On Don Quijote in English
Anthony Pym
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Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Plaça Imperial Tàrraco 1
43005 Tarragona
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Don Quijote (1605, 1615)
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Why apparently a “classic”?
What can translations say about relations between
cultures?
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Don Quijote’s diet
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero
acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo
de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín
flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que
carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y
quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún
palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las
tres partes de su hacienda.
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Don Quijote’s diet
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero
acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo
de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín
flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que
carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y
quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún
palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las
tres partes de su hacienda.
© Intercultural Studies Group
Saturday dinner…
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“eggs and abstinence” (Grossman 2003)
“boiled bones” (Cohen 1950)
“sorrows and troubles” (Stevens 1700)
“scraps” (Ormsby 1885)
“lardy eggs” (Rutherford 2001)
“eggs and bacon” (c. 19th)
‘omelette of eggs and brains’ (c. 18th)
“peas soup” (c. 18th, c. 19th)
“gripes and grumblings” (Smollett 1755)
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Saturday dinner annotated
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“pains and breakings, and evidently points at such
eatables as generate and expel wind” (footnote by
Smollett)
Plus a 30-line note by his editor Battestin (2003).
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Main translators
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Thomas Shelton (1612, 1620)
Pierre Antoine Motteux (c. 1700)
Charles Jervas (1742) reprinted through to 1885
Tobias Smollett (1755)
Alexander J. Duffield
John Ormsby (1885)
Henry Edward Watts
Samuel Putnam (1949)
J. M. Cohen (1950)
Burton Raffel (1996)
John Rutherford (2001)
Edith Grossman (2003)
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Accuracy?
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Only a concern from the mid nineteenth century.
The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don
Quixote. Translated from the Spanish of Miguel de
Cervantes Saavedra by Tobias Smollett. Introduction
and Notes by Martin C. Battestin. The Text Edited by
O M Brack, Jr. (The Works of Tobias Smollett). Athens
and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2003.
Don Quixote. By Miguel de Cervantes. A New
Translation by Edith Grossman. Introduction by
Harold Bloom. London: Secker & Warburg, 2003.
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Names for Sancho’s wife
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Juana / María (1.7)
Smollett (1755): “How comes Juana to be so
suddenly metamorphosed into Mary?”
Grossman (2003): “Presumably through an oversight
on the part of Cervantes, Sancho’s wife has several
other names, including Mari Gutiérrez, Juana Panza,
Teresa Cascajo, and Teresa Panza.”
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Locating the language
—«Nunca fuera caballero de
damas tan bien servido
como fuera don Quijote
cuando de su aldea vino:
doncellas curaban dél;
princesas, del su rocino»
Las mozas, que no estaban hechas a oír semejantes retóricas,
no respondían palabra; solo le preguntaron si quería comer
alguna cosa.
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Locating the language
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Smollett:
‘Never was knight so honoured by the service of ladies as Don
Quixote when he first ushered himself into the world; ladies
ministred unto him, and princesses took charge of his
Rozinante. […]’
The charmers, whose nature never designed to expose such
extraordinary compliments, answered not a syllable, but asked if
he chose to have anything for supper? (p. 35)
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Locating the language
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Grossman:
‘‘Never was a knight
as well-served by ladies
as was Don Quixote
when he first sallied forth:
fair damsels tended to him;
princesses cared for his horse.
The women, unaccustomed to hearing so much high-flown
rhetoric, did not say a word in response; they only asked if he
wanted something to eat. (p. 28).
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Addressing the reader
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Desocupado lector, sin juramento me podrás creer
que quisiera que este libro,…
(The language of the narrator should be more recent
than the language of the romances, and of the
sonnets.)
(The reader is “tú”; a discussion between the
narrator and a friend is in vos”).
