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"Pour traduire la poésie", in Meta. Journal des Traducteurs/Translators' Journal, journal. Canada, Montréal, Vol. 35, no. 3 (September 1990).

That year I finished the first draft of the Teoría de los perceptos mentales y de los actos de habla in collaboration with García-Landa. I contributed with the letter of fundamental disagreement. At present I can say and demonstrate that my vision is the complete and right one whereas his is limited; it just comes down to a Theory of Interpretation. This year García-Landa have just published for oneself his theoretical version in the same issue. 1990 is a key and decisive year in my carrier as a philosopher philologist researcher on language, translation and critique problems.

Ileana Cabrera, a translation Professor at the Pontifical University Catholic of Chile, gave rise to this special issue of such an important journal devoted to the work of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking researchers. French or English were required, something that did not make sense. Doctor García-Landa, whom I had worked with for over ten years on the thorough preparation of a "scientific" theory of translation (a theory designed for the first time according to the code and structure of natural science), presented a summary in English of the manuscript that had been finished. I chose, once again, verse critique. I chose a French modern poet, Yves Bonnefoy, who, besides being a wonderful poet, also is a poetry theorist. As I usually do, I commented one of his poems which was exemplary of his way of poeticising and a model for the art of poetic translation. I did the critique and the comment in the framework and from the perspective of a recently finished theory but especially following the new, uncountable and deep ideas of this Professor at the University of Paris X, Henri Meschonnic, who, together with G. Steiner, belongs to that category of researchers who are able to embrace everything, but trying in my modest way to correct in some aspects his applications of Rhythmic. However, I was lacking a wider knowledge of the nomenclature and contents of musicology in order to make the notations of the poem less craft and intuitive. Thus, I would like to apologise to the reader for the lack of scientific seriousness in the symbolic-rhythmic representation of the composition. Without a doubt, Meschonnic has not made the same kind of mistake I have. I would like to take this chance to warn the reader of this web site, that this poem, as well as some others (approximately half of them) had already been published in journals when I added them as chapters to the second book of the leaflet which I consider to be the "sum" of my general theory of translation and the theory and critique of poetic translation. This book, applied and theoretical at the same time, comes under the title La traducción poética a prueba: Exégesis y autocrítica. In this book I am including, as I usually do in my critiques, what is missing in this article of Meta: a commented and justified version.

 

Relatos fantásticos. Traducidos del Francés, Salamanca, Artes Gráficas Varona, 1990

The first reason that lead me to include this modest book is that it was studied and translated by students of mine at the time who, under my advice and with full enthusiasm, dared to confront six great Belgian and French Literature authors (among other works) working on a story each. The original works belong to H. Rivière, G. De Maupassant, G. Rodenbach, M. Shwob, G. Apollinaire and H. Michaux. The work begins with a solid theoretical-didactic preface by the reviewer and each of the unwonted stories is preceded by a short introduction in which the author, the circumstance and the style of the work in general and the story in particular are presented. There are three versions in which I hardly had to make any corrections. The second reason to include this work is the fact that, as they are translations of original works in prose, they break the monotony of the poetic genre studied exclusively by the author of this site, an expert in analysis of poetic translation.

.Observing the way translation works in the field of narration is enriching as well as it expands critique and theory in the embracing field of literature. There is only one objection to be made which is stated in the notes of edition: we would have liked the text of the short anthology to have been presented together with the original works and the comments made by the students and included at the foot of the page. It was very easy to include these texts and critic comments and it hardly increased the costs, but the Director denied our petition. The saddest thing is that he did it due to the jealousy felt by the colleague who does not do anything and does not want others to become known. The names of the authors deserve to be mentioned due to the enthusiasm and work shown during at least a trimester. The version of "Pierrot" (H. Rivière) is by Isidro Catela Marcos; "Le Horla" (G. De Maupassant), by Ana María Gallego Holgado; "L'Ami des miroirs" (G. Rodenbach), by Ignacio García García, who was also in charge of co-ordination and edition; "La cité dormante" (M. Shwob), by María Consuelo Nieto Blanco; "Le cas du brigadier masqué, c'est-à-dire, le poète ressucité", ( G. Apollinaire), by Francisco Javier Beauvais de la Motte and, finally, the version of the four first chapters of the book by H. Michaux, "Un certain Plume", by Azucena Arias Zapatera. The despicable attitude of the Director who hindered the creation of what could have been quite a successful and well presented anthologist translation can be and must be compensated by the reading of the original works which can be found in the book by P.G. Castex, Anthologie du conte fantastique français (Librairie José Corti, 2nd edition, 1963).

