Approach to Spanish Translation of The Canterbury Tales: A Study, Lecture notes of Spanish

Download Approach to Spanish Translation of The Canterbury Tales: A Study and more Lecture notes Spanish in PDF only on Docsity!     FA C U LT A D D E H U M A N ID A D E S Y C IE N C IA S D E L A S E D U C A C IÓ N UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación Trabajo Fin de Grado AN APPROACH TO THE FIRST TRANSLATION OF THE CANTERBURY TALES IN SPANISH Alumno/a: Isabel García Galdón Tutor/a: Eugenio Olivares Merino Dpto.: Estudios Ingleses Julio, 2016 2 INDEX OF CONTENTS: Resumen y palabras clave/ Abstract y palabras clave……………………….............. 3 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Brief approach to the different translations of Chaucer into Spanish ....... 4 1.2 Reference to the relevance of The Canterbury Tales……………............ 5 2. TRANSLATION: SOME CONSIDERATIONS …………………………..........11 3. BIOGRAPHY OF MANUEL PÉREZ Y DEL RÍO COSA ………………….... 14 4. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE TRANSLATION ……………………. 15 5. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRANSLATION………………………………....…. 18 6. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………….. ...25 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………. 26 5 This same year, Ramon Sopena, published his translated version of The Canterbury Tales.8 The peculiarity of this translation was that it was made in verse. Another author who is important to include in this part is called: Graciliano Afonso Naranjo. He was a Canarian priest of a solid humanistic formation and a lover of literature, he dedicated most of his life and energy to translate his favourite foreign writers to the Spanish language. It was a work that started during his American exile and he developed it with a lot of dedication. Afonso translated from English the poetic work January and May (1850), a text inspired in Chaucer’s Merchant Tale. However, Afonso did not use as base text the original Chaucerian story, but the adaptation that Pope made in 1704. Adaptations had a big importance in the divulgation of English medieval literature. In his Spanish version, Afonso followed Pope’s adaptation in a very free way. Another aspect that appeared in the translation is Afonso’s predilection for the hyperbaton. This version of The Merchant’s Tale supposes an early and relevant adaptation to the divulgation in our language of the work of Chaucer. For this reason, it is important to make this mention and recognition. After these translations, no more references appear to that work in Spanish until Pérez y del Río Cosa’s translation. 1.2. The relevance of The Canterbury Tales.9 Chaucer is considered as “the father of English Literature”. His work was considered as a stimulus to the cultural prestige of English as national and literary language, replacing French. Chaucer was considered as the English Homer. Edmund Spencer said that he was his teacher. Medieval literature had a strong oral character, as it was often destined to be listened by a community which was anxious to know and to enjoy, although lacking literacy and books to read. On the one hand, priests (with their moral examples, religious legends and preaching with miracles), satisfied mystic ardour, on the other hand, jugglers with their recent news, exalting the great deed of heroes, showing an epic world. 8  Sopena,  Ramón.  Cuentos  de  Canterbury.  Barcelona.  Ed.  Sopena.  1983.   9  The  information  of  this  section  has  been  taken  from  The  Riverside  Chaucer  (1987:  XI-­‐  XXV).   6 The Canterbury Tales arrived to all social classes and was adequate to all human activities. Tone and melody are proper values of oral literature and not of written literature. For example the introduction to The Miller’s Tale: Whilom ther was dewellynge at Oxenford. A riche gnof that gests heeld to bord and of his croft he was a carpenter. With hym ther was dewellynge a pouse scoler, Hadde lerned art, but al his fantasye was turned for to lerne astrologye. and konde a certeyn of conclusions, to demen by interrogaciouns, if that men sholde have droghte or elles shu or if men asked hym what shold, bifalle of every thing: I may not rekene hem alle. (ll. 3187- 3198). The medieval artist links the images in a whole applying the technique of arabic fabulation of the enmarked tale, that is to say, he does not see the presentation of a group of autonomous tales. He needs to connect a tale with another one by means of a situation that gives unity and sense: the pilgrimage to Canterbury. On the other hand, the human group, the pilgrims, is perfectly described in the prologue. thanne longen folk to goon pilgrimes. And palmeres for to seken strange strondel, to feme halwel, kowthe in sondry londes; and specially from every shires ende of Engelond to Canterbury they wende. (ll. 12-16) They constitute a microsociety introduced by a basic narrator, who chooses a background of