Don Quijote: Key scenes
Miguel de Cenvates’s infamous novel, Don Quijote de la Mancha, published in 1605 and 1615 has reached across many cultures and languages and truly become a classic text. In all of these cultures, there seem to be 5 scenes that present the reader with true Quijotismo. These scenes include the first paragraph, the burning of the books, the battle with the windmills, the interactions with lions, and the demolition of a puppet show. This project will attempt to create an interlingual translation into Spanglish of all of these notorious scenes.
Spanglish is usually seen as an informal hybrid language used in households or areas where both Spanish and English are prominent. Due to the mixing that occurs, there are no real grammatical rules for the language, and because of this, it is sometimes seen as not being a true language. However, Spanglish dominates in many cultures where English and Spanish speakers collide. This is a growing language and should be respected. Professor Ilan Stavans is one of the leaders of the movement to attempt to create grammar rules for Spanglish and make it so people begin to respect Spanglish as a language. This project will try to show one of the great benefits to Spanglish, the educational aspect. The translations you will read involve taking the original text and converting some words into English. I hope this will create a piece of writing that could help readers learning English by providing them with a text that stays true to the original sentence structure while still presenting words in English for them to learn. Since the sentence structure will be the same, if the reader does not understand the English word, they would be able to go to the original Spanish text and see what the word in Spanish is. Therefore, these writings will serve as a bridging text between the original Spanish version and the translated English versions. I discuss this concept further when exploring the difference between my translation and the translation performed by Ilan Stavans.
Miguel de Cervantes:
Miguel de Cervantes is believed to have lived between 1547 and 1616. Before becoming a writer, Cervantes was a member of the military. After being captured by the Ottoman pirates, he was released and moved back to Madrid, Spain upon the payment of a ransom.
Prior to publishing Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes was regarded as a mediocre writer. Many of his pieces were short stories that never truly gained traction in Spain. However, in 1605, the first part of Don Quijote was released, and it received instant praise. But the end of this novel left the readers awaiting the second novel. After years of waiting, a second novel was published by an impostor, Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda. This false novel propelled Cervantes to release the true second part of the story, which includes many references to Avellaneda’s attempt to publish the second part.
Don Quijote has been translated over 20 times just into English. This novel is the best selling book in history, behind the Bible. Cervantes has even created such a strong group of followers that the word “Quijotesco” is widely used when referring to certain aspects of a person or character.
Nico Pascual-Leone is a member of Amherst College class of 2016, currently completing a Chemistry major. His interest in translation first began when he translated Dr 
Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream speech into Spanglish. Since then, his love for translation and his fascination in Spanglish has continued with various poems and sections of books being translated into this hybrid language. He is also a member of the men’s soccer team at Amherst College and hopes to pursue a career in soccer before heading to medical school.