Translation of Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor

Question

I am reading a book called Rein of Gold in Spanish. I thought Spanish had many more nuances than English in some ways but I have compared the English translation of this book and find that it is much more detailed in its description of places and things that the book in Spanish. I assumed the author wrote the book in Spanish or translated it himself. Is it possible that Spanish simply doesn't have the same richness of language as English or what?

Answer 1

I have read Rain of Gold in both English and Spanish. The book is beautiful in English but not so much in Spanish. The author wrote the book in English and he was not the translator. The English version is so rich because the author had great familiarity with the facts in the book which were handed down through family history. The Spanish translation is quite sterile by comparison.

English is one of the world's richest languages primarily because it borrows from virtually every other language. Although English is a Germanic language, some estimates put the number of commonly used words in English that have Latin origins as high as 50%. In addition to German on which English is based, English borrows a huge number of words from French. In fact, one of the reasons legal documents tend to be so long is that there is a tradition and English law of using both English and French terms for everything ("last will AND testament for example"). Then there are English words of Greek, Celtic and other origins.

Spanish, too, has a very rich vocabulary. If you want to see this in action, pick up the original Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and compare it to any of the English translations. The Spanish used by Marquez is incredibly evocative. The same is true of his book El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera. Marquez is Columbian so you get the nuances of his dialect. You might also check out La Casa de los Espíritus by Allende. Allende is the daughter of the late Chilean president Salvador Allende so her Spanish is from Chile.

Don't bother with the Spanish translation of Villaseñor's Trece Sentidos either. It suffers the same shortcomings. It is great in English though. The only thing that Trece Sentidos has going for it in Spanish is that you can get an audio book of it on iTunes in Spanish for listening while your read in Spanish or English. I do that often because I don't understand spoken Spanish that well and I am really working on it. I started Spanish solely because I wanted to read some of the great books in their original language. My goal was (and remains) to read the original Don Quixote. I read Julius Ceasar's The Gallic Wars in the Original Latin too and I can read French but not nearly as well as Spanish and Latin and I can write fluently only in Spanish and English. But then I married a Latina and decided that among her innumerable and amazing attributes, she could help me learn to speak and understand spoken Spanish so I'm working on that before I start learning to read German.

• Isabel is a first cousin, once removed of Salvador (not daugter). - samdie Sep 16, 2009

Answer 2

To be honest, I think each language has the same "richness." I just think some languages use plainer words than others. But in this case, I think that the translator took a few "liberties" and added some stuff in. The problem with all languages is that there isn't a perfect translation for much of anything...

Answer 3

Wow, thanks. That was an amazing answer. Is there a way I can reach you? I have so many questions.

• Yes, you can send me a private message. Click on my name, above. I love having people I can write to in Spanish. - ocbizlaw Sep 15, 2009

Answer 4

I love that book. I didn't know you could get it in Spanish. I saw the list of books in the chosen answer. Are their others you can recommend.