He had a great influence on English in the spelling and creating of new words, but there is also a literary value that keeps us studying him year after year.
So even though Shakespeare does not have the development influence on another language besides English has he been translated for study in other languages?
In order to do this I looked for Shakespeare Sonnet 130. This is one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets and it is so small I felt there was a good chance it had been translated.
I looked for Spanish translations because I have taken a few Spanish classes, so I know a little bit of the language and know about Google España (http://www.google.es/).
Lo and Behold....
Soneto CXXX
William Shakespeare
Los ojos de mi amante no son comparables con el sol;
El coral es mucho más rojo que el carmin de sus labios:
Si la nieve ha de ser blanca, ¿ por qué sus senos son morenos?;
Si el cabello ha de ser de cobre , negros alambres cercen en su cabeza
He visto rosas adamascadas, rojas y blancas,
Pero no veo tales rosas en sus mejillas;
Y en algunas fragancias hay más placer
Que en el hálito que mi amante expele
Adoro oírle hablar, mas bien sé
Que la música tiene un son mucho más agradable:
Reconozco que jámas he visto diosa andar,
Mi amante, cuando camina, toca el suelo:
Y aún así, por los cielos, creo que mi amore
s tan raro,
Como cualquier otra mujer representada con tal falsedad.
It is really interesting because Spanish can be more expressive than English. On the website they compare the English and Spanish translation and note the unusual Spanish words to the unusual English words.
For example, 'amante' is an affectionate term for lover in Spanish that they use for the term 'mistress' in English.
In Spanish they may also use different words for the same word found in the English version.
For example, the line "Coral, is far more red, than her lips red" in Spanish the word red 'rojo' is not repeated. Instead it uses "mucho más rojo que el carmin de sus labios." Rojo means red, while carmin is more like lipstick. So literally "much more red than the lipstick of her lips."
It is fun to explore Shakespeare in different languages because it gives a little different meaning and sometimes detail.
I'm glad you are looking at Shakespeare across languages. It's lots of fun to do so and can really get you into the details of the linguistic qualities of the texts. I liked the rojo / carmin translations for "red" as you explained. Yet I felt that the final line felt very prose-like. Maybe it's because of the easy flow of the English version ("as any she belied by false compare") compared to (in my opinion) somewhat clunky words like "cualquier" and (gasp!) "representada." But this is not coming from someone for whom Spanish is natural.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the sonnets from other languages have the same lyricism of the English sonnet with its iambic pentameter. Anyway, thanks for venturing into cross-lingual Shakespeare!