IT IS A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT TO FULLY UNDERSTAND JANE AUSTEN’S WRITINGS, YOU MUST READ HER IN ENGLISH….OR IS IT?

Although some of Jane Austen's novels started to be translated into European languages such as French and German fairly soon after publication, in some cases within a few months, they were translated into Spanish relatively late, starting in 1919. However, sadly not all translations are completely faithful to the original text, and in many cases, the publishing houses keep using the same tranlations again and again, without a thorough previous revision and thus perpetuating the same mistakes and inaccuracies.

Just to mention a few examples, María Antonia Ibáñez's translation of Pride and Prejudice has Charlotte Lucas's age as 20, and Ana María Rodríguez's has Mrs. Hurst say of Elizabeth Bennet: “Su única virtud es ser una bailarina excelente” (“She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent dancer”), when, as it is well known, Charlotte Lucas is actually 27, and Elizabeth Bennet is “an excellent walker” (italics added); Isabel Oyarzábal's Northanger Abbey lists Cecilia, Camilla and Belinda as possible names of the hypothetical novel-reading young lady in the famous “Defense of the Novel” passage; Manuel Ortega y Gasset's Persuasion demotes Lady Elliot, Lady Russell and Lady Dalrymple to plain Mrs.; and Ana María Rodríguez's Sense and Sensibility has Colonel Brandon take the train nearly two decades before its introduction in England. None of the later reeditions of these translations have ever corrected these and other mistakes, not even deluxe and commemorative editions. While it could be argued that these are fairly minor mistakes and do not alter the main gist of the story, this is not to say that they are unimportant and can be safely overlooked; the fact remains that it is not what Jane Austen wrote originally, and in some cases this kind of mistranslation can even have a substantial effect on the reader's comprehension of the story and perception of the characters. Case in point: the downgrading of the very class-conscious Lady Russell in Persuasion to just Mrs. Russell. To materially change the then all-important social hierarchy (something on which Austen herself was very punctilious), dilutes the element of social snobbery on the character's part and causes one of the main themes in the plot to lose some of its importance: the “over-anxious caution” and “prudence” Anne had been “forced into” in her youth. A plain Mrs. Russell would not be so concerned with the social inequality between Anne and Wentworth as Lady Russell is. 

Thankfully, in the last few decades, we have witnessed a renewed interest in Jane Austen and her work, along with a refinement of translation techniques and strategies, a greater access to bibliographical resources on Austen and her world, and a better comprehension of the evolution that the English language has undergone in the two centuries since Austen's death; this has created a need for more accurate translations in Spanish, and some very worthy and scholarly translators have stepped up to the (notoriously difficult) challenge of translating Austen, presenting the full meaning and intention of her words to the modern readers while preserving in varying degrees the nuances and delicately wrought irony present in the original text. Although the average Spanish reader is really not that concerned with strict accuracy in translation, being more interested in enjoying an (in most cases) already well known and beloved story (and of course cannot recognize mistakes or mistranslations if he or she has never read the original), some are pickier and demand a translation that recreates the experience of reading Austen in the original language as faithfully as possible. So, while there is no such thing as a perfect translation, it is undeniable that some translators have done a better job than others in conveying in one language very much what Austen wrote in another. 

Being one of those pickier and more passionate readers, I have personally undertaken the task of comparing different translations of Austen's works side by side, and alongside the original in English, checking for discrepancies in the text or missing words or phrases, analizing how different translators tackle and solve (or not) various translation problems, and finally reaching an informed conclusion about which one is the most faithful and can be recommended as the best available translation. So far, I have compared 4 different Northanger Abbey (translated by Miguel Ángel Pérez Pérez, Guillermo Lorenzo, Isabel Oyarzábal, and an unnamed translator); 4 different Lady Susan (translated by Carme Camps, Jorge Casellas Guitart, Marta Salís, and an unnamed translator), 3 different The Watsons (translated by Íñigo Jáuregui, Marta Salís and Miguel Ángel Pérez Pérez), 4 different complete Pride and Prejudice (translated by Marta Salís, Ana María Rodríguez, María Antonia Ibáñez and Lilia Villanueva) and parts of 6 other (Roser Vilagrassa, José Jordán de Urríes y Azara, Alejandro Pareja Rodríguez, José C. Vales, Américo Nos Gray, and José Luis López Muñoz), and am currently halfway through 5 Persuasion (translated by Francisco Torres Oliver, Manuel Ortega y Gasset, Rosa Sahuquillo Moreno and Susanna González, José Fernandez Z., and an unnamed translator). Although it is a protracted and painstaking task, it is my intention to eventually go over as many different translations of all Austen works that I can find. As I go, my reviews chapter by chapter with detailed photo comparisons and final conclusions are posted on my Jane Austen themed Facebook page and group, and I plan to post them on a blog to make them available to more Spanish-speaking readers. 

While the work of all translators in making Austen's writings available to the Spanish speaking readership is certainly to be acknowledged, I believe that Austen (as it is true of authors in general, of course) deserves to be conveyed as accurately as possible. Thus, my search for the most accurate translations of Austen's novels goes on. I hope by doing so to help my fellow Spanish readers to find the translations that will enable them to appreciate and enjoy Austen's art of writing as fully as possible.

© Angelica Trejo

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Jane Austen Tea for Literacy

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