so badly to make them happy , or that you so badly want pleasure . However , the passage says that we are forced to feel this attraction, to someone. What about the people that don’t want a partner ? I believe Rojas makes a good point about what effect love has on us, but it doesn’t necessarily have to affect everyone.
When I wrote my literal translation, I tried to write something that any modern English speaker could understand , and still feel the compassion in Celestina’s statement . When I read the passage, I get strong feelings about love, and I tried to preserve that when switching to English. However, I think that this came out better in my literary version . My literal translation is plain and easy to understand, but doesn’t have the lovely flow that the Spanish does ( really , none of the English versions do. For me anyways).
When I wrote the literary translation, I tried to reinstate that artistic and compassionate flow of the original. “True love conquers all”, “universal truths”, and “ succumb ” are some of the compassionate phrases that I feel demonstrate the feeling of the original. The last statement, about God and him putting that force in place , was tricky. I handled it by modifying the entire sentence structure and using key words to tie ideas together. I went back and add the word force to the previous sentence, and made sure driven was in the right spot as well. I wanted to make sure the readers understood what exactly god put into place. I think I did a good job of that, but if you didn’t get it the first time please read it again as in my “more evolved” translation. I want the connection to be drawn between the irresistible force caused by love that drives us mad and the force caused by the “soberano” part in our pants that God put there.
The most interesting words for me to translate were soberano and impervio. I translated them to mean natural, as in born with it, and amor impervio as true love. There is an entire essay dedicated to the word impervio and it’s meaning in La Celestina at http://www.ai-camineria.com/congresos/celestina.ht m, it’s very interesting.
Mabbe does a great job of preserving the romantic part of the work. He invents and adds a lot of parts, but I think that it is helpful, and can’t hurt . I chose his translation because of this, and for it being so well known . However, it is severely outdated and, honestly, was hard for me to understand without Finch’s book.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Rojas, Fernando De. Celestina. Trans. James Mabbe. Ed. Dorothy Severin. Warminster:
Aris & Phillips, 1987.