Spanish

In chronological order (date of first publication)

Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, Dramas de Guillermo Shakespeare, Barcelona 1881, facsimile at the Iberian & American Translation Portal (p.271): the speech is omitted.

Attributed to the same source at Wikisource:

Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo en Dramas de Guillermo Shakespeare (1881), pp. 329-482 (!)

"(A Brabancio.) Noble señor, si es verdad que a la virtud no le falta el encanto de la belleza, vuestro yerno es más bello que atezado."

"if it is true that virtue does not lack the charm of beauty, your son-in-law is more beautiful than swarthy"

Version examined by Ignacio Rodríguez Sánchez, Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, México.

Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo. Publisher: EDAF (Madrid/Buenos Aires), 1965.

"si la virtud es el mejor adorno, no hay duda que vuestro yerno es hermoso” (no rhyme, prose)

“if virtue is the best ornament, there is no doubt that your son-in-law is handsome”

Version examined by Ignacio Rodríguez Sánchez, Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, México.

Anonymous [Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo], "Colección Sepan Cuantos", Porrúa (Mexico), first edition 1968, reprint 2006.

Identical to Pelayo's 1965 version.

"si la virtud es el mejor adorno, no hay duda que vuestro yerno es hermoso” (no rhyme, prose)

“if virtue is the best ornament, there is no doubt that your son-in-law is handsome”

"In this translation - in a very popular series of literary classics - some paragraphs (very few; maybe one every 5 pages) have been changed from Pelayo's 1965 version, as if the translator (or someone else) had polished it." (IRS)

Submitted (via our form) by Jesús Tronch (Valencia):

Translators: Conejero, Manuel Angel / Forés, Vicente / Martínez Luciano, Juan Vicente / Talens, Jenaro (1985)

si no es necesaria a la virtud adorno hermoso,

no negro tendríais que llamar a Othello, sino virtuoso.

If virtue needs no beautiful ornament

Not black should Othello be called but virtuous

Contributor: Lucie Maguire adds an online source and a different back-translation:

Fundación Shakespeare de España / Universitat de València Press: Edición Digital - Multilingüe de la Obra Completa de William Shakespeare (2000): a work in progress. The quotation is here.

if virtue needs no beautiful adornment,

then you must not call Othello black but, rather, virtuous.

Submiited by email by Jesús Tronch (Valencia):

Trans. Ángel Luis Pujante, William Shakespeare: Tragedias (Madrid: Espasa, 2010) p. 410. [1989]

si clara es la virtud, vuestro yerno

no puede ser más blanco, siendo negro

if virtue is clear, your son-in-law

cannot be whiter, being black

Pujante had previously published his translation of Othello in 1989 (Madrid: Espasa). I don't have a copy to check whether the translation is still the same. Very likely it is. (JT)

A copy lacking Pujante's name is on Scribd (July 2011).

Contributed by Miguel Montezanti:

Tr. Ángel-Luis Pujante. España: Austral, 1991 (2009)

Mi noble señor,

si clara es la virtud, vuestro yerno

no puede ser más blanco, siendo negro.

My noble sir,

if virtue is clear, your son-in-law

cannot be more white, being black.

Contributed by Miguel Montezanti:

Tr. Jaime Collyer. Barcelona, Buenos Aires: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2000.

Y, noble signiore, puesto que a la virtud suele ir aparejado el atractivo, tu yerno es, por cierto, más bello que renegrido.

And, noble signior, since virtue is normally coupled with attraction, your son-in-law is more handsome than utterly black.

Contributed by Miguel Montezanti:

Anonymous. Buenos Aires: Agebe, 2003.

Oídme una palabra, Brabancio: si la virtud es el mejor adorno, no hay duda de que vuestro yerno es hermoso.

Listen to a word from me; Brabantio: if virtue is the best ornament, there is no doubt that your son-in-law is handsome.

Contributed by Miguel Montezanti:

Tr. Rolando Costa Picazo. Buenos Aires: Colihue Clásica, 2004.

Y, noble señor,

Si la virtud no carece del deleite de la belleza, entonces

Vuestro yerno es mucho más bello que negro.

And, noble sir,

If virtue doesn't lack the delight of beauty, then

your son-in-law is much more handsome than black.

Contributed by Alfredo Michel Modenessi:

Tr. Alfredo Michel Modenessi (A) Stage production, UNAM 2008

Si belleza no falta a la virtud,

tu yerno no es oscuro sino luz.

If beauty isn’t missing from virtue,

thy son-in-law isn’t dark, but [he is] light.

Tr. Alfredo Michel Modenessi (B) Stage production, UNAM 2008

Si la virtud se nutre de belleza,

tu yerno es como luz y no tinieblas.

If virtue is sustained [nourished] by beauty,

thy son-in-law is like light and not [like] darkness.

Both in hendecasyllables with assonant rhyme