e-ISSN: 2695-8465
ISSN: 2255-3703
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Skopos 14 (2023), 103-121
The translation into Albanian of culturemes in García
Márquez’ Stories (Based on the translation of Strange
Pilgrims, by Mira Meksi)
Admira Nushi
Tirana University
admira.nushi@unitr.edu.al
Recibido: 28.06. 2023
Revisado: 06.10. 2023
Aceptado: 25. 10. 2023
Abstract: The objective of our study is the analysis of the translation of the cultural
elements of García Márquez’s book, Strange Pilgrims, into the Albanian language.
Cultural translation requires a complete understanding of the cultures that are
involved in the exchange, so not only linguistic but also communicative, including
gestures, rituals, etc. This approach exposes the translator to cultural differences and
involves him in a transfer process, as illustrated in this article. García Márquez
proves that the cultural contrast between the Europeans and the South Americans is
very significant, which makes the translator's task more difficult. The results of our
analysis show us the difficulties of translating the culturemes, the challenges, and the
achievements so that the Albanian reader can get hold of a literary creation close to
the original. We think that the translator Mira Meksi has made a successful
translation, towards the arrival pole, oriented towards the reader. The translation from
the lexical-semantic perspective approaches the contemporary reader. Through this
translation, the Albanian language showed that it has a rich vocabulary and
successfully conveys the linguistic registers that the author used. The translator
Meksi brought to the Albanian reader the characteristics of the culture of Latin
American identity in twelve stories.
Key words: Translation; cultureme; magical realism; García Márquez, Mira Meksi;
La traducción al albanés de culturemas en los cuentos de García
Márquez
Resumen: El objetivo de nuestro estudio es el análisis de la traducción de los
elementos culturales en Doce cuentos peregrinos de García Márquez traducido al
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albanés. La traducción cultural requiere una comprensión completa de las culturas
que están involucradas en el intercambio, no solo lingüística sino también
comunicativa, incluidos gestos, rituales, etc. Este enfoque expone al traductor a las
diferencias culturales y lo involucra en un proceso de transferencia, como se ilustra
en este artículo. García Márquez mismo comprueba que el contraste cultural entre
los europeos y sudamericanos es muy significativo, lo que dificulta la tarea del
traductor. Los resultados de nuestro análisis nos demuestran las dificultades de la
traducción de los culturemas, los desafíos y los logros, para que el lector albanés
pueda leer una creación literaria cercana al original. En nuestro análisis la traductora
Meksi ha hecho una traducción exitosa hacia el polo de llegada, orientada hacia el
lector. La traducción desde la perspectiva léxico –semántica se acerca al lector
contemporáneo. Mediante esta traducción, la lengua albanesa mostró que tiene un
léxico rico, y pudo representar los registros lingüísticos que el autor usa en los
cuentos. La traductora Meksi representó ante los lectores albaneses las
características de la cultura de Hispanoamérica en doce cuentos.
Palabras clave: traducción; culturema; realismo mágico; García Márquez; Mira
Meksi;
Sumario: 1. Introducción. 2. The translator and his challenge with the book of García
Márquez. 3. Translation of cultural elements as a process of communication. 4. Conclusion.
1. Introduction
Magical realism is a South American literary trend and has its apogee
in the boom literary, and it is associated with the names of famous writers
such as García Márquez, Borges, Allende, etc. Magical realism is
characterized by the predominance of fantastic works in real life, described
with enough realism, where the unreal and the strange are conveyed as
common and every day.
The essence of this technique is that it gives the objects their proper
importance and gives them a deeper meaning that penetrates the mystery.
Art is not only the external copy of reality but creates its own reality, which
originates from the interior of the artist, so the work of art feels like a creation
where magic is not in opposition to mysticism but they complement each
other... The magical-realist writer exposes the extraordinary in the ordinary.
(Bautista 1991:19)
García Márquez, the representative writer of magical realism, in his
interviews, stated that he found the desire to tell the stories of his books in
his family and in his hometown.