the medieval society: the knight, his entourage, the Prioress, her followers and 7 other company and priests and nuns, merchants, artisans, the student, they represent social classes. Each character is a different individual although it represents uses and habits of its social stratum, and of different regions, their origin characterised them and also it influences their speaking. The incidents of the journey, the reactions of the pilgrims are well expressed in the prologues and epilogues of each tale. It is there where the pilgrims break in this shared experience with their limited world and increase their vital horizon. The space appears configurated like a geographical place, pointed with the concrete name of the places. A clear example of this is the Prologue of the Monk’s Tale. Only by considering the work in its totality, the narrations and their unions, we arrive to the essence of the medieval fabulation. Chaucer made the decision of writing in English; one of his first jobs was to translate a third part of the most important works of French literature such as Le Roman de la Rose. That translation gave him enough reputation to introduce himself as a composer in a court where he always moved with caution. After the translation of The Roman of the Rose, the influence of this work appears in his first poems, together with the French influence; it is also important to underline the presence of Ovid and Virgil. He made a trip to Italy where he met the works of writers such as Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio and he also collected elements of different medieval romances. With the importance that Italian influence supposed in his works, he passed from French affectation to Italian realism, from mythology to pilgrimage, and “Vitalism”10. All these characteristics appeared in his works mainly in The Canterbury Tales. The technique used by the author in The Canterbury Tales was not new as it also appeared in works such as A Thousand and one nights or Decameron by Boccaccio. In The Canterbury Tales the characters are being constantly presented to the reader. They are introduced in The General Prologue and also in the links between tale and tale. This was used to give unity to the work within its diversity. Nevertheless, each one has its own autonomy even within the frame of the pilgrimage. It does not seem possible that The Canterbury Tales (started at 1386) have influenced directly Spanish literature. I do not think either that we have enough information to claim that they were known by us during Middle Ages. It is true that Marqués de Santillana in his 10   Vitalism  was   a   philosophical   movement   characterized   by   an   affirmation   and   exaltation   of   life   with   all   its   magnitude  and  all  its  consequences.  The  philosophers  who  coincide  in  classify  life  as  a  main  reality  ,  interested   in  knowing  them  were  called  vitalists.   10 From the written records of Chaucer’s language, scholars have established the principal features of sound, intonation, form, arrangement, and vocabulary of the language actually spoken in that time. Chaucer was the first English writer that linked two different diatopic dialects in the same writing: his own dialect, the variety known as “East Midlands” that appears in the voices of the narrator and characters, and the dialect of the Northern part of England. The majority of experts who have studied Chaucer’s works say that the speakers of this variety were a source of mockery for the rest of the people who spoke other varieties. The writers of 17th and 18th century such as John Dryden admired Chaucer for his stories but not for his rhythm and rhyme. It wasn’t until the end of 19th century when the Chaucerian canon was solved thanks to the work of Walter William Skeat. Since the foundation in England in 1868 of the Chaucerian Society, he was responsible for the publication of the first reliable edition and for the first adaptation of this work into Modern English. From this point onwards Chaucer started to be considered as the most important of English poets for his wisdom, his humour and his humanity. J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter’s saga, said that she was inspired in The pardoner’s Tale to create the story of three brothers, part of the last book of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In her book, Rowling narrated how 3 brothers meet Death who gave them three pieces with which they could defeat her. Death, however, will catch them some time after. I think that the message that Chaucer transmitted to Londoners in the 15th century has a real appeal nowadays. The age in which he lived is similar to ours since both are characterised by social crisis and unbalance of internal values. Chaucer is a man speaking to men and women about human nature. He is a journey partner, and he was the first one to present himself as a the pilgrim in his book. His