From: Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America
14.1 (1994): 107-09.
Copyright © 1994, The Cervantes Society of America
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Raffel Replys to Parr*
To the Editor:
The trouble with what Professor Parr sees as
a problem is, bluntly, that it has problems. I have nothing to say
about his personal genre uncertainties: to be sure, if one were to read Don
Quijote as, say, a poem in disguise, or a prose poem, or a translation
from Sanskrit, varying readings would inevitably be produced. I read Don
Quijote as a book, written by one Miguel de Cervantes, and take my cues
—all my cues— from the text rather than from any
critical stance. I too am a professor of literary studies, and have for my
sins written my share of criticism and given the world the immense benefits
of my share of scholarship. But a literary translator must, to the extent
humanly possible, work from his text rather than from any and all
preconceptions.
Indeed, this is precisely what I have tried
to do, and Professor Parr's chosen example, the dialogue between the Duchess
and Sancho, II, 32, is I think an excellent example of his and my ineluctably
differing approaches. I have a copy of Murillo, and have duly noted what
is in that edition; I have a copy of Covarrubias and have carefully noted,
too, what that invaluable source has to say. I have the O.E.D., and I used
it to decipher Smollett's “bucking.” But I also have what Cervantes
rather than any and all of these authorities wrote, and among other things
the Cervantian text makes me ask myself, and ought to make Professor Parr
at least ponder, is why on earth, if this passage is designed to exhibit,
inter alia, the Duchess's “cruel humor,” Cervantes has her
go on to say, as she does, “Mirad, maestresala . . . lo que
el buen Sancho pide, y cumplidle su voluntad al pie de la letra”? Are
we to imagine, if Professor Parr has correctly glossed these lines, that
she is carefully instructing her maestresala to (in his words)
“douse [Sancho] in the linen colander, if need be”? Would she be
speaking of Sancho's “voluntad,”
* This item is a reply to James A. Parr's letter “To the editor”, Cervantes 13.2 (1993), 135-37, which in turn was a response to Raffel's piece “Translating Cervantes: Una vez más.” Cervantes 13.1 (1993): 5-30. -F.J.
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| 108 | BURTON RAFFEL | Cervantes |
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much less of observing it “al pie,” if that were the case? Sancho
—who after all was there, as neither Professor Parr nor I were—
has just observed that “un lavatorio de éstos antes es
gusto que trabajo” (emphasis added). If both the Duchess and
Sancho were thinking in the terms Professor Parr stipulates, would
“gusto” be an appropriate word? We do indeed know that Sancho knows
the phrase “meter en la colada”: quite so. But we also know that
he is distinctly lecherous; that young and nubile females are doing the washing;
and we know that “innuendo” is precisely what, under similar
circumstances in this book (whatever its genre) the Duchess has employed.
And will, in this same book, employ again. Must we, then, in the face of
such contextual evidence, insist on absolute literalness of lexicon? That
is not Cervantes's way. And if we refrain from imposing textbook-flat literalness
on the lines in question, can we not remind ourselves that Cervantes frequently
thinks, like most people, in metaphorical terms? Might the Duchess thus be
saying, as I have made her say, something more like “if you like, we'll
go even further than that”? Could that not be what the reference
to putting someone or something in the “colada” really
means? And, finally, isn't “meaning” what, as a translator,
I am supposed to be after —not genre theory, not lexical knowledge which
distracts us away from, rather than further into, the text being
translated?
I am sorry that Professor Parr thinks I am
not aware (I teach in a department of English and comparative literature)
of Smollett's dates. I am also aware, however, that my essay was appearing
in a journal read primarily by Hispanists, and for their benefit I highlighted
the now unusual spelling, in English, of “dutchess.” I was
not thereby signalling: Look what an idiot Smollett is, not knowing how we
spell this word, but simply: dear readers, this is indeed the spelling employed
by Smollett. That seems to me no more than scholarly good manners, which
is, alas, more than I can say for Professor Parr's frequently irony-laden
comments on my essay. My “puff-piece,” as he calls it, will appear
in Spring 1994, in not very different form, as chapter six of my Penn State
UP study, The Art of Translating Prose, an immensely serious and scholarly
volume with, I think, some moderately significant linguistic and literary
things to say. Would he have me, or any translator, pretend not to prefer
our own translations to those of others? Why indeed would we bother doing
the translations in the first place? or have (in his
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| 14.1 (1994) | Forum | 109 |
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words) “the temerity to launch a new version of the Quijote”? (There are of course those who fear any substantial, not to say any significant project. But ought we thus to penalize those who are not so afraid?) I am in truth saddened by any and all such displays. If it did not seem to me important to set the record straight, believe me, I would not have bothered (as I usually do not bother) to reply.
| BURTON RAFFEL |
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Digitized with the help of Contessa Marion |
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| Fred Jehle jehle@ipfw.edu | Publications of the CSA | H–Cervantes |
| URL: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/artics94/raffel.htm | ||