Neruda is one of my favorite poets. From the gloomy, introspective verses of "Residencia en la Tierra" to the stormy verses of political nature in "Las Uvas y el Viento", he stands for me as one of the monsters (if not the monster) of modern Latin American poetry.
However, I sense a lot of its subtle sensuality is way lost when translated into English.
Not being a translator myself, I wonder: how can the beauty of Spanish language be passed to English and other languages?
Can an English speaker be touched by the verses of a particular poet after the translation?
Any of you has an opinion on Neruda's translations into English?
Originally posted by Seitse Any of you has an opinion on Neruda's translations into English?
Any bilingual readers around?
My Spanish is fairly shocking, but I get by with facing-page translations. What you say is true: English translations of Neruda -- and Lorca -- lose an awful lot of meaning. As for the sound, well, that's a lost cause. Especially once having heard a recording of Neruda.
There are a lot of Spanish blogs the post out-of-print material, like this reading of Lorca by Rafael Alberti (when he was in exile in Argentina): http://losquenoseconsiguen.blogspot.com/2008/08/federico-garca-lorca-por-rafael-alberti.html
Translations of Borges are not as bad somehow, perhaps because his Spanish had a strange hint of English to it?
the spanish translation of the simpons and pretty much any english language comedy is shocking.
it would probably take a writer who is not a native english or spanish speaker but was fluent in both to translate and change the context to get it to what neruda had indented in spanish. although that is just a guess, it probably is impossible to translate everything since the two languages are so very, very different.
Originally posted by trev33 some of the translations are shockingly bad.
one that i remember.
crusty shouts 'yeah' gets translated to 'si senor' petty i know, but it's not the same and didn't capture the moment 😏
That's funny!
Well, from a Spanish speaking point of view, it is tremendously hilarious if the 100% American Simpsons suddenly speak like people in any street of Mexico City.
I guess purists of the Simpsons or non Spanish speakers would be shocked and/or disappointed, indeed.
Well, from a Spanish speaking point of view, it is tremendously hilarious if the 100% American Simpsons suddenly speak like people in any street of Mexico City.
I guess purists of the Simpsons or non Spanish speakers would be shocked and/or disappointed, indeed.
i guess, my spanish is far from perfect but i did actually learn some from the simpsons in spanish. (which shows how sad i am that i could remember what the english lines were supposed to be 😵) really didn't like the voices though.
However, I don't know if the Spanish translation for the Simpsons is made per country or one for all Latin America. Most likely is the second option, because in Mexico the Simpsons are soooo agressively "tropicalized" into Mexico that any other Latin American country would have difficulties understanding the localisms.
On a side note, dubbings made in Mexico are of the highest quality, and they have been awarded several times, earning the contracts for dubbing Dreamworks and Disney movies into Spanish.
A classic. Disney's Book of the Jungle was dubbed in Mexico and remains as a historic jewel.
In any case, out of the Simpsons, I hate dubbing, lol I prefer to watch the original in English.
However, I don't know if the Spanish translation for the Simpsons is made per country or one for all Latin America. Most likely is the second option, because in Mexico the Simpsons are soooo agressively "tropicalized" into Mexico that any other Latin American country would have difficulties understanding the localisms.
On a side note, ...[text shortened]... ny case, out of the Simpsons, I hate dubbing, lol I prefer to watch the original in English.
i would guess that peru, bolivia and ecuador would have the same translation because their spanish is so similar and i did watch it in all of these countries and it sounded the same, 95% sure it was the same voices.
i didn't watch it in argentina but i would guess as they seem to control south american tv that they have their own translation that them and chile would use since there spanish is so very different from the other places i mentioned.
as you know colombian spanish was different again and i think they would have the means to translate their own version of the simpsons but i can't remember seeing the simpsons in colombia so i wouldn't know.
you're right though most things are better as the original, the ring for example, even though i only saw the original with english subtitles it was a millions times better than what the americans did with it.
Pablo Neruda and English translations
10 Mar '09 09:39
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