Criticism
Most the issues that arose from undertaking such enormous and varied amount of translations during this period are reflected in the Don Quijote de la Mancha of Miguel de Cervantes, where he attributes the authorship of his book to a variety of characters and translators, some with Moorish names, some Spanish, and some from other parts of Europe. Cervantes also expresses his opinion on the translation process, offering a rather despairing metaphor for the end result of translations, which is frequently cited by contemporary theoreticians and translating experts:
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"Pero con todo eso, me parece que el traducir de una lengua en otra, como no sea de las reinas de las lenguas, griega y latina, es como quien mira los tapices flamencos por el revés: que aunque se veen las figuras, son llenas de hilos que las escurecen, y no se veen con la lisura y tez de la haz." |
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According to Cervantes, translations (with the exception of those made between Greek and Latin), are like looking at Flemish tapestry by its reverse side, where although the main figures can be discerned, they are obscured by the loose threads and lack the clarity of the front side.
Read more about this topic: Translations During The Spanish Golden Age
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“A tailor can adapt to any medium, be it poetry, be it criticism. As a poet, he can mend, and with the scissors of criticism he can divide.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but a spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, so far as he was concerned.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)