I had an exceptional childhood, surrounded by imaginative and very
superstitious people, people who lived surrounded by a magical reality
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populated by ghosts. My grandmother used to tell me at dinner, in a very
natural way, stories that terrified me. (García Márquez 1991)
The themes of magical realism treated in the book: Strange pilgrims,
connect the South American spirit, its people, religion, myths, folklore, and
history, giving the reader a wide panorama and multitude of ideas. Just like
the themes and the characters, they see the world from a different
perspective, conditioned by the European isolation and the hybridization of
European and South American cultures.
In the Caribbean and in general in Latin America, we have ‘magical’
situations as an integral part of everyday life, like any other ordinary and
common reality. It seems very common for us to believe in predictions,
telepathy, and sensations, as well as in a multitude of superstitions and
‘fantastic’ interpretations of the future, which are not at all common. In my
books, I never seek an explanation for all these events or a metaphysical
justification. I call myself a realist writer and nothing more. (García Márquez
1991)
Our study aims to identify the journey of the culture of García
Márquez's country of origin towards the Albanian language that has the
lexical wealth to convey it. In addition, we would like to identify cultural,
fantastic, and magical Latin American’s cultural element and how strange it
is for the Albanian reader. García Márquez, who received the Nobel Prize in
1982, said: "On the contrary, it seems that the cultural distance has
increased, although advances in the shipping industry have shortened the
distance between America and Europe," (García Márquez 2014)
The corpus of our study is:
G. García Márquez. (2009). Doce cuentos peregrinos. Barcelona:
Mondadori.
G. García Márquez (2005). Strange Pilgrims Tirana: Dituria. The book
was translated by Mira Meksi in 1994.
The methodology we have used is comparative and analytical. The
translator of literature does not only transport words from one language to
another; it is very complex. In every translation, intercultural competence is
implicitly or explicitly intertwined with ideas, concepts, sensations, colours,
aesthetic and argumentative values, etc., so it carries linguistic phenomena
and cultural dimensions.
If attention is paid to the root word in Latin trans-latio, translation
means the transfer of meanings that implies displacement in time and
space.... The prefix trans, emphasizes the displacement... it also means
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beyond: beyond language and national literature... (Villegas Salas 2019:
339)
The translator must not only be able to identify the culturemes but also
provide a solution, because it can appear as a problem if the translator does
not make the right decision. So the translator must possess cultural and
intercultural competence and be able to compare cultures, including the
culture of the country of origin and the host culture. It should be taken into
account that the meaning it receives depending on the host culture is final.
(Prieto del Pozo 2006:167)
Culture in the dictionary of the Spanish language: conjunto de
conocimientos, grado de desarrollo científico e industrial, estado social,
ideas, arte, etc., de un país, o una época... Cojunto de valores compartidos
por un grupo social que son favorables al hecho que se expresa. (Moliner
2000: 402)
The notion of cultural element (culturemes), used in the field of translation
and in the fields of phraseology and culture since the middle of the 20th
century, is culturally specific; it belongs to a country or a cultural area.
Culturemes lose their validity and actuality; they are modified, but in the
meantime, new ones are created. (Martínez 2006:79) The Nord added the
suffix ‘eme’ to the name ‘culrtur’ to make it clearer and easier to understand,
as well as to facilitate communication, while using a single word and not
phrases: cultural elements, marked by cultural aspects, etc.
A culture-specific phenomenon is thus one that is found to exist in a
particular form or function in only one of the two cultures being compared.
This does not mean that the phenomenon exists only in that particular
culture. The same phenomenon might be observable in cultures other than
the tëo in question. Translating means comparing cultures. Translators
interpret source-culture phenomena in the light of their own culture-specific
knowledge of that culture, from either the inside or the outside, depending on
whether the translation is from or into the translator’s native language and
culture. A foreign culture can only be perceived by means of comparison
with our own culture, the culture of our primary enculturation. (Nord 2018:
33)
José de Soura Saramago, the Portuguese writer and recipient of the
1998 Nobel Prize and a translator, states in one of his interviews that
translators make literature universal, regardless of where and when the
literary work was written. "It is the credit of the translators, who did not create
the story, the characters, the drama, but also like the author, worked with the
language, style, corrected, etc., and in most cases remain unknown."
