Spanish-English Translation Proof reading needed
Hi I have just translated this text into english:
Esperé treinta años a que regresaras, Susana. Esperé a tenerlo todo. No solamente algo, sino todo lo que se pudiera conseguir de modo que nos quedara ningún deseo, sólo el tuyo, el deseo de ti. ¿Cuántas veces invité a tu padre a que viniera a vivir aquí, diciéndole que yo lo necesitaba? Lo hice hasta con engaños. Le ofrecí nombrarlo administrador, con tal de volverte a ver. ¿Y qué me contestó? “No hay respuesta,” me decía siempre el mandadero. “El señor don Bartolomé rompe sus cartas cuando yo se las entrego”. Pero por el muchacho supe que te habías casado y pronto me enteré que te habías quedado viuda y le hacías otra vez compañía a tu padre. El mandadero iba y venía y siempre regresaba diciéndome: “No los encuentro don Pedro. Me dicen que salieron de Mascota. Y unos me dicen que para acá y otros para allá.” Yo le dije: “No repares en gastos, búscalos. Ni que se los haya tragado la tierra.” Hasta que un día vino y me dijo: “He repasado toda la sierra indagando el rincón donde se esconde don Bartolomé San Juan, hasta que me he dado con él, allá perdido en un agujero de los montes, viviendo en una covacha hecha de troncos, en el mero lugar donde están las minas abandonadas de La Andómeda.”
Here is my translation of that text into English:
I waited 30 years for you to return Susana. I waited for it all. No just anything but everything that could have been achieved so that no other desire remained but yours, your desire. How many times did I invite your father to come live here, telling him that I needed him to? I offered to appoint an administrator, with the hope of seeing you again. And what did he say to me? "No comment”, the messenger always told me "Mr. Don Bartolomé rips up his letters whenever I bring them." But the man knew that you had got married and soon I learned that you had been widowed and you were in your father’s company once again. The porter came and went and always came back saying: "I haven’t found them Don Pedro. Some tell me that they left Mascota. And others tell me that they’re here or there.” I told him, “No expense spared, look for them. It’s not as though the earth has swallowed them up” Until one day he came and said, "I checked all of the mountain looking into the corner where Bartolomé San Juan is hiding, until I found him, lost in a hole in the mountains, living in a shack made of logs, in the very place where the where the abandoned Andómeda mines are.
The parts in bold I struggled to understand and translate into English. Could you please let me know what you think of my english translations of the spanish text in bold and also if my overall translation is correct.
Gracias, Olivia
1 Answer
Nice.
Lo hice hasta con engaños.
I even did it with lies.
rompe sus cartas
Yes, rips up his letters
le hacías otra vez compañía a tu padre
You were again companion to your father (as you thought)
Y unos me dicen que para acá y otros para allá
And others tell me that (they went) here, (but others say) or there
Ni que se los haya tragado la tierra.
Yes!
As to the first two sentences, I see another meaning that they could have, but without knowing what the relationship is between the writer and Susana it's hard to say. How about
I waited 30 years for you to return, Susana. I hoped to have it all. Not just something, but all that might be had, in the way that no other desire remains to us, only yours, the desire of you. I mean, doesn't this sound like someone waiting for their long lost lover? But as I say, without context, it's hard to say.
