Notes on my Spanglish:
While it seems as though some Spanglish is about the language itself, I think my version would serve as more of an educational tool. By taking the original text and changing words to English, it allows for readers to better see which words mean what in the other language and therefore makes it easier to learn the language. I do however take some more “typical” Spanglish liberties by changing words like “dame” to “give-me”.
In the first draft, I went through and changed words that I would normally say in english to English and kept those that I say in Spanish in spanish. However, this does not create and great flowing Spanglish and therefore, I then needed to go back and change words back in order to allow for a better flow.
Moreover, the Spanish which Don Quijote speaks is different than that of Sancho. While Don Quijote’s is elegant, Sancho’s is quite simple. Therefore, in order to keep this dichotomy, I made Sancho speak much more Spanish than English. Since this translation is to be used in an educational sense to help Spanish speakers, by making Sancho speak more Spanish, it makes him feel less educated than Don Quijote, who speaks a more equal blend of the two languages.
Notes on the process:
Since my Spanglish is how I described it before, the original translation is a quick one, where I go through a sentence and change words to English. However, this causes the editing process to be greater because then I need to really go back and hear the flow of the sentence and see how I should change that in order to produce a greater work. Also, due to the knowledge that so many people have of this book, it is difficult to defend certain changes. For example, the scene with the molinos will always be known as the molinos scene, not the windmill scene. Therefore, I needed to be cognoscente of that and make sure my decisions kept those infamous scenes still recognizable.
I chose these infamous sections because when I think of Don Quijote, these are the sections I think about as being very “quijotesco”. Along with this, they provide a variety of dialogue and narration which will allow for Spanglish to be seen in various aspects. But really, when translating something, I feel like one should only translate a work they enjoy. If you do not enjoy the work you are doing, you will not produce your best work. Not only are these scenes very “quijotescos”, but they are also my favorite scenes in the book, so I felt like I would be able to do my best work if I chose these sections over others.
Notes on Revising:
In any type of translation, revising is the most important process. This is what truly allows you to take a step back and ensure that your translation has the same flow that the original text has. In terms of Spanglish, and more specifically, my Spanglish, this process is even more vital. The first version provided a rough draft in which there is little flow. Therefore, the revision process allowed me to take this rough draft and revise some of my choices in order to make there not only be more flow in my Spanglish, but also have the flow match the original a little more. Finally, after presenting to the class, I received many other helpful critiques that would help to make not only my translation, but the full project flow better.
Notes on Comments:
In each version of our translation, we were provided with edits from our fellow classmates. These edits allowed for us to gain insight from other members of the class. Moreover, these edits showed me how my writing was affecting the reader in ways that I did not mean to do. This allowed me to go into the editing process with this new effect in mind and try to continue to have that throughout my writing. For example, in my first version, there were a few instances where I joined two words using a hyphen. The effect this had on the readers seemed to be a positive one and therefore in my next version, I added more of these types of words.
The comments process also allowed for my classmates to give me suggestions I had never thought of. Specifically, Rob Croll suggested using the word windmolinos instead of molinos of wind. This suggesting not only provided with a better flowing word, but also kept the word molinos, which I believe to be an important part of the original text.
Notes on Pictures:
Within my translation, there is one picture, which represents the events taking place in the scene. As mentioned earlier, my Spanglish is one of education. Therefore, the pictures provide with another tool to bridge the gap between the two languages. By providing the reader with an image of the events, he or she is better equipped to understand what is occurring in the passage and thus should get more out of reading the translation in this way than if there were no such pictures.
Notes on voice recordings:
I found the voice recordings to be an extremely important part of making the translation flow better. While I was recording my voice, there were multiple instances where I stopped in order to change the text to allow it to flow better. Without actually hearing the translation spoken aloud, I did not truly know how the words flowed. I think this is especially true in terms of Spanglish because, for now, Spanglish does not have any rules. Any sort of structure is up to the digression of the writer. Therefore, by speaking the translation, I was able to see if I truly would say things the way they were written or if a word in Spanish should actually be in English.
Notes on music:
In various sections, there are two different types of music playing. In the section with the original text and the translated version, there are various pasodobles playing in the background. Currently, these types of songs are heard at bullfights all around Spain. The choice to put these in has to do with the adventure that Don Quijote goes on throughout the sections I have translated. Like in a bullfight, Don Quijote goes on adventures throughout the novel where the outcome is unclear at times. He could be injured or he could injure someone else. For this reason, I chose to use pasodobles in these sections. However, in other sections, including this one, I went for more traditional 16th century Spanish music. This is because these sections are more analysis and discussion of the process and I wanted to try to bring the reader back to the time Cervantes would have been thinking about all these issues as he wrote the original novel.
Notes on translating a “classic”:
Over the course of this semester, we have been looking at all sorts of classic texts and their respective translations. When actually performing a translation of a classic, there are many more tough decisions to make. Since this text is a classic, many people have already read it and if they haven’t, they know parts of it (especially the sections I have chosen to translate). This creates a sort of “walking on eggshells” because you do not want to change anything too much and have the reader no longer remember which passage you are translating. Furthermore, since so many people have read it already, they remember how they felt reading the text the first time. If you are not able to match this feeling, then you have failed. My choice to translate into Spanglish pushes this even further because Spanglish is not seen as a true language by many. In the end, my translation of this classic will be examined by both Don Quijote and Spanglish enthusiasts, so I needed to be even more careful not to change anything too dramatically and not be too bold in my choices because not only would that hurt the original work. but it would also hurt Spanglish from moving forward as a language