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(Tuesta 1999) García Márquez said in an interview: "… the best way to read
is translation." (García Márquez 1982)
2. The translator and his challenge with the book of García Márquez
García Márquez, in the Prologue of the book Strange Pilgrims, proves
that the cultural contrast between the Europeans and the South Americans
is very significant, which makes the translator's task more difficult. But is the
knowledge of the language enough to transfer the cultural element from one
language to another?
Linguistic translation as a conventional meaning fails to imply that the
transfer from one language to another entails the need to preserve the
meaning despite the change of location. Cultural translation is that transfer
of meaning that is fully aware of the change of location and emphasizes the
difference without wanting to flatten it, highlighting it by trying to reveal the
inner meanings of these narrow spaces. (Villegas Salas 2019: 337)
We are sure that the distance in time and space between the writer
and the reader in Albanian language makes it difficult to translate and
receive the original text. In the years when García Márquez excelled with
magical realism, Albania was a country under dictatorship, and not only was
Albanian literature not influenced, but few of his books were translated into
Albanian. Literary and ideological censorship did not allow literature to be
written outside the aesthetic boundaries of socialist realism. After the 1990s,
with the change in the political system and the establishment of democracy
in Albania, García Márquez's books received well-deserved fame and
importance through translation.
There is an important question that we ask within every translated
book, which is in the hands of the reader: Is it the book that the author
wrote?
The translator is ahead of two paths, in the first case when he makes
it possible for the reader to go to the author, or in the second case when the
translator makes it possible for the writer to go to the reader. Whatever
strategy is chosen, the final result is important, and the translator's decisions
determine and condition the translation. The cultural level of a literary work is
the most discussed, because there can be conflicts between the original text
and the translated text. For this reason, in this study we give place to the
analysis of how these cultural elements are transferred from one language to
another, because in the translated literary text there is generally an
inevitable cultural loss.
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The translator knows Spanish very well, so this book is translated
from the original version, as the translator knows García Márquez's style
very well because she also translated other books by the author such as
Love in time of cholera (El amor en tiempos de cólera), Memories of My
Melancholy Whores (Memorias de mis putas tristes), One hundred years of
solitude (Cien años de soledad) this gives her perspective.
According to Lucia Molina Martínez, in the book El otoño del pingüino:
análisis descriptivo de la traducción de los culturemas.
[…] entendemos por culturemas un elemento verbal o paraverbal que
posee una carga cultural especifica en una cultura y que al entrar en
contacto con otra cultura a través de la traducción puede provocar un
problema de índole cultural entre los textos origen y meta. (2006: 79)
The researcher explains that culturemes do not exist outside of
context but exist within a transfer between two concrete cultures. The author
of the study makes a classification of culturemes based on the theories of
researchers Nida and Nord, which we have followed to analyse the
challenges of the translator of García Márquez's book.
Natural environment (Medio natural)
Cultural heritage (Patrimonio cultural)
Social culture (Cultura social)
Linguistic culture (Cultura linguistica) (2006:79)
In the following, we will analyse the translation of Culturemes based
on the context of the literary work, and we will accompany it with comments
on the strategies used.
The Albanian translation of the book Strange Pilgrims is quite modern
and current at the lexical level. In our analysis, we stop to tell the story of
The Ghosts of August (Espantos de Agosto) written in 1980 (2005: 81–83).
There we find new words: karaibas; and popular words of different regions of
Albania, such as: qoshkë, urthi i dritares (nook, window heartburn); words
derived from other languages such as Spanish: senjori, florentinas (mister,
from Florence); English: alkovi (alcove), and Turkish, which are called
archaisms in the Albanian language
1
, such as: kallkan (iced up), etc.
1
They are called archaisms because they are the linguistic influence of Turkish on the Albanian
language after four centuries of occupation of Albania by the Turkish Empire (XV to XX centuries).
Although these words have been replaced by Albanian words of the standard language, they have
preserved their archaic form in popular speech.
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We notice that in the story The Ghosts of August, the translator does
not interrupt the long sentence and respects it until the end and maintains a
natural rhythm without affecting the fluency in the Albanian language.
