Translating Mexican Slang: A Look into Rosalind Harvey's 'Down the Rabbit Hole' - Prof. 15, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

¡Descarga Translating Mexican Slang: A Look into Rosalind Harvey's 'Down the Rabbit Hole' - Prof. 15 y más Apuntes en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity! Presentation When direct swearword communicate swearing 34,55. Puta madre 54, 83. Idiom 68, 102. Ideas for Slides • Villalobos: “It’s interesting because the title means something completely different in Spanish. My publishers pointed out the link to Alice in Wonderland, which is a book I love. It got me thinking that Totchli is also a child who finds himself in a strange place trying to deal with what is happening around him”. (‘Through a Mexican Looking Glass’, Irish Times, 2011) • Tochtli means rabbit, Yolcaut means rattlesnake, Mazatzin means deer, miztli means puma, Chichilkuali means red eagle, Iztapapalotl (servant) means black butterfly, Azcatl (gardiner) means ant, Quecholli means flamingo, Alotl means macaw, Cinteotl (cook) means goddess of the earth. • Faithful to the original: 1. Their eyes are made of white marbles. And their miniscule ears are intact” (p.69) and the Spanish is “Sus ojos estan hechos de canicas blancas con la pupila color café. Y tienen las orejas minusuculas intactas.” (p.103/104) 2. “mole” (p.19) and “Aguacalientes” (p.31) HOWEVER “huaraches” (p.17) becomes “leather sandals” (p.8) or replaces cultural reference as “raspado” (p.80) becomes “Slush Puppie” (p.52) 3. “reino Unido” as “Kingdom of United”. “rimar e inventar hacen rima” (p.28), “king and sing rhyme” (p.16). • Creates her own narrative voice 1. Grammar rules: “el gober” (p.26) becomes “the Governor” (p.14) and uses transposition which changes meaning as “los samurais en las peliculas hacemos” (p.79) becomes “the samurai in films do” (p.51) 2. “millones” (p.29) as “millions and millions” (p.17). “se queja” (p.21) to “grumbles” (p.11). 3. She takes initiative; “mariconadas” (p.60) becomes “pathetic” (p.38) 4. “plata” (p.17) is translated as “money” (p.8). “aguantate” (p.13) is translated as “Chin up” (p.4). “pendejo” (p.36) is translated as “asshole” (p.22). “Que virgin santa” (p.88) becomes “oh my goodness” (p.58) 5. “changos y puercos” (p.61) becomes “monkeys and pigs” (p.39). • Not all cultural references can be translated 1. “it’s a word that's particular to Mexico from the Eighties. President [Carlos] Salinas... had this social programme, Programa Nacional de Solidaridad. This word -- solidaridad -- was used all the time in the news, the media, advertising for six years. It became a bad word and you remember it.” (New Statesman, 2011) 2. “Yolcaut grito que era del rancho de la chingada. El rancho de la chingada esta cerca de San Juan, al lado de la carretera. Hay una reja en la entrada con un letrero que dice: La Chingada”. (p.31) becomes ““she was from the motherfucking house of the rising sun!” (p.18) The title itself has acquired a different meaning in translation. The title “Down the Rabbit Hole” has references to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol that are absent in the original Spanish title “Fiesta en la madriguera”. Villalobos said “It’s interesting because the title means something completely different in Spanish. My publishers pointed out the link to Alice in Wonderland, which is a book I love. It got me thinking that Totchli is also a child who finds himself in a strange place trying to deal with what is happening around him.” The characters’ names in Nahuatl also offer a different meaning to English readers. Three Percent highlights that the use of “Nahuatl, an indigenous language, can be seen, perhaps, as a connection of these very contemporary events to the history of Mexico”. The use of animal names makes the story resemble a traditional Mexican fable, which the title also refers to. It also implies that all the characters involved in the drugs trade have been bestialized. However, this reflection on Mexican national identity is not evident to English readers who may just assume that these names are written in Spanish. To a Spanish reader, it will be apparent that these names are not Spanish words, and they will therefore be able to research and discover the meaning of these words. In general, Rosalind Harvey’s translation is very true to the original text as it often retains incorrect sentence structures to reflect the original, for example in “Their eyes are made of white marbles. And their miniscule ears are intact” (p.69). Most cultural references to Mexican food, clothing and locations such as “mole” (p.19) and “Aguacalientes” (p.31) are kept in Spanish in the translation, with a glossary at the end of the text explaining what these mean. However, when Harvey thinks understanding the cultural reference is essential to understanding a joke, she offers a direct translation as “huaraches” (p.17) becomes “leather sandals” (p.8) She also replaces a cultural reference in the source language with one in the target language as “raspado” (p.80) becomes “Slush Puppie” (p.52). When she does not choose to leave the Spanish word in, and a direct translation is not possible, Harvey cleverly reconstructs the ideas of the original text. For example, she translates “reino Unido” as “Kingdom of United” to convey Tochtli’s mishearing of the correct name. When Tochtli remarks that in the Song ‘The King’, “rimar e inventar hacen rima” (p.28), a literal translation of these words would mean that they do not rhyme in English, and so she instead finds other lines of the song to translate this as “king and sing rhyme” (p.16). Nevertheless, Harvey creates her own narrative voice in English. She makes the text abide by English grammatical rules as Grammar rules as she translates “el gober” (p.26) as “the Governor” (p.14) and she also uses transposition to achieve this which means that the meaning is sometimes slightly altered in the translation as “los samurais en las peliculas hacemos” (p.79) becomes “the samurai in films do” (p.51). She also edits the format so it makes more sense to an English reader, as in the translation she creates a new paragraph with the line beginning “Later on Yolcaut” (p.59) At times, she deviates from a direct translation to create one that is more authentic and makes the narrative more exciting, for example translating