Entry

 

 

SPA España. Siglo XIX

 

 

contents
Introduction | The status of the 19th-century translator in Spain | Works and authors translated in 19th-century Spain | Translation theory in 19th-century Spain | Research potential

 

  Introduction 

Between the years 1806 and 1807, the then Prince of Asturias, Fernando VII, translated into Spanish the first volume of Aubert Vertot’s Histoire des révolutions arrivées dans le gouvernement de la République Romaine (Voltes Bou 1985: 33), an historical essay published in France in 1732 which had already been rendered into Spanish in 1734. Apparently, Fernando wanted to show off his mastery of French to his parents, but they were startled by his choice of title and the Prince was even reprimanded by his mother. The edition of the book, already in print bearing the translator’s initials (F. of B.), was immediately pulled from circulation and nothing more was heard of it again. This was not, of course, the first time a member of the Spanish Royal Family set themselves such a task: in 1772, Infante Gabriel Antonio of Bourbon, son of Charles III, had translated the complete works of Sallust (Todo de Salustio), with the apparent and inestimable collaboration of his preceptor, the erudite Francisco Pérez Bayer.

Fernando VII, 1814. [Source]

This historical anecdote illustrates, to a certain extent, the role of translation and translators at the beginning of the XIX century. On the one hand, it is a labor carried out by members of the Spanish intelligentsia, creators and consumers of such products, but it also begins to pique the interest of the emerging bourgeoisie. On the other, translators are purveyors of ideas, some seen as dangerous to the prevailing status quo. Proof of this is that Fernando, once on the throne, apparently ordered that every copy of his book be rounded up, perhaps to have them destroyed (Vayo 1842: 40). Finally, it is worth noting, that at the time no regulated training in foreign languages existed in the Spanish education system, and much less so for translators. This led to translation becoming a task entrusted to individuals who, by chance or specific life circumstances – such as knowledge of languages achieved via autodidactic methods, private classes, or by coming from bilingual families – were considered capable of succeeding at it. As is the case, for instance, of the Andalusian translators Pedro Alonso O’Crowley, Guillermo Macpherson, or Inés Joyes and Blake.

Likewise, it is no petty triviality that the translated work was French. From the start of the Bourbon Dynasty in 1700, France and French culture’s influence in Spain was astonishing. French fashions, trends and artistic styles dominated with little to no pushback. Consequently, other foreign influences, such as English or German, were glaringly absent until practically the end of the XVIII century. The French influence is also palpable in the way translations were carried out: the history of XVIII century translation in Spain reflects the progressive adoption of the prevailing neoclassic paradigms in the world of French art and letters. The belles infidèles were also exported to Spain, though never as a general rule, and with them came the idea that the translator must suppress everything that fails to conform to the neoclassical decorum or “good taste” found in the originals. This, together with the restrictive ecclesiastical censorship very much in force in Spain during the XVIII century and beginnings of the XIX, turns translation, as Eterio Pajares notes (2010: 63), into a “tutelary” intellectual endeavor. Examples of this can be seen in the versions of XVIII century English novels as well as Ramón de la Cruz’s Hamleto (1772), both which share another common trait, namely: they are indirect or “second hand” translations, rendered from the French versions of said English works. The “preliminary” norm then, in these cases, was to translate from an intermediary language, always French, a strategy that will continue to be applied until well into the XIX century. This reality did not to escape the censure of Spanish language purists, who, moreover, periodically condemned the presumed proliferation of Gallicisms in translations. Yet, in turn, Madame de Staël’s article “De l’esprit des traductions”, translated into Spanish in 1820 and published in El Constitucional will come to be seen as the first revitalizing theoretical manifesto in favor of a new strategy opposed to the French style of translation. Other theoretical writings, such as the “Advertencia del traductor” by José Marchena (1818) will go on to underscore the respect that translators, as creators, experts, and propagators of foreign cultures and literatures, must maintain for the target language.

To further expand on these issues, we will first discuss the status and role of the translator in the XIX century, later shifting our attention to the works and authors translated and, finally, focus on the body of theoretical thought on translation.