The translator Meksi follows the model of the book's author and uses
several languages registers to convey the variety and preserve the writer's
style. While he uses more words of the traditional ‘tosk’ dialectal language
register of southern Albania, compared to García Márquez, who maintains a
standard Spanish language register.
In the story The Ghosts of August, García Márquez uses a popular
proverb, and we would like to pay attention to the Albanian translation of this
important cultural element:
• “...con el estómago lleno y el corazón contento.” (García Márquez
2009: 114)
• “... me stomakun plot dhe zemër të gëzuar.” (García Márquez 2005:
82)
This is a proverb that in the Caribbean is also known by the variant:
Barriga llena, corrazón contento (Junceda 2022: 70), which means that after
we have satisfied our appetite, we will feel happy and full. The translator
translated it word for word and did not ask for a proverb from the Albanian
language.
Në të vërtetë, kështjella ishte e paanë dhe e zymtë. Por ditën me diell,
me stomakun plot dhe me zemër të gëzuar, rrëfimi i Migeli ngjante si një
shaka e zakontë, si tërë ato shakatë e tij me të cilat zbaviste të ftuarit.
(García Márquez 2005: 82)
El, castillo en realidad, era inmenso y sombrío. Pero, a pleno día, con el
estómago lleno y el corazón contento, el relato de Miguel no podía
parecer sino una broma como tantas otras suyas para entretener a sus
invitados. (García Márquez 2009: 114)
Starting from the literary context, the author first builds the scenario of
an old, large, gloomy castle for the fascinating history it hides, where
supernatural events take place; this is where the title begins. The night is
scary, a mystery, and a ghost, but in the morning, the heart rejoices and
fascinating events unfold. The literary context is wider than the popular
expression inherited over the centuries because the author tells us that the
arrival of the morning and good food make the heart happy. The translator
Meksi in Albanian has faithfully conveyed the ideas that the author wants to
convey: magic, fear, and liberation with the dawn and good food.
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Evidence that the Meksi translator has consulted translations in other
languages is the title of the story, which matches the English translation.
• Espantos de agosto
• Fantazma gushti
• Ghosts of August (García Márquez 1993: 92)
Espanto in Spanish, according to the dictionary María Moliner (2000:
574), is: “Miedo muy intenso, que impulsa a huir. Terror.”
While the ghost, according to the Dictionary of the Albanian
Language, is "The shadow of a dead person who haunts mentally ill people
or superstitious people," (Academy 2002: 317–318)
Strange Pilgrims, with its cultural richness and literary colour, makes
difficult the translation process. The author uses all the personal information
collected during his travels in Europe, which he uses as a document, as he
affirmed in his prologue. He had described the various European cities
where the events of the stories take place only from the impressions he kept
in his mind, from a relatively distant time, and at this point, he wants to prove
the fidelity of his memories, almost twenty years later. And so he took a
quick trip to several cities: Rome, Paris, Barcelona, and Geneva.
Not one of them had any connection to my memories. Through an
astonishing inversion, all of them, like all of present-day Europe, had
become strange: True memories seemed like phantoms, while false
memories were so convincing that replace reality. (García Márquez 1993:
XII)
The author combines the real with the magical in the Prologue, which
can be called the thirteenth story. He is the first strange pilgrim in this book
to try a strange experience in Europe.
The first story idea came to me in the early 1970s, the result of an
illuminating dream, I had after living in Barcelona for five years. I dreamed I
was attending my own funeral, walking with a group of friends dressed in
solemn mourning clothes, but in a festive mood. We all seemed happy to be
together. And I more than anyone else, because of the wonderful opportunity
that death afforded me to be with my friends from Latin America, my oldest
and dearest friends, the ones I had not seen for so long. At the end of the
service, when they began to disperse, I attempted to leave too, but one of
them made me see with decisive finality that as far as I was concerned, the
party was over. "You're the only one who can't go," he said. Only then did I
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understand that dying means never being with friends again. (García
Márquez 1993: VII- VIII)
It is very paradoxical how, in this situation of mourning, death and
celebration are placed next to each other, alive and dead, surrounded by
friends while leaving to never see them again. I can't follow them even if I
want to, but I start a new journey towards a new dimension.
