What better place to commence analyzation of these translations than the beginning? The opening lines of a book are traditionally seen as the hook to entice readers to continue – the author must make a conscious decision in the time, place, tone, and perspective in which to open their narrative. Miguel Cervantes begins his novel with “En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corridor.” Even in this instance and for the remainder of the first paragraph, each translator has taken liberties in their translation, with some even inserting whole lines not existent in the original.
Shelton, the first Don Quixote translator, interprets this as, “There lived not long since in a certaine vilage of the Mancha, the name wherof I purposely omit, a Yeoman of their calling that use to pile up in their hals old Launces, Halbards, Morrions, and such other armours and weapons.” Languages experience continual change and turmoil, and throughout the centuries “New words and phrases enter the language… existing words develop new meanings” (Hogg 40) and this can be seen over and over again throughout Shelton’s translation. As can be seen in this sentence, Shelton’s translation uses a more antiquated style of British English with out-of-date spellings such as launces (the word launce is now used for a type of sand eel) instead of lances, and words like certaine, vilage, and hals are either missing letters or contain more letters than might be appropriate in modern English. Unlike Smollett, Shelton’s translation does not contain the long s – ſ – even though this stylistic choice was still used in print in England during the 17th century (and even until the late 18th century, which is why Smollett’s translation contains ſ). Some words, like “Morrion” – a more accurate spelling would be “Morion”, meaning a high-crested helmet worn by knights in the 16th and 17th centuries – no longer have any relevant meaning to modern culture, and have fallen out of use.
Other than these anachronistic spellings, there are two important decisions that Shelton actively makes as a translator – “the name wherof I purposely omit” and describing Quixote as a “Yeoman.” Shelton interprets the narrator as purposely leaving out the name of Quixote’s village instead of just forgetting it or not having the desire to call it to mind, portraying the narrator (at this time the narrator is Cervantes himself, but later in the book this role is passed onto a fictional African translator named Cid Hamet Benengeli) as having some sort of ulterior motive (there has been speculation that it could be to give Quixote’s story some mystery or not give any one village in La Mancha fame – instead, give the whole region a more enduring legacy) or bias in regards to what information is actually relevant to the story. The Spanish version uses the term “hidalgo” to describe Don Quixote, which was a term used to describe members of the lesser Spanish nobility. However, Shelton – an Englishman – changes this term to “yeoman” which was a rank of the lower nobility in England. From this adaption it can be seen that Shelton intended his translation for an English audience and therefore needed to change some of the terminology so it could be understood by those in England unfamiliar with Spanish culture.
Smollett’s translation from 1755 takes a very different approach; “In a certain corner of la Mancha, the name of which I do not chuſe to remember, there lately lived one of thoſe country gentlemen, who adorn their halls with a ruſty lance and worm-eaten target, and ride forth on the ſkeleton of a horſe, to courſe with a ſort of ſtarved greyhound.” Unique to thistranslation is the use of the long s, which Motteux and Shelton chose not to utilize even though ſ was still in printed use when their translations were published. Smollett uses words like “skeleton”, “starved”, and “worm-eaten” to create a decrepit and dreary environment even more extreme than the descriptions of Jarvis and Motteux who also use descriptive terms for Quixote’s possessions. It certainly sets up the reader to see Quixote as a sad and crazy old man, and we can begin to see the influence of the Romanticist period. A book focused solely on social satire and comedy would not begin in a such a depressing fashion – Smollett is living in the early Romantic period in Europe and therefore does not see Don Quixote as a comedy but a book with universal messages and deep meaning. Like Motteux, Ormsby and Jarvis, Smollett does away with country-specific nobility terminology such as “yeoman” or “hidalgo” and instead uses the term “gentleman” which is better suited to a more universal audience and still carries much of the same meaning as yeoman or hidalgo. Another interesting point to note is the addition of the word “greyhound” which does not appear in Shelton’s translation. Ormsby, Jarvis, and Motteux also include the addition of this word, which makes sense because “galgo corridor” means greyhound in English. For whatever reason, Shelton chooses to omit mention of a greyhound – perhaps this is because Don Quixote having a greyhound is never once mentioned in the entirety of the rest of the book.
Ormsby’s introduction is also slightly different from the others; “In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.” The adjectives he uses to describe Quixote’s possessions are certainly not as hyperbolic and depressing as Smollett’s, and they create an air of country life where everything is slightly outdated and worn down. His terminology is also more faithful to the original; “Antigua” means old in English, certainly not “worm-eaten” as Smollett uses. He also uses “buckler” (a type of small, handheld shield) instead of “target” as the other translators do – this could make sense considering that the word “adarga” also means a leather shield produced by the Berbers of Northwest Africa. However, if you examine the etymology of the word “target” it can be seen that “target” was used as a synonym of shield or buckler up until the 18th century. Similarly, “hack” is a type of horse, and the Spanish “rocín flaco” can be translated as a “lean/skinny horse/hack.”
The translation by Jarvis is remarkably similar to Ormsby’s: “In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I purposely omit, lived not long ago, one of those gentlemen who usually keep a lance upon a rack, an old target, a lean horse, and a greyhound for coursing.” The only real difference is that Jarvis uses “purposely omit” like Shelton and Motteux. The word “quiero” means “want” and “acordarme” means “remember” so if this phrase is translated word for word it would be “the name of which I don’t want to remember”, which is not used in any of the translations. However, as a professional translator you have to take into account that “Verb tenses differ from one language to another… each linguistic division imposes a worldview” (Ricoeur 15). In other words, each language views the meanings of its words in a unique way; each word may have one unique meaning, or the meaning could change depending on the situation. Therefore, simply looking at the word for word translation is insufficient – one must also consider the situation in which those words were written. “The name of which I don’t want to remember” simply does not make sense in this situation; these words imply willful suppression of memory of the village possibly out of fear or undesirable memories, and Miguel Cervantes is only the narrator and has no connection to the village. Therefore, the discrepancies in the English translations can be forgiven, and Jarvis’ interpretation could very well be close to Cervantes’ original meaning.
Motteux’s interpretation, except for a few words here or there, is virtually the same as that of Jarvis – though Jarvis’ came later so it is likely Jarvis drew on Motteux’s edition for the opening sequence. However, Jarvis displayed much distain for Motteux’s translation, regarding it as a “Loose paraphrase, rather than a translation”, so it is likely that his translation diverges from Motteux’s after the first paragraph. If you were to read Motteux’s edition, this point of view would make sense; Motteux often seems to forget what he just wrote, or the context in which he is writing, and frequently switches up his lexical and syntactic choices for seemingly no reason at all. His opening sequence was as follows: “At a certain Village in La Mancha, which I shall not name, there liv’d not long ago one of those old-fashion’d Gentlemen who are never without a Lance upon a Rack, an old Target, a lean Horse, and a Greyhound.”
As these opening sequences have illustrated, a sentence that may be regarded as inconsequential to the story as a whole actually exhibits the worldview of the translator and sets up the reader to view the story in an entirely new perspective, so that with each translation the reader enjoys a slightly different experience.