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The status of the 19th-century translator in Spain

During the XIX century, Spanish translators will pass through various stages that will, very gradually, coalesce into the recognition of their trade and their professionalization. As mentioned before, in the first decades of this century they adhered to the patterns of the previous one: they usually formed part of the intellectual elite and their skill as a translator came to be seen as yet another attribute of their artistic or literary persona. Given the high rates of illiteracy, the reading public was practically nonexistent. As such, the writing and reading of translated texts became a closed loop within the same social sphere. Dramas, perhaps, constitute the exception as they were geared more towards larger audiences, who, as it happens, were avid consumers of such theatrical works. With respect to theater in particular, the tendency that was imposed, at least at the beginning and well into the century, was to translate in verse, rather than in prose, as advocated by neoclassical precepts. Moreover, the “Spanification” of the text so as to eliminate foreign elements and make it more appealing to the audience was also considered necessary, especially for comedy.

As it turns out, something fairly similar occurs with novels, many of which were printed abroad (Ferreras 1973: 81), where the job of the translator was hampered for reasons of a moral nature related to censorship and self-censorship. At any rate, the proliferation of translations and their, at times, negligible quality, often contributed to the disrepute of the profession.

In the first decades of the XIX century a phenomenon of major import takes places that will continue to recur sporadically, namely: the exile of Spanish intellectuals for political or religious reasons, specifically during the political turmoil that engulfed the reign of Fernando VII and the subsequent regency of Maria Christina of Bourbon. Among many others, these exiled translators include José María Blanco-White, Valentín de Llanos Gutiérrez, José Marchena, José de Urcullu, Pablo de Mendíbil, José Garcia de Villalta, Joaquín Lorenzo de Villanueva, José Núñez de Arenas, José Joaquín de Mora, who, according to the classification proposed by Ruiz Casanova (2011: 207), translated “in exile.” They also all became, in some form or another, agents of culture by disseminating the works of authors never before published in Spain, and political actors by propagating and circulating, through their translations, ideas and political tendencies which, at times, crashed head-on with the established powers. Unparalleled examples can be found in the eminent jurists Ramón de Salas y Cortés and Toribio Núñez Sessé, the economist Álvaro Florez Estrada, and the naturalist Mariano Lagasca – all of whom were also translators.

Ventura de la Vega reading a play at the Teatro del Príncipe, 1846. [Source]

González Subías (2006: 251) splits the literary translators from the middle years of the century into two separate groups. In the first group, from the years 1835 – 50, we find Ventura de la Vega, Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, Isidoro Gil y Baus, Ramón de Navarrete, Gaspar Fernando Coll, Juan de la Cruz Tirado, Juan del Peral, Carlos García Doncel, Luis Valladares y Garriga, Narciso de la Escosura, and Joaquina Vera, among others. In the next generation, from the years 1850 – 65, we find Juan Belza, Vicente de Lalama, Laureano Sánchez Garay, Ramón de Valladares y Saavedra, and Manuel Tamayo y Baus. With the exception of Gil y Baus, the only one who can be considered a professional author, as he penned more than sixty-five theatrical pieces, all of them were writers and translators, crafting their work alone or in collaboration, with two or three of them often signing their names to the same translation.

Most of the Spanish translators from the XIX century were men. Investigators such as Lafarga (2007), Hibbs (2015), and Establier Pérez (2015) have compiled a list of the few known women translators and the works they translated. Apart from famous writers like Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Cecilia Böhl de Faber, and, above all, Emilia Pardo Bazán (translator of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women, amongst other works), other women translators of note have recently been the subject of certain investigative attention, for example: 1) Inés Joyes y Blake, who translated Samuel Johnson; 2) Magdalena Fernández de Córdoba, Marchioness of Astorga (1780 – 1830), who translated one of the precursors of the French Revolution, Abbé de Mably’s essay Des droits et des devoirs du citoyen in the Cortes of Cádiz; 3) Joaquina García Balmaseda; 4) Notburga de Haro; 5) Josefa Amar y Borbón; and, above all, 6) Joaquina Vera (1834 – 1873), who went from being a minor actor to a writer and translator (Gies 1996: 286; Thion Soriano-Mollá 2015), and whose work has not yet received the attention it deserves. Nevertheless, given the number of works she translated, it appears that Vera was one of the very few women of the XIX century who was able to make a living off it.

