So on the one hand I feel like who am I to criticize Reid's translations -- he surely knew Spanish better than I and was more familiar than I with the literature he was translating. Still I'm seeing a lot of lines in Neruda's poems that look poorly translated to my eye. But one in particular is kind of knocking me for a loop, because it just seems wrong, in a very basic and easy way. From "El desnudo":
posted afternoon of Saturday, January 10th, 2009
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Just the other day I was talking with a friend about translating and he brought up Neruda saying how different are his translations, just to make them sound as poetic as the originals.
By the way, isn't Raya a Line, and Rayo a Ray? their meanings are quite different. Considering he's talking about a Circle next, I'd stick to Line instead of Ray.
posted morning of January 12th, 2009 by Jorge López
I didn't know that distinction between Raya and Rayo. Sure, if you translate the first line as "This line is the South, which runs" you get geometry in both lines -- translating Raya as Ray makes sense if you are going to make reference to the sun but I can't figure out why Reid does that. But apparently Reid translated this book (Plenos Poderes in the original) at Neruda's request, so I'm guessing he had some insight into the author's intention that I don't have.
BTW I see there is a video on YouTube of the Colombian band Musicalizando performing Plenos Poderes -- I can't listen to this right now but will check it out later on.
posted morning of January 12th, 2009 by Jeremy
I haven't read Plenos Poderes (though I'll check that link later!) but for the best musical translation of Neruda's work you should check out Los Jaivas' Alturas de Macchu Picchu from 1981. A wonderful mix of out of this world lyrical work, progressive rock, and andean folk music.
posted evening of January 12th, 2009 by Jorge López
Judith Flanders 