humour is nice and never cruel. He is tolerant with human weakness. Focusing on the topic that we are about to develop, this paper is going to be divided into the following sections: First of all I will make some considerations about translation as an ideological issue. After this explanation, I will present a summary of the life of the first translator of The Canterbury Tales in Spanish, especially the most important moments of his life, why he decided to translate this work, what sources he used, and other important and relevant biographical matters. Other important thing that is going to appear in this paper is the 11 cultural context in which the Spanish translation was published. Finally, I will focus on a description of this work. 2.- TRANSLATION: SOME CONSIDERATIONS The task of the translator is different to that of the literary critic and, in a sense, much more complex. Ideally, the literary critic reads and analyses the text in its (recreated) context; the translator, however, has to assimilate the text (and necessarily its context), in order to render the former into a new language, and to present its characters, their behaviour and their motivations in such a way that they make sense to the new audience. This is the reason why Jorge Luis Borges suggested that: “no problem is more essential to literature and its small mysteries than translation” (in Olivares-Merino, 2009: 74) Translation is not as easy as it might seem because you have to try to copy from the original text and make it similar to the translated text. However sometimes, in the process of translation, some things, words or expressions are lost and probably the essence of translation is lost, too: as Lefevere states: “Because language is the expression of a culture, many of the words in a language are inextricably bound up with that culture and therefore very hard to transfer in their totality to another language.” (in De la Cruz Cabanillas, 2004: 42). All in all the translator has to be familiar with both languages, the original one and the language in which the text is going to be translated: Snell-Hornby puts it in the following way: “ If language is an integral part of culture, the translator needs not only proficiency in two languages, he must also be at home in two cultures”. (in De la Cruz Cabanillas, 2004: 42). The language reflects the cultural reality that appears behind it. Culture is linked to it, and for this union, the difficulties appear in the activity of translation of different realities that are in that language. The translator has to have a knowledge of both factors: linguistic reality and cultural reality, and for this reason, he/she will be able to create a new text that reflects linguistic and semantic factors from the original one. These are only a few things that the translator has to keep in mind when he translates the work. The reader naturally takes for granted that the translation he holds in his hand is what the original text says, but this is of course a fallacy. The translation is, obviously, the result of a particular hermeneutical process of what the text says, and the text says many things. As Raffel claims: “The literary translator is necessarily engaged with far more than words, far more than techniques, far more than stories or characters or scenes. He is- and the 12 literary translator of medieval works is even more so- engaged with word views and with the passionately held convictions of men and women long dead and vanished from the earth.” (In Olivares- Merino, 2009: 75) Ideology could also be said to play its part since translations seem to be particularly useful channels for ideological transmission; taking for granted a more passive attitude on the part of the author. In them, ideology is easily traceable. As Marijane Osborn has rightly observed: “any translation is historically and culturally situated, and the history of the recovery for a later generation’s public of a work originally in a language no longer living is expressed in translations, but these too have their interest” (In Olivares- Merino, 2009: 75). The old saying traduttore traditore acquires a new set of connotations that is well defined in the words of translation theorist Lawrence Venuti: “Translating is always ideological because it releases a domestic reminder, an inscription of values, beliefs, and representations linked to historical moments and social positions in the domestic culture. In serving domestic interests, a translation provides an ideological resolution for the linguistic and cultural differences of the foreign text”. (In Olivares- Merino, 2009: 75). Getting down to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the first difficulty that the translators face is the question of choosing prose or verse. Only two Spanish translators tried the translation of The General Prologue in verse. The first translator, Manuel Álvarez de Toledo Morenés believes that the