As mentioned, the proliferation of translations at the time, specifically of theatrical works, aroused, on occasions, the ire of the critic who often lambasted their lack of quality. This fact, together with others such as the preference to remain anonymous for political or religious reasons, explains why many translators hid their identities behind the initials of their surnames or opted to omit those details entirely. Furthermore, the lack of legal norms regulating authorship meant that the same novel or dramatic piece could be rendered by more than one translator or even copied, without any economic compensation due. Accordingly, up until the 1870s translations were being published in many Spanish cities, among them, La Coruña, Seville, Málaga, Granada, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Bilbao, and it was not until the end of the century that publishing production, and with it, translations, was definitively concentrated in Madrid and Barcelona.

Near the middle of the century, a new attitude towards the figure of the translator was beginning to emerge among the ever-growing reading public, whose folds included more and more women, and among the literary circles, as evidenced by the reviews penned by certain intellectuals such as Hartzenbusch. The practice of translation was often taken up by professionals from diverse backgrounds: journalists, professors, lawyers, scientists, doctors, military personnel, and even politicians like Fernando Garrido and Francese Pi i Margall, president of the first Spanish Republic and translator of Joseph Proudhon. It won’t be until the second half of century, however, that we witness the dignification of the translator’s role, which derives, in large part, from the widely celebrated works of such writers and philologists as Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”, Teodoro Llorente, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Manuel Milá y Fontanals, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Benito Pérez Galdós, and Juan Valera – all of whom were also translators at some point in their life.

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Works and authors translated in 19th-century Spain

As mentioned earlier, in 19^th-century Spain the translation of literary works into Spanish was predominantly from French. Moreover, books written in other languages were translated “second hand” or in an indirect fashion from their corresponding French versions on account of the paucity of professionals in languages such as English, German, Italian, Russian, or Scandinavian and Slavic languages. Consequently, the bulk of the translations were from French authors: as per the novel, the works of Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo became indisputable best-sellers. Dumas was rendered in Spanish by translators such as Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco, Víctor Balaguer, Pablo Piferrer, Eugenio de Ochoa, while Hugo was also translated by Ochoa and, among others, by Nemesio Fernández Cuesta. Other French novelists like Honoré de Balzac, François-René de Chateaubriand, the brothers E. and J. de Goncourt, Paul de Kock, Eugène Sue, Jules Verne, Alfred de Vigny, and Èmile Zola were also translated, whereas some “greats” such as Stendhal were not until the end of the century. As per theater, along with Dumas and Hugo, two of the most commonly translated French playwrights were Eugéne Scribe and Frédéric Soulié, who today are practically forgotten. With regard to French poetry, the romantics such as Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, and Alfred de Musset, among others, found their works the object of translation, as did, towards the end of the century, various Parisian poets such as Charles Leconte de Lisle and Sully-Prudhomme.

Source of the translation of Macbeth by José García de Villalta, 1838. (Own source)

One of the most widely translated English authors in the first half of the XIX century was Walter Scott, rendered in Spanish by José Joaquín de Mora and Francisco Altés, among others, and almost always from French versions. Consequently, Scott exerted an unquestionable influence on the development of the historic novel. Gothic novels, such as those by Ann Radcliffe, were also translated despite being of a genre that never took hold in the national literature. Prominent English novelists like Charles Dickens and William Thackeray came to be known much later in the century, whereas others such as Jane Austen, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy remained unknown until the XX century. Several American writers were also translated into Spanish, among them Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and, above all, James Fenimore Cooper; several Hispanist historians such as William H. Prescott and George Ticknor, as well as poets like Henry Longfellow were also translated. However, it was not until the XX century that authors of such stature as Henry D. Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain were translated. The only English playwright rendered in Spanish during the XIX century was William Shakespeare, whose works were translated into Spanish from French versions throughout the entire century by translators like José María Carnerero and Teodoro de la Calle in the early part of the XIX century, and Rafael Martínez Lafuente and Eudaldo Viver in the later part. In parallel, others, led by Leandro Fernández de Moratín and his 1789 version of Hamlet, translated Shakespeare directly from English: José María Blanco-White, José García de Villalta, Pedro de Prado y Torres, Jaime Clark, Guillermo Macpherson, Matías de Velasco y Rojas, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, and José Arnaldo Márquez, among others.

