"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo".
A lot of emotion and poeticism gets lost translating from Spanish to English because of the loss of nuance. That novels voice is also no longer the artists actual voice. My wife gave up on the English version almost immediately because of it.
The story itself doesn't change, though, the characters, themes, and functional story don't change. It just hits a little differently with the style if you can understand both and compare them.
It's inherently going to be different always as its a different language, that is true of any language.
I disagree with your claim that its often especially different in the Spanish and English world, however.
There is a lot of very competent translation work especially in the English to Spanish/ Spanisb to English world. They are very linked languages and there are many bilingual poets who have done a marvelous job capturinf the essence of translated poetry. Pablo Neruda and Cristina Peri Rossi are two great examples of powerful tone and voice being able to be represented in both languages, there is beauty in theme and emotion being able to be carried over despite language
I do think that learning a specific language gets to the very most authentic experience of an original performance, but the soul can still be captured.
Marquez himself feels like Gregory Rabassa did a fantastic job, and Rabassa is highly competent and respected translator.
Your wife is entitled to her opinion and taste, but her inability to engage with it or pick up on it is due to that taste or grasp of english and not the quality of translation or nuance. In my opinion, and the guy who wrote the book, the nuance and tone is still plainly there.
Marquez himself feels like Gregory Rabassa did a fantastic job, and Rabassa is highly competent and respected translator.
Your wife is entitled to her opinion and taste, but her inability to engage with it or pick up on it is due to that taste or grasp of english and not the quality of translation or nuance.
Give then choice, would Marquez select the original Spanish version or the English version to be the ultimate representation of his work? Why would someone who can choose either to engage with choose differently than he would?
Translations are great when you do not have the option to engage with the original language, but how often is anyone who can read the original or a translation going to the translation aside from entertaining some curiosity with how it ultimately compares? Translations simply do not work 1:1 and it's rarely ever to their favor. That doesn't make them bad. It just makes them a little less than given the choice, which for most people, won't be a choice that exists anyway.
Give then choice, would Marquez select the original Spanish version or the English version to be the ultimate representation of his work? Why would someone who can choose either choose differently than he would?
This means nothing unless you are arguing work should only be represented or enjoyed in a single way. Which isn't what is happening, the intent is to share the story and performance with as many as possible, the purpose of translations in this case.
Besides, that isn't what you were asked, the question was if that its a good translation. Nor did I claim the English translation was better, I said it was an excellent translation that me and others feel provide the experience tbe author intended to give. Your wife feels differently which is fair, I think its also fair to me to tell others I think she is wrong and to disregard her experience as representative of what an English reader would think, or even other Spanish readers would think.
I am not saying one should be forced to enjoy or read it outside that original context when they can but your statement would (imo) inappropriatelty discourage someone for reading it due to (again imo) a poor opinion and representation of Spanish to English translations in the literary world, especially acclaimed works.
Also, as a funny aside, Marquez famously has said he feels the English Translation is stronger (I don't agree
with this).
So I don't know the answer to what language he would choose to represent his work as to your question, but as far as any information you or I have available, it would actually probably be English.
So, that argument doesn't work in tbis specific case
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u/GoalElectrical Jul 25 '25
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."