translation in verse is necessary; he indicates that he had maintained the same stanza, couplets, consonants, Alexandrine verse. The second translator had used the verse with twelve syllabes14. As Siles states: “ The irony and courage of the verse of ten stanzas by Chaucer was better transmitted in Spanish with a meter in which frequently is necessary to summarise, compress, and insinuate”. (in De la Cruz Cabanillas, 2004: 5) This quote expresses the way in which Chaucer’s works were written and the stanzas and verses he used and the way in which translators tried to translate texts written in verse. The best way to reproduce the qualities of the original text, might be writing it in prose. There is then a second problem: the translator has to decide what stage of the language is better to reproduce. The translator has to think whether he wants to do an old-fashioned 14   I   have   included   these   authors   here   (and   not   in   section   1.1)   because   they   only   translated   The   General   Prologue.   15 4.- CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE TRANSLATION This part of the essay is going to deal: with the cultural and ideological context and the influence of English in Spain. The date of 1898 is an important one because it shows the historical flow of life of the last decadence of the Spanish Empire. Spain had to turn its eyes to Europe. The process of national decadence was linked with the expansion and consolidation of British Empire and, on the other hand, it was wanted to contra rest the European modernity with the richness and cultural heritage of Spain: “Spain entered the 20th century in the traumatic aftermath of the 1898 war against the United States and the loss of the last colonies of her formerly impressive Empire. This crisis was political and economical, as well as spiritual. Two groups of intellectuals known as the Generation of ’98 and the Generation of ’14, were concerned with “regenerating” Spain and invoked a renovation of the national values from their own ideological perspectives. Despite this hostile cultural background for non-Hispanic issues, a number of writers produced some interesting works dealing with topics currently specific of the English studies field. As occurred in France and Italy, they engaged in discussing the signification of the British culture and literature, rather than the English language.” (In Monterrey, 2003: 71). The first essays on English studies were written by the intellectuals of Generación del 1416. In the work of these scholars, we have their opinion about England. -­‐ Ángel Ganivet, who before 1898 criticised national situation from his privilege vision as a diplomat, thus anticipating some of the views of the Generación del 98.17 -­‐ Ramiro de Maetzu knew the English culture in depth because of his mother. -­‐ Ramón Pérez de Ayala and Salvador Madariaga, both of them were linked to Great Britain .Thanks to them the first works of this academic discipline appeared. Ganivet did not show any aversion for any country except for Great Britain. For him, Britain was the historical enemy of Spain. He, as other writers, associated the decadence of 16  Generación  del  14,  refers  to  a  group  of  Spanish  writers  in  between  the  Generaciones  de  1898  y  27.  This  year   was  important  because  Ortega  y  Gasset  published  his  most  important  book  and  considered  himself  one  of  the   intellectuals  of  this  generation.   17  Generación  del  98  makes  reference  to  a  group  of  Spanish  writers,  essayists  and  poets  who  were  affected  by   the  moral,  political  and  social  crisis  in  Spain  for  the  military  defeat  in  the  hispano-­‐american  war.   16 the Spanish Empire with English expansion. He affirmed that England was a despotic nation since it abused other countries with its strength and power. The Generaciones del ’98 and ’14 tried to redefine the Spanish essence, they proposed solutions to regenerate the country of the deep crisis that it suffered, Spain and Spanish topics becoming in real philosophical discussions. Spain itself provided the necessary elements to elaborate its ideas, and it inspired or illuminated many of the future political determinations of 20th century. The Spanish xenophobia and specially Anglophobia, was an artificial, creative product. José Ortega y Gasset maintained an ambivalent position towards the English speaking world. He did not see Great Britain as a country of artists. On the other hand, he always had good words about English society for it capacity of autoorganization and to build a national identity based on a community feeling effective and organic. In the work La rebellion de las masas (1929) Ortega said that: “La originalidad extrema del pueblo inglés radica en su manera de tomar el lado social o colectivo de la vida humana, en el modo como sabe ser una sociedad.” (In Monterrey, 2003: 76). He compares English humour with