Nevertheless, it was not until 1930 that the complete works of Shakespeare were translated and published in Obras Completas by Luis Astrana Marín. Of the English poets, the most widely translated was John Milton, followed by Alexander Pope, but also published were partial versions of several romantics such as Robert Burns, Thomas Gray, and Lord Byron, who had a notable impact on Espronceda. Finally, it is worth noting the translations of now classic English works of non-fiction, such as, for example, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon and translated by José Mor de Fuentes, or Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, translated by Enrique Godínez. Similar translations, moreover, were also carried out by members of “Ateneo de Sevilla”, such as Antonio Machado Álvarez’s translation of Reinhart Dozy’s Recherches sur l'histoire et la littérature de l'Espagne pendant le moyen âge or Siro García del Mazo’s translations of Herbert Spencer and Stuart Mill.

German literature, by comparison, enjoyed less of a presence in Spain. The first translation of Wether by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was published in 1803, followed by two additional versions, whereas Faust boasts five distinct translations. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s stories were also translated and published in gazettes. Nevertheless, it was perhaps the poet Heinrich Heine who had the greatest impact on Spanish literature after the publication of his poems as translated by Eulogio Florentino Sanz and Augusto Ferrán, and whose influence can be seen in poets such as Bécquer and, later, in Juan Ramón Jiménez and Antonio Machado. Among the German philosophers translated into Spanish in the XIX century are Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Karl Krause, whose work Urbild der Menschheit, translated by Julián Sanz del Río in 1860, held significant sway over Spanish philosophy and pedagogy, while the first version of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, translated by José Mesa y Leompart was published in 1872. Regarding German playwrights, the most widely translated was Friedrich Schiller.

With respect to Italian literature, new versions of certain classics continued to be published, such as Boccaccio’s The Decameron, Machiavelli’s The Prince, or Dante’s Divine Comedy, among which is Count of Cheste’s remarkable version. The most famous Italian novel was The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, while other Italian novelists such as Edmondo De Amicis and Salvatore Farina were also translated fairly regularly. The most widely translated Italian poet at the time was Giacomo Leopardi. Librettos of Italian operas were also translated so the audience could follow the performances. From Portuguese literature, new versions of Luis de Camões’s Os Lusíadas continued to be published throughout the century, among them Manuel Aranda Sanjuán’s 1874 version, while contemporary works such as those by Camilo Castelo Branco, Almeida Garrett, and Eça de Queiroz were also translated. From Danish literature, we can only mention Nemesio Fernández Cuesta’s translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, published in 1879. Russian literature, translated almost in its entirety from French versions, however, had greater reach. Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina was translated in 1887) and I. S. Turgenev, for example, were popular at the time, whereas the major works of Dostoevsky were not translated into Spanish until the XX century.

Cover of La Ilustración Artística (1883). [Source]

Important work was also being done on the translations of non-European literatures. In the case of Sanskrit, a language for which the first University Chair was established in 1877, three translators stand out: 1) Leopoldo Eguilaz y Yanguas, who translated fragments of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata (1861); 2) Francisco García Ayuso, who translated works by Kālidāsa; 3) José Alemany y Bolufer, who was the first Spanish translator of the Hitopadeśa (1895) and the Bhagavad-gītā (1896), among other works. With respect to Arabic literature, we find the translations of Francisco Codera y Zaidín, Emilio Laufuente Alcántara (Inscripciones árabes de Granada, 1860), and Francisco Fernández y González (Historias de Al-Andalus, 1862). Finally, the first translations of Japanese literature, The Mirror of Matsuyama and The Fisher-boy Urashima, were rendered in Spanish by Juan Valera from their French versions and published in the journal La Ilustración Artística (1887). The conspicuous absence of Chinese literature among the published translations in Spain during the XIX century should the subject of further investigation.