We notice that his characters are also strange or in search of the
unusual, such as: the woman who became insane because her car was
damaged, María, who was mistakenly isolated in a psychiatric hospital and
abandoned by her fiance, the admiring observer of the beauty sleeping on a
plane trip, the old woman who went to meet the Pope, the children who
navigated the electric light in Madrid, the Colombian who rented to dream,
etc.
Intercultural competence is necessary for translation because every act
of translation between texts, situations, languages, or cultures includes
specifically intercultural know-how (skills), the result of a combination of
connotative and denotative messages that the sending group sends,
which are beyond the linguistic message and reflect wider cultural
contexts and a close relationship between the signifier and the signified.
A translation is required in a broader sense: a translation between
cultures, between cosmovisions, between experiences and lifetimes,
some of which we find reflected in literary and/or artistic genres.
(Gutiérrez Rodriguez 2010: 17)
The difficult challenge of the Meksi translator to make the right
decisions, to understand the message, and to enter the imaginary world of
the writer in front of a culturally marked text and the author's very prominent
style has been successfully overcome.
The translator Meksi skillfully chose to orient the translation of the text
towards the reader, but this was not the only criterion; the translation
strategies she chose fulfilled the reader's expectations; she brought a
communicative translation to the reader but also took care of fidelity to the
original text, without falling prey to the traditional analytical perspective,
where translation was seen as an exchange of linguistic codes.
María dos Praceres, a retired prostitute, is the main character of the
story with the first title, written in the year 1979. She had come from Brazil to
a neighbourhood in Barcelona because she wanted to leave her past in
search of a dignified old age. María dos Praceres misinterprets a dream she
had and prepares her funeral. The magic begins with her dream until she
realizes that she made a mistake in the interpretation.
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The interpretation of the future through the dream and the obedience
the character showed to the sensation it created are closely related to the
culture of their origin. The translator has provided a literal translation, word
for word, and preserved the syntactic structure.
En una fracción de segundo volvió a examinar por completo el sueño
premonitorio que le había cambiado la vida durante tres años, y
comprendió el error de su interpretación. ‘Dios mío’, se dijo asombrada.
‘¡De modo que no era la muerte! (García Márquez 2009: 138)
“Në një fraksion të vetëm të sekondës, nisi të analizonte nga e para
ëndrrën paralajmëruese, që i pat ndryshuar jetën në ato tre vjet dhe
kuptoi gabimin e interpretimit. ‘O Zot, tha e pataksur. ‘Domethënë
s’paska qenë vdekja.” (García Márquez 2005: 97)
We would like to dwell on an important element of spiritual culture: the
mourning of a loved one at the grave. In the culture of García Márquez'
country of origin, mourning has the spiritual value of longing and love. For
this reason, that lonely 76-year-old woman bought a place for her grave from
the funeral merchant, who even taught her to cry over the grave.
When María dos Prazeres realized the truth, that she was not going to
die, her life changed course.
“... María dos Praceres i dha dërrmin tmerit që nuk kishte njeri që ta
qante mbi varr.”(García Márquez 2009: 92)
“... María dos Praceres superó el terror de no tener a nadie que llorara
sobre su tumba.”(García Márquez 2005: 130)
The translator has made a word-for-word translation in both
sentences, detached from the story. The syntax of the Albanian language
has allowed him to follow the same order of words in the sentence.
Culturemes come across as clear and understandable, and the sentence
maintains the same simplicity.
Dios mío
O Zot
no era la muerte
s’paska qenë vdekja
llorara sobre su tumba.
ta qante mbi varr
In the first example of the table, the translator has removed the
possessive pronoun, mío, from the expression, which would be very good in
Albanian. In the second example, the verb tense is not the same, in Spanish
it is the imperfect tense of the demonstrative mood, while in Albanian
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habitual mood which does not exist in Spanish, and helps to express
surprise, astonishment in the Albanian language.
In the third example, both sentences used the relative mood.