 

"Palabra y representación mental: Situación de una teoría traductológica", in Humanistic studies in honour of Luis Cortés Vázquez, Robert Dengler (Ed.) Acta Salmanticensia, Philological Studies 246, University of Salamanca, 1991.

This article summarises in a coherent, lucid and organised way the theory of The School of Paris in its historical context and the framework of the disciplines which can justify and explain it. It disseminates the first draft of the manuscript and the first serious objections raised, which, according to the reviewer, make it liable to be suspicious and cast a doubt on them.

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

"Teorías de la Escuela de París", in the Course: Translation: New trends, new perspectives, University of León, Junta of Castilla-León, Third Youth Plan (April, 1992).

Quite a few articles have been published under the presumptuous and fake title of "Theories of language" and "Theories of Literature". In addition to this, other "sub-generic" theories were published showing equal arrogance and appearance, since the great phenomenon of translation, Theories of translation, literary translation and interpreting was "rediscovered". However, these works cannot be defined as such as they do not follow the natural and traditional outline of the real concept of "theory".

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

"El Sentido de la Traducción", in Itzulpen Mintegia/ Seminars on Translation, University of Deusto, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Postgraduate Masters on Translation (February, 1993).

First part of a leaflet presented as a sum of the (provisional) conclusions of what must be understood by a "scientific" translation, as opposed to the wrongly named "theories" of translation which are currently being used.

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

"El soneto parnasiano en versión española", Third International Courses on History of Translation, University of León, Faculty of Philology, Livius journal, no.4 (May 1993). Although a general history of translation had not been written yet, my good friend J.C. Santoyo conceived these International Courses in León bearing that idea in mind. Six have been held so far and we are approaching the moment of starting to write that history, but taking into consideration that translation is as old as history of speech we will have to hold further congresses of writers or keep contributing with new data and contents. In that general history we would still be missing a wide section devoted to poetic translations which, together with literary translations in a generic sense, could be done very well.

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

"La traducción poética: ¿Transparencia por aproximación o adaptación inevitable? (A propósito de Ch. Baudelaire)", Fourth International Courses on History of Translation, University of León, Faculty of Philology, Livius journal, no. 9 (May 1996).

This work is the last contribution of the reviewer to the International Courses on History of Translation as in the fifth ones he decided to just listen to his colleagues by taking part in different forums and debates suggesting the ideas he already thought were clear and different. To start with, the double path suggested to do verse translations is not made out well enough in the title of the conference.

The reviewer retakes the old hermeneutic dilemma of the translation aimed at the author and his language or from the translator aimed at the reader and his writing. He tries to fine-tune it, but he does not manage to name the sense of such refinement and development using a precise terminology. He would have to define more exactly the real concept of "transparency" and what the word "adaptation" implies. He also makes a mistake by not including (due to researching thoughtlessness) a few authors who had also translated this popular baudelairean poem of the "Correspondencias".

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

"Du Bellay en castellano", in The translation of French classics in Spain in the 20th century.

A colloquy organised by the French Philology Department at the University of Zaragoza in May 1997. In the planet of literature, the 16th century is the country for some of the best discoverers and all-time great inventors. That is the case of a Rabelais, who surprisingly, among the very first, rises from the ocean of a prose dealt with in a world of wonder and caprice. That is also the case of Montaigne, the multi-faceted philosopher devoted to being an honest savant and an analyst whose human condition was highly commented on. Such is the case of Ronsard too, who recovers the treasures of the Latin and Greek ancient world and multiplies them. He represents the main vessel which heads the star fleet of the Pléiade of the seven stars and all the rest of the poetic nebula of Renaissance in France.

The author of this Web site holds the right to reveal the contents of this work, which has been thoroughly and widely carried out, to those who are truly interested and request to see it.