that in Spanish southern villages, a perspective that Spanish society did not normally like. “Inglaterra no es un pueblo de escritores, sino de comerciantes, de ingenieros y hombres piadosos. Se trata principalmente de no decir lo que se dice, de insinuarlo más bien y como eludirlo. El Inglés no ha venido al mundo para decirse, sino al contrario, para silenciarse. Con faces impasibles, puestos detrás de sus pipas, velan los ingleses alerta sobre sus propios secretos para que no se escape ninguno.” (In Monterrey, 2003: 76). Spain had to reach an European level of scientific and cultural development. Spanish society was influenced by France and Germany and consequently it became more foreign. Ramiro de Maetzu was a writer that wrote not only in Spanish but he had also published a book in English with the title: Authority, Liberty and function in the light of the War (1916) in which he made a balance of the ideological waste that Europe suffered after the Great War. In the US, he discovered the realisation of his idea of utopic society, a world of opportunities to everyone, of social wealth, of big universities with excellent libraries, of high salaries and retributions to personal work. “El Hamlet es la tragedia de Inglaterra; El Quijote el libro 17 clásico de España. Inglaterra ha conquistado un imperio; España ha perdido el suyo” (in Monterrey 2003:78) According to this quotation, England was the most important empire in those days in all fields and it had also conquered Spain in one way or another because they thought that most of the literary works that appear in those days were thanks to British influence. On the other hand, Ramón López de Ayala and Salvador Madariaga represented empathy with the British world. Both of them wrote essays about English topics, talking about literary and humanistic issues. Pérez de Ayala and Madariaga are probably the best authors of the Generation of 14 that better represent the European vocation of Nouvecentism. Pérez de Ayala was attracted by the English speaking world and English liberalism, his works were full of English culture and literature, to which he dedicated a big number of essays and critical works. In this atmosphere, it is important to mention several translations of English works into Spanish published during the first half of the 20th century. The relationship with France was so close that while England was seen as a merchant society and the heir of Spanish power in the world, foreign literature was read in French, or in translations from French to Spanish. According to Juan Valera, Gibbon, Scott and Byron were the British writers that people read a lot, in Spanish and French and recognized: “a short cadence of ideas” (In Monterrey, 2003:79) between Spain and Great Britain. Valera complained about English people especially those that looked down on the Spanish cultural development of that moment, while the English language and literature had a lot of interest to a lot of people due to, the translations and criticism of French critics and writers. The English studies were very important in the Spanish development that appeared at the beginning of the period. The situation changed in the first decade of the 20th century. There were three Spanish societies (one in London, other in Liverpool, and the third one in Oxford), just as study groups at University level in Belfast, Edinburgh and Manchester. The most interesting part of that production of English topics consisted on a hundred of little articles about English life written mainly in the first decades of 20th century. Madariaga’s Sidelights (1920) compares English and Spanish literature: Beowulf and Mío Cid, Chaucer and Juan Ruiz, Sidney and Garcilaso, Shakespeare and Lope. In order to present 20 -­‐ The Monk’s Tale: El Cuento del Monje -­‐ The Priest’s Tale: El Cuento del Capellán de Monjas GROUP C -­‐ The Physician’s Tale: El Cuento del Médico -­‐ The Pardoner’s Tale: El Cuento del Vendedor de Indulgencias. -­‐ Index of proper names and titles -­‐ Bibliography The Second Volume was published in February of 1921. It included another introduction talking about Chaucer, and the rest of the Tales, divided into different groups. Index of proper names and titles and a bibliography. GROUP D -­‐ The Merchant’s Tale: El Cuento del Mercader -­‐ The Friar’s Tale: El Cuento del Fraile GROUP E -­‐ The Wife of Bath’s Tale: El Cuento de la Mujer de Bath -­‐ The Summoner’s Tale: El Cuento del Pregonero -­‐ The Squire’s Tale: El Cuento del Escudero GROUP F -­‐ The Franklin’s Tale: El Cuento del Terrateniente -­‐ The Parson’s Tale: El Cuento del Clérigo -­‐ The Canon Yeoman’s Tale: El Cuento del Criado del Canónigo -­‐ Index of Proper names and titles -­‐ Bibliography Apart from Skeat’s work and the index-glossaries, that this professor brings to the end of his version19, he also used A Concise Dictionary of Middle English (1888) by A.L. Mayhew and W.W. Skeat; and Stratmann’s Middle English Dictionary by H. Bradley. These two works , according to D. Manuel were essential for him in the comoposition of his translation (1921: 144). For some difficult passages he looked at French version, the Italian one by Cino Chianini and the German one by Wilhelm Hertzberg, finally choosing the most logical interpretation. 