PROJECT 3-A
LITERARY TRANSLATION
SPANISH TO ENGLISH
PROJECT 3-A
LITERARY TRANSLATION
SPANISH TO ENGLISH
Book's Title: Amnesia
Author: Amado Nervo
Style: Literary Modernism, Psychological Narrative
Topic: Romance, Mental health
Source Language
Target Language (Own Translation)
Capitulo 3 - Paginas 25 y 26
No una, varias veces, con disculpable egoísmo, había yo sentido, el miedo, el pánico aquel ante la posibilidad de que «Luisa» recobrase sus potencias.
Era más que natural: la salud de «Luisa» significaría algo atroz, algo que cada vez me atrevía menos a considerar; significaría, sencillamente, la muerte de Blanca.
Mi Blanca idolatrada, el único ser que me había amado en la vida, se desvanecería para siempre, como el más sutil de los fantasmas, como el más inconsistente de los sueños. Su muerte sería más terrible que la muerte fisiológica, pues que en ésta aún nos queda la esperanza, la fe en una supervivencia que nos permita en otros planos de la Eterna Realidad encontrar a los que amamos…
Pero curada Luisa, ¿qué me quedaba de Blanca?
Me quedaría algo peor que un cadáver que se descompone y al fin se reduce a un poco de polvo: me quedaría un cadáver viviente, un ser que tendría el aspecto, el cuerpo, los gestos de la otra, pero que sólo sería su triste caricatura.
La malignidad escondida en los repliegues de aquel ser volvería a surgir a flor de alma. La mujer perversa que por mi bien parecía haber naufragado para ir siempre en el vórtice de la inconsciencia, me sería restituida con toda su hiel, con todas sus espinas; y la otra, la dulce, la buena, a su vez naufragaría, pero definitivamente, y de ella no quedaría ni la sombra de una sombra.
Chapter 3 - Pages 25 and 26
Not once, but several times, with excusable selfishness, I had felt the fear, the panic at the possibility of "Luisa" regaining her faculties.
It was very obvious: Luisa's health would mean something atrocious, something I dared less and less to consider; it would mean, quite simply, Blanca's death.
My idolized Blanca, the only being who had ever loved me, would vanish forever, like the subtlest of ghosts, like the most inconsistent dream. Her death would be more terrible than the physiological death because in this one we still have hope, and faith in a survival that allows us to find those we love in other planes of The Afterlife.
But once Luisa was cured, what was left of Blanca?
I would be left with something worse than a corpse that decomposes and is finally reduced to a little dust: I would be left with a living corpse, a being that would have the appearance, the body, the gestures of the other, but would only be her sad caricature.
The malice hidden in the folds of that being would emerge again at the depths of her soul. The wicked woman who for my sake seemed to have been shipwrecked to go forever in the vortex of unconsciousness would be restored to me with all her gall, with all her thorns; and the other, the sweet, the good one, would in her turn be shipwrecked, but definitely, and of her not even the shadow of a shadow would remain.
Translation Procedures
Modulation
Pero curada Luisa, ¿qué me quedaba de Blanca?
But once Luisa was cured, what was left of Blanca?
Compensation
La malignidad escondida en los repliegues de aquel ser volvería a surgir a flor de alma.
The malice hidden in the folds of that being would emerge again at the depths of her soul.
Repetition
Algo que cada vez me atrevía menos a considerar
Something I dared less and less to consider