It is also worth noting the re-emergence of translations of Greco-Latin classics that were carried out in the XIX century, mostly by university professors. The Iliad and the Odyssey were both retranslated, with José Mamerto Gómez y Hermosilla’s 1831 version of the Iliad and Federico Baráibar’s 1886 version of the Odyssey as remarkable examples. The most widely translated Greek poet was Pindar. With respect to Greek theater, Fernando Brieva y Salvatierra’s 1880 translations of Aeschylus and Baráibar’s 1874 translation of Aristophanes’ Complete Works stand out. Other seminal Greek works were translated for the first time in the XIX century, such as the Complete Works of Plato and Aristotle’s Physics, both by Patricio de Azcárate, published in 1871 and 1874 respectively. Among the Latin classics, Horace was translated by, among others, Javier de Burgos (1819 – 22), while José Marchena translated for the first time Lucretius’ De rerum natura. The comedies of Plautus and Terence were also translated, and a number of versions of Ovid (Ars amatorial) and Virgil were also published. Virgil’s Aeneid, for example, was translated four different times in total, one of which was the polemic version by Sinibaldo de Más and another was Eugenio de Ochoa’s 1869 prose rendition. New versions of Caesar, Sallust, Suetonius, Tacitus, Cicero, and Pliny the Elder also appeared in the XIX century. Lastly, it must be noted that in 1825 one of the most widely disseminated versions of the Bible in Spanish was published. The work was carried out by the priest Félix Torres-Amat who, working with one of the first versions of the Latin Vulgate translated into Spanish by José Miguel Petisco, rendered the Bible into vernacular Spanish. As an anecdote, it can also be added that in 1841 a Spanish version of The Four Gospels was published in Gibraltar. It was translated from Greek by the Methodist missionary William Harris Rule, while it was to gain certain popularity among the Methodist congregations in Latin America, it barely left a mark in Spain.

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 Translation theory in 19th-century Spain

With regard to translation theory in the XIX century, it can be said unequivocally that there was no structured or systematic discourse in the first half of the century, and that only towards the end thereof can we speak of coherently devised theoretic models. These were formulated by philologists and writers such as Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo and Leopoldo Alas, “Clarín”, who probed deeper into the history of translation and its role in the history of Spanish culture than into the theory of translation itself. It is true that during the first thirty years, the translator was more of an imitator of the foreign author than an intermediary (García Garrosa 2016: 22), which explains the preference authors and audiences alike had for “imitation” as a technique to recreate both foreign and national (e.g., during the Spanish Golden Age) novels and dramatic works. An isolated and curious case in the theory concerning poetic translation is that of the previously mentioned Sinibaldo de Más, who translated Virgil and, in 1832, created a unique method called the “Musical system of the Spanish language” (Sistema musical de la lengua castellana) through which he attempted to “Spanify” the classic hexameter by postulating that in Spanish, akin to Latin and Greek, the syllables can be both long and short.

Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo. [Source].

The proliferation of translations during the middle part of the century was cause for concern for writers such as Mariano José de Larra, who associated it with an impoverishment of creativity among Spanish authors, and Pérez Galdós, who held that these authors had failed to “imbibe” the good literary models embedded in the major foreign novels translated into Spanish. Nonetheless, the two most prominent essayists who theorized on the matter towards the end of the century were Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo and Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”, both of whom were also translators. The writings of both authors come to the conclusion that translations cannot be considered as secondary works in the cultural history of Spain (Fillière 2016: 227). Out of his colossal erudition, Menéndez Pelayo births an authentic history of translation in Spain via his laudable biographies of translators, compiled after his death under the title Library of Spanish Translators (Biblioteca de traductores españoles). Though there are no concrete theoretical formulations found therein, researchers like Ruiz Casanova (2000: 448-449) and Santoyo (1998: 176-179) have attempted to extrapolate his ideas from the comments made throughout the work. Among other ideas, it is worth noting that he believed the translator must possess a gift (quid divinum), in other words, the ideal translator, especially of poetry, is he/she who is also a poet; moreover, he asserted that the closer two languages are, the harder it is to translate them. As for Clarín, he affirms, with unwavering clarity, the significance of translations for the enrichment of the national cultural landscape, which he considered, at times, overly intractable and at others, overly derivative (Fillière 2016: 259). As such, for Clarín, the future of the national cultural system inevitably meant a move towards cosmopolitism, the only possible stance to prevent linguistic and cultural stagnation. Moreover, he also advocated for the professionalization of translators and valued their work, so often overlooked, of cultural mediation, as translation is a “journey” from one culture and language to another (Fillière 2016: 271-275).