19  Skeat,  Walter  1894:  The  Complete  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer.  Oxford  Clarendon  Press.   21 It took him a year to write it. He kept his work and when the time passes by, he revised it, noticing some innacuracies and faults, he corrected the style to adapt it to the literal translation. In the translation of Manuel Pérez y del Río Cosa, there were certain semantic imbalances probably derived from the inexistence of the adequate lexicographic material, relative to the period known as Middle English. His “Introducción” was so rigorous that he tried to trail the source of each one of the tales that appear in The Canterbury Tales. Although he did not get right exactly with the origin of The Prioress Tale, according to him “ninguna tarea sería tan arriesgada y también fantástica” (1921: 245), and he also supposed a possible influence of the legend of the saint Dominguito del Val in the redaction of Chaucer. In spite of this, he travelled by Spain, and was inspired in a similar case in his country. Pérez says that this version of The Canterbury Tales is “íntegra: no he suprimido absolutamente nada, respetando en todo el texto original, aun en los pasajes más fuertes y crudos, que no atenúo lo más mínimo”. (Pérez y del Río Cosa, 1921: 147). According to the particular process followed in the translation, Manuel Pérez detailed it with words that need not big commentary: “He hecho dos versiones: una literal, siguiendo al autor verso por verso, palabra por palabra, manteniendo la forma del original y aún manteniendo la construccion en Inglés, la otra definitiva sin ser literal ni riguroso”. (Pérez y del Río Cosa, 1921: 145). The original punctuation has been well valued, without distorting the concepts. He modernized the dialogue, for that reason the reading is easier. He uses capital letters to define the jobs of some characters because almost all of them have not got proper names: they are representatives of a social class. He modifies geographical names which are susceptible of such change, and simplifies the number of annotations and notes. These are brief references with an explicative characteristic not to overload the pages. In The Canterbury Tales he used lines of 6, 7, 8 syllabes, apart from the combination called “heroic couplet”: four-line stanza or rhyming heroic couplet that has a lot of charm. “ el verso corriente de Chaucer es el decasílabo imitado del francés y asimilado con verdadera perfección y elegancia”. (Pérez y del Río Cosa, 1921: 142). It can be affirmed that, the Chaucerian spirit is lost in the translation of D. Manuel Pérez del Río Cosa. It is a translation that gives only a semantic equivalence. The morphosyntax is completely lost. Sentences like those written in English, do not find their 22 exact correspondence in Spanish. Functionally the translations acquired different resonances. This version does not reach to show the world created by the world of the poet, this world built with sounds and silences, with the said and the quiet, with suggestion and the evocation through the sound. It is the world in which the singer gives orally what the poet is not able to transmit, so he does it directly not only with words, but also with gestures, with attitude. (Céspedes Benítez, 1976: 13) The General Prologue has a different style to the rest of the work, it’s the part that has more difficulties, also because it was the first to be translated. To all these things, we have to add the inevitable setback of the external structure of old verses such as contractions, ellipsis, irregular forms, and also, the use of words and idioms of the Northern dialect. Pérez leaves in the hands of the reader a great work of Middle English poetry, a different book to those Spanish society at the time used to see or read. (Pérez y del Río Cosa, 1921: 147). Pérez concluded: “Todo lo Bueno que encontraron los lectores en este libro habrán de distribuirlo directamente al Viejo autor de él, y cuantos defectos notaren, a su intérprete sólo deberán ser aclarados. En todo caso me queda el recurso de disculparme con las mismas palabras del propietario de Chaucer: Yo jamás dormí en el monte Parnasso”. (Pérez y del Río Cosa, 1921: 153). I would like to include now some considerations about the author of the “Prólogo” as well as his own opinions about Pérez’s translation: “ La versión del Sr. Pérez y del Río-Cosa no sólo es la única completa de cuantas conozco en lenguas europeas, sino también la más concienzuda y fiel. Años enteros ha empleado el Sr. Pérez y del Río-Cosa en escribir y acicalar esta su versión, que, en muchos