 

El sentido de la traducción: Reflexión y crítica, co-edited by the Universities of León and Salamanca,1994.

First part of a leaflet presented as a sum of the (provisional) conclusions of what must be understood by a "scientific" translation, as opposed to the wrongly named "theories" of translation which are currently being used. A more than 10 year long research project collaborating with the theoretical spokesman of the Theory of sense of the E.S.I.T. (La Sorbonne Nouvelle III), doctor Mariano García-Landa, who abandoned this joint research project years ago. In this detailed and long search task he was in charge of the field and reach of oral translation, whereas I worked on the study of written translation, particularly on literary and poetic translation. This theory of translation and, therefore, of language, I think states for the first time a scientific method as it is structured, like any other scientific theory, in a group which considers a means composed by axioms or principles which are to be proved as well as definitions, corollaries and theorems. This theory, which is radically original in its ideas, corrects and increases to quite a large extent the seleskovitchean view of the School of Paris.

Thus, it was later named Teoría de los preceptos mentales y de los actos de habla, although the book, given the obvious great complexity of the topic, just states (starting off from current sciences of language in concomitance with those developed by Greek-Latin classics) the axioms, at the same time it describes and develops the future definitions. In this first work there are 17 systematic elements of the new linguistic and metalinguistic symbols and three more in the second work. It also sketches the corollaries which explain the axioms and establishes some theorems of application to the oral speeches and the written texts. We are dealing with a first work or even a first stone, a cornerstone which needs to be developed in depth in all or almost every section, but which presents itself as the right road to progress in the study of philosophy of language and communication. The presentation of the theory itself in the middle of the book is preceded by various considerations and theoretical prefaces which made it possible and followed by various developments and meditations in the form of corollaries. The author, in a unilateral manner and without doctor García-Landa's help, does a contrastive critique compared to other current theories, revises some essential aspects of his contributions in the field of writing and outlines a fortune-telling of the linguistic, philosophical and artistic problems he has already encountered. Thus, he starts off an art of translation "en oeuvre", a work in progress in which the aim will be the development of the new vision of translation and language.

 

La traducción poética a prueba: Exégesis y autocrítica, co-edited by the Publishing Services of the Universities of León and Salamanca, 1998.

It is the second part of the leaflet, an application and practice as well as a theory which makes reference to the specific fields of poetry and literature. This text was developed by the reviewer, thus, without the collaboration mentioned before, and it exposes a dozen comments of poetic translations or commented translations which are also compared to the original versions, using model poems of modern and contemporary French authors. It offers, in a long preface and an extensive epilogue, what could be considered as the embryo of a possible theory of literary and poetic translation. However, it will have to be developed in further works.

 

"Por una teoría "científica" de la traducción", conference held at the Cervantes Institute of Lisbon (November 29, 2001) during the 1st Iberian Congress of Translation in which the author took part on November 28 and 29, 2001.

This text, which in this day in age (2/05/02)is in the press, will first appear in the second issue of the Discursos. Estudos de Traduçao journal and, secondly, in the Congress Records. From now on, the reviewer will refer to this entry under the name of "Conferencia de Lisboa", as it sets a previous time and a later one in his research tasks. Under this title, the author intends to carry out, as it was previously suggested, an art of translation not in the form of a theoretical book, but an encyclopaedia of knowledge where the content is being increased au fur et à mesure by meditation and experimenting. Exactly the same way as Foucault's archaeology or Derrida's gramatology. (The author of this site and all the research projects is aware of the fact that his work will be slow if he does not manage to obtain the right framework for investigation, since at the moment he only has his bureau at home, the city bookshops where he buys books and university libraries and if nobody offers him a kind of contract at a wealthy Higher Education School or University in order to start off an ambitious project which would also need classrooms and laboratories to carry the research out, as well as researchers (graduate or post-graduate) who could help in the development of the different fields involved in this vision of language) A cross-disciplinary investigation work also demands different - but complementary - specialists as the idea is to build a new mansion of language in a complete way, with all implications and exploitations required by this kind of topic, which is at the root of all sciences and arts. The research project, which has already been sketched and started off in some sections, would not only be magnificent, but also tireless and undefined.