Painting Borges by Gracia Jorge J. E

Author:Gracia, Jorge J. E. [Gracia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781438441795
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2012-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Impardonable, therefore, are the omissions and additions perpetrated by Madame Henri Bachelier in a fallacious catalogue which a certain daily, whose Protestant tendency is no secret, has had the inconsideration to inflict upon its deplorable readers—though these be few and Calvinist, if not Masonic and circumcised.

The first area of difficulty with this sentence is its length: it is approximately five lines long, depending on the type that is used. This, by English standards, is too long for a sentence. But by Spanish standards, which often derive from Latin, it is not particularly long. Moreover, judged by English standards, the sentence is rather convoluted and confusing, calling for certain modifications in the translation—note, for example, the addition of two commas. For a Spanish audience, on the contrary, the sentence is quite elegant, revealing the dexterity in the language that one would expect in the writer of the piece.

The second source of difficulty concerns the first word in the sentence. The first word in the English translation is ‘Impardonable,’ and in Spanish it is Son. The emphases of the two sentences, then, are quite different. In English, the character of the omissions and additions is paramount; the position of the adjective suggests that this is a great fault. In Spanish, the use of the form of the verb ‘to be’ at the beginning suggests no such force, particularly when one considers that in Spanish one could also have placed imperdonables first. Of course, the translator in English had no alternative but to place ‘Impardonable’ at the beginning, for he could not very well have begun with ‘Are,’ not so much because it is ungrammatical as because it is inelegant, and this sentence is, without a doubt, intended to be ‘elegant.’

The word ‘fallacious’ in English creates a different problem, for, although it does accurately translate the word falaz, the latter is a more common word in Spanish and one whose connotation is not as technical and narrow as fallacious. Generally, when people use ‘fallacious’ in English, they are thinking of arguments of some sort, but in Spanish the word falaz is often used to mean simply false, or incorrect. The translation of desconsideración by ‘inconsideration’ also poses problems. Desconsideración is a rather common word in Spanish, but the English cognate is rare. Again, it smacks of learning and pedantry. Finally, there is the subjunctive translation of son as ‘be.’ Borges is saying that the readers are in fact few, etc., but the subjunctive introduces a certain hesitation missing in the original text.

In short, the translation of the two sentences of “Pierre Menard” we have before us misses much that is essential to the work of the Spanish text. And yet, the translation is very good, indeed. In many ways, it is so good that it cannot be improved. Now, if we were trying to be faithful merely to the ideas expressed by the text, I am sure we could find circumlocutions that would do the trick. Or we could add learned notes that would make possible for us to understand precisely what the Spanish says.

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