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Addressing the reader
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Shelton (1612): THOU mayst believe me, gentle
reader, without swearing
Smollett (1755): Idle reader, without an oath thou
mayest believe
Motteux/Ozell (1762) You may depend upon my bare
word, reader, without any farther security
Kelly (1769) READER, you may depend upon my bare
word without any other security
Wilmot (1774) THOU mayst assure thyself, reader,
that I
Smirke (1818) READER, thou wilt believe me, I trust,
without an oath
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Addressing the reader
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Jarvis (1809, 1824): You may believe me, without an
oath, gentle reader
Clark (1864-67) You may depend upon my bare
word, reader, without any farther security
Anon (1862) Reader, thou wilt believe me, I trust,
when I tell thee
Jarvis (1866): Loving reader, thou wilt believe me, I
trust, without an oath
Ormsby (1885): IDLE READER: thou mayest believe
me without any oath
Watts (1888) IDLE READER; thou canst believe me
without an oath
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Addressing the reader
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Cohen (1950): Idle reader, you can believe without
any oath of mine
Raffel (1995): Leisurely reader: you don’t need me to
swear
Rutherford (2000): Idle reader, I don’t have to swear
any oaths to persuade you
Grossman (2003): Idle reader: Without my swearing
to it, you can believe
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Naming the true author
I.9
Con esta imaginación, le di priesa que leyese el
principio, y haciéndolo ansí, volviendo de improviso el
arábigo en castellano, dijo que decía: Historia de don
Quijote de la Mancha, escrita por Cide Hamete
Benengeli, historiador arábigo
II.1
…. el autor de la historia se llama Cide Hamete
Berenjena!
—Ese nombre es de moro —respondió don Quijote.
—Así será —respondió Sancho—, porque por la
mayor parte he oído decir que los moros son amigos
de berenjenas.
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Naming the true author
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Smollett:
1. Cid Hamet Benengeli (p. 66)
2. ‘… the author of our history is called Cid Hamet
Bean-and-jelly?’ ‘That name is Moorish,’ replied Don
Quixote. ‘Very like,’ said the squire, ‘for I have been
told that the Moors are very fond of beans and
jellies.’ (p.387)
Grossman:
‘…the author of our history is named Cide Hamete
Berenjena?’ ‘That is a Moorish name,’ responded Don
Quixote. ‘It must be,’ responded Sancho, ‘because
I’ve heard that most Moors are very fond of
eggplant.’ (p.473)
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Naming the true author
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Grossman:
‘…the author of our history is named Cide Hamete
Berenjena?’ ‘That is a Moorish name,’ responded Don
Quixote. ‘It must be,’ responded Sancho, ‘because
I’ve heard that most Moors are very fond of
eggplant.’ (p.473)
Footnote refers to footnote on p. 67:
‘Benengeli (berenjena in Spanish) means “eggplant”,
a favorite food of SpanishMoors and Jews’.
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Naming the original language
I.9
Y puesto que aunque los conocía no los sabía leer,
anduve mirando si parecía por allí algún morisco
aljamiado que los leyese, y no fue muy dificultoso
hallar intérprete semejante, pues aunque le buscara
de otra mejor y más antigua lengua le hallara.
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Naming the original language
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Smollett:
I looked about for some Portugueze Moor who should
understand it; and indeed, tho’ the language had
been more elegant and ancient, I might easily have
found an interpreter. (p.66)
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Naming the original language
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Grossman:
I looked around to see if some Morisco who knew
Castilian, and could read it for me, was in the vicinity,
and it was not difficult to find this kind of interpreter,
for even if I had sought a speaker of an older and
better language, I would have found him. (p.67)
Note 1: ‘A Moor who had been converted to
Christianity’.
Note 2: ‘An allusion to Hebrew, spoken by the Jews
who were merchants in the Alcaná.’
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Translations?
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Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote (1752)
on the perils of reading
Fielding, Don Quixote in England (play, 1727, 1734):
Since your madness is so plain
Each spectator
Of good nature
With applause will entertain
His brother of La Mancha.
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Translations?
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The Spirit of Cervantes, or Don Quixote Abridged (1820)
Stories and Chapters from Don Quixote, versified (c. 1830)
The Story of the Don, Rewritten for our Young Folks (1870)
The Wonderful Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Sir
Marvelous Crackjoke (1872)
Don Quixote de la Mancha as a three-act opera (1876)
Alonso Quixano, Otherwise Don Quixote. A Dramatization of the
Novel of Cervantes, and Especially of those parts which he Left
Unwritten (1895)
The Don Quixote Birthday Book (1896)
The Child’s Don Quixote (1901)
“abridged and adapted for Japanese students by the ‘English
student’, 28th edition” (Tokyo 1903)
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The perils of classicization…
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The example of “democracy”.
The text becomes clean, noble, and distanced.
The specific tragedy of decadence is forgotten.
The tragic decline of an aristocracy becomes the
triumphant self-conscious rise of a merchant class.
Spanish cuisine can be advertised in celebration of
the Quijote…
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