I was chastised by someone this past semester, I think by a Latina woman I helped in the writing center, for not keeping up my Spanish through reading. Of course, although I have always intended to read in Spanish, I've read very little since my return from Spain except when getting my Spanish minor: started several novels, completed a few short stories, various newspaper articles. So, once again, I start down the road, hoping I might actually do some serious study--a leer!!
I've chosen through careful examination and contemplation (i.e. I happened to find a copy at Saver's half off sale) Isabel Allende's retrato en sepia. I'm not quite sure why I will be more likely to read this novel rather than any one of the 15 Spanish novels I have down in our basement, but what the hell.
Reading the first few pages reminds me that my early experiences with Spanish literature helped me decide to be an English major (my first college lit class was a Spanish one). And it reminds me of how beautiful the Spanish language is as the main character contemplates the difficulties in discovering the truth of one's past and of truth in general: "He venido a saber los detalles de mi nacimiento bastante tarde en la vida, pero peor seria no haberlos descubierto nunca; podrian haberse extraviado para siempre en los vericuetos del olvido. Hay tantos secretos en me familia, que tal vez no me alcance el tiempo para despejarlos todos: la verdad es fugaz, lavada por torrentes de lluvia."
Isn't that last line wonderful? La verdad (the truth) is fleeting, watered down by torrents of rain--sounds much better in Spanish. If all language is metaphorical then maybe the Spanish sounds better to the novice like me because it's still a fresh metaphor. And of course Spanish is much less gruff and rough than English with all its vowel endings.
Bueno, voy a leer algunas paginas.
6 comments:
Lavada is "watered down?" I read it as "washed away" or just "washed."
In any case, I agree with your assessment of the beauty of the language.
I began to get a sense of how beautiful Spanish is when I read Neruda in a dual language edition--to see the gorgeousness of the Spanish and the prosaic-ness of the translation. Which is another issue, really, but I loved being able to cross-reference, to "hear" the vowel-rich qualities of the Spanish. I applaud your reading project.
I'm trying to read cien anos de soledad esto verano, pero it will take me about cien anos, I fear. But my vocabulary has to improve. Right?
Theorris: I originally translated it as washed or washed away but then questioned my translation and looked up the first page in English (I think she writes in both English and spanish but not sure) where it was "watered down."
Lisa b: I love Neruda and Octavia Paz.
Dr. Write: Cien anos!!?? wow, I'm not nearly that brave. I've started that book 2 or 3 times in ENGLISH and not made it.
Update: Fear of having one more spanish failure, pushed me to find my copy of Sandra Cisneros "La Casa en Mango Street." I'm starting with it so I might then build on that success (it's very short) and then I will move to allende.
I ordered a taco the other day... geez, sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown. Good Grief... no hold that football still. No Habla
HH =)
That is nice. Especially in Spanish. I find that even the sappiest lyrics imaginable can bring me to tears if they're sung in Italian, a language that never, to a novice speaker such as myself, sounds cliche.
And I remember reading a Neruda poem published in a Guatemalan newspaper and feeling as if I had been struck to the core, in part because of the beauty of the poem and in part because of my elation in understanding it.
I wish you lived closer, so I could go over to your house and get some free Spanish lessons!
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