lugares es obra de subidos quilates literarios”. (Bonilla y San Martín, Adolfo, 1921: 5-6). In this quote, it is possible to see how important was the first translation of The Canterbury Tales and the importance it had for all people and all the society of that time. The author of the “Prólogo” was Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín (1875-1926). He was a Spanish philologist, philosopher and critic. He studied two different degrees, one in Law and the other one in Philosophy and Letters, but he is also known by his career as a translator; For example in 1901 he translated into Spanish J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly’s History of Spanish 25 Puns, are also considered difficult to translate, mainly those based on polysemy and homonymy. Only the translator’s wit will be able to discover the humoristic effect that the writer wants to transmit, in this sense, some of the puns are not happily rendered. The linguistic devices that languages have to create humoristic effects do not always correspond 6.- CONCLUSION It is important to mention not only the effort of translating an English text, but also the capacity of doing so, at the beginning of 20th century in this sense the perseverance and persistence of the translator are remarkable. The work of Chaucer was the result of the adaptation, unification and rewriting of different narrations. The final work in this sense could be considered also a translation. Chaucer translated different tales into his own language altering, more or less, their primitive form. From this perspective we can conclude that the works of Chaucer and Manuel Pérez y del Río Cosa are works of translation, arrangement, reduction, retouch, adaptation and commentary. Both of them could have limited themselves to an interpretative activity only. Chaucer did not for he was an artist, and Manuel Pérez y del Río Cosa did not either, as he wanted to transmit those personal fine tunes that appear in the work and, by this way, to respect things of this literary production. The importance of Chaucer is, without a doubt, the bravery of writing a work in English in a time in which it was only written in French or Latin, and not less important that of our author, because he had the bravery of translating a work from Middle English to Spanish, too. If the intention of Chaucer was to demonstrate that he was a poet by vocation, with The Canterbury Tales he achieved his objective as Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin says: “ Un poeta tiene que cumplir una función social, tiene que interpretar una comunidad viva, señalar caminos y guardar memoria de lo ocurrido”. (In Céspedes Benítez, 1976: 13). And if the intention of Manuel Pérez y del Río Cosa was to translate and transmit part of this function, I think that, in spite of the difficulties, he has achieved his objective too and it is not necessary to rest merit to the shortage that can appear in the text because, as his friend Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín also said: “ un héroe en su patria no es sólo quien trae riquezas desconocidas, también los que comunican a su lengua aquellos tesoros que encuentran escondidos en las lenguas extranjeras”. (1921: 6-7). 26 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY Amador de los Ríos, José Obras de don Iñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana, ahora por vez primera compiladas de los códices originales e ilustradas con la vida del autor, notas y comentarios por José Amador de los Ríos. Ed. . Madrid, 1852. Bravo, A., Galván. F& González. S: Old and Middle English studies in Spain: A Bibliography. Selim. University of Oviedo, 1994. Céspedes Benítez, Irma “En torno a los Cuentos de Canterbury” Revista Chilena de literatura nº 7, 1976: 5-26. De la Cruz Cabanillas, Isabel “The Reeve’s Tale: Traducción e Imposibles”. RAEL: Revista electrónica de Língüística Aplicada 3 (2004): 41-62. Monterrey, Tomás Los Estudios Ingleses en España (1900-1950): Contexto Ideológico- Cultural, Autores y Obras. Tenerife. Atlantis, 2003. Olivares Merino, Eugenio “Juan Ruiz’s influence on Chaucer Revisited: A Survey”. Neophilologus 88 (2004): 145-161 Olivares Merino, Eugenio: “Beowulfo, Geatas and Heoroto: An appraisal of the Earliest Renderings of Beowulf in Spain”. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 39. (2009): 73-102 Pérez y del Río Cosa, Manuel: Los Cuentos de Cantorbery. Madrid. Ed. Reus. 1921. Santoyo, J.C. “Los Cuentos de Canterbury: Primera Traducción, Primer Traductor”. Historia de la Traducción: Quince apuntes. Universidad de León, 1988: 215-235. Santoyo, J.C & J.L. Otal “Chaucer en España: Ediciones, Traducciones y Estudios Críticos”. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 9 (1987): 127-148. Santoyo, J. C. “Esplendor y miseria de la crítica de la traducción en los medios.” Hieronymus Complutensis nº 9-10. 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