To close, it should be noted that, at the end of the century, the Spanish publishing industry was consolidated due to significantly higher reading rates, which nevertheless remained far below those of the rest of Europe but were enough to make the editing and publication of books a profitable enterprise. Consequently, books became a common consumer good among the growing urban bourgeoisie. And although the events of 1898 would cause a severe crisis of national identity and a certain retreat inwards as the culture was to grow somewhat loath of external influences, it is clear that at the end of the century and the beginnings of the XX translation began to come into its own as a high-profile publishing endeavor and, along with it, the commensurate professionalization of the translator. Historical events such as the definitive abolishment of editorial censorship written into the Constitution of 1868, the International Literary Conference held in London in 1879, and the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works of 1886 would also contribute to further dignify the work and art of translation.

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  Research potential

Since the emergence of Translation Studies as an independent discipline, research into the history of translation in XIX Spain has found itself in a transitional moment. While purely historical research is still necessary, the various investigative paradigms within translation studies offer an opportunity that may well have a positive bearing on our understanding of such intriguing facets as the politics of translation, translation practice, the status of the translator, and the impact of translation on the dissemination of new ideas. It is true, for instance, that the decisive role the translation of literary works has played in the adoption of artistic movements and trends has gone largely unnoticed by kindred disciplines such as the history of literature, which, to a great extent, continues to view translations as inferior texts, undeserving of investigative attention. Yet, an active collaboration between both disciplines could lead to productive synergies that would undoubtedly enhance our knowledge of this period in Spanish history. Proposals for further research:

• The relationship between politics and translation in the XIX century: conservatism vis-a-vis liberalism and their respective politics of translation, the role of censorship and self-censorship (historical and sociological approach).
• The influence of translations on the reception and canonization of artistic movements and foreign authors (historical, sociological and literary approach, methodologies germane to Comparative Literature and Reception Theory).
• Retranslation in the XIX century: reasons, criteria, methods (historical, sociological, bibliometric approach).
• The publication and circulation of translations and the role of literary agents in said process: publishers, booksellers, translators, readers, critics (historical, sociological, bibliometric approach).
• The role of translation in the dissemination of new ideas: political, scientific, religious, philosophic, economic, and educational (historical, sociological, bibliometric approach).
• Women translators of the XIX century: biographies, areas of translation, translation styles (historical, sociological, descriptive, gender and translation approach).
• Translation and exile: the intellectual diaspora during the second and third decade of the century, which is the most researched, but it is not the only one: there are others, such as the exile preceding the first Republic – prior to 1868 – and the exile following it – from 1875 to 1880 (historical and sociological approach).
• Translation policies and norms: here the study of indirect translation from French takes on special importance, as does the staunch defense raised by some translators throughout the century of such policies and norms of translation as naturalizing and/or target-oriented (descriptive approach).
• Translation hubs and scenes in XIX century Spain: for example, the exiled translators in London and Paris, the translators of “Ateneo de Sevilla”, or the translators of the Catalan  Renaixença (historical, sociological approach).
• Translation and heterodoxy in XIX century Spain: profile of the “deviationist” translators and the role of translation in the spread of evangelical beliefs, Freemasonry, spiritualism, theosophy, and the anarchist movement (historical and sociological approach).

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