The translator preserves the Spanish syntax, although she adapts it to
the grammar norms of the Albanian language.
The interpretation of dreams, the desire to understand or make
decisions as they are seen as divine warnings, or the prediction of fate
through a cup of coffee, etc., are not only South American cultural
phenomena. These cultureme are rich with the cultural peculiarities of the
people they came from, and as they travel in time and space through
literature, it is the duty of the translator to observe, compare, and be
included in the culture of the writer's origin.
A former president in exile is the character of the first story Bon
Voyage, Mr President (Buen viaje, Señor Presidente). He settles in Geneva,
lives in poverty and despair, and is in search of healing. Foreign, unknown,
and lonely, the President is a pilgrim with a fixed idea of death.
The theme of death is the companion of most of the characters, along
with the themes of pilgrimage, loneliness, misunderstanding, lack of
understanding, etc.
The protagonist, after being informed that he is quite sick, asks for a
coffee, which he had excluded from the health diet for a long time, first of all
to read his fate.
Se lo tomó sin azúcar, a sorbos lentos, y después puso la taza boca
abajo en el plato para que el sedimento de café, después de tantos
años, tuviera tiempo de escribir su destino. (García Márquez 2009: 18)
E piu pasheqer, me gllënjka të avashta, dhe pastaj e ktheu filxhanin
përmbys në pjatë që llumi i kafesë të kishte kohë, pas kaq shumë vitesh,
të shkruante fatin e tij. (García Márquez, 2005: 15)
The meaning of the culturemes has remained intact, and the emotions
it conveys are complete. The characters of magical realism live magic every
day, and the supernatural that surrounds them does not surprise or frighten
them. They have accepted death; therefore, this theme is the companion of
most of the characters, along with the themes of pilgrimage, loneliness,
misunderstanding, incomprehension, etc. The translator has beautifully
brought the magic and the emotion that accompany it into Albanian.
In the translation of toponyms, the translator tends not to naturalize
them; she even did not translate from French the words promenade and
chemin (promenade and road), accordig to the examples presented in the
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table. In the cases where toponymy has a tradition in everyday
communication, it uses naturalized terms in the Albanian language,
according to the examples below.
Gjenevë
Ginebra
Parku Anglez
Parque Inglés
Martinica
Martinica
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Promenade du Lac
Promenade du Lac
Chemin du Boau Soleil
Chemin du Boau Soleil
The Holy is the third story, written in the year 1981. García Márquez's
character is Margarito Duarte, from the Colombian Andes, a father who
wants his daughter to be canonized because her body has not decomposed.
This is the reason why he took the road to Rome with the coffin with him.
Margarito, dressed in the fantastic Latin American culture, has left his
country, and in Europe, the cultural environment is completely different, the
customs are different, and he feels the sadness of rejection and the
displeasure of ignoring fantastic knowledge.
Margarito pidió al funcionario que comprobara la ingravidez del cuerpo.
El funcionario la comprobó, pero se negó a admitirla--Debe ser un caso
de suggestion colectiva--dijo. (García Márquez 2009: 53)
Margaritoja i luti të vërtetonin me sytë e tyre që trupi ishte i papeshë.
Funksionari i vërtetoi, por refuzoi ta pranonte. – do të jëtë ndonjë si
punë sugjestioni i përgjithshhëm, - tha. (García Márquez 2005: 39-40)
All twelve of García Márquez's stories convey the feeling of loneliness
of the characters, as they become aware of their South American identity
during the eventful journey of unusual, strange, and unreal events in
European cities. (García Márquez 2009: 6)
The key to understanding, interpreting, and translating the magic in
García Márquez's stories is in the Prologue, but also in the speech given on
the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, in which he again
reveals that the South American and European realities are different.
Europeans, according to him, are too rational; this prevents them from
penetrating the peculiarities of South American reality. "The interpretation of
our reality through foreign schemes affects not recognizing us, and we are
less and less free and more alone" in Europe. (García Márquez 2010:26)
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When translating anthroponyms, the translator tends not to naturalize
them, but in some cases, when it comes to anthroponyms that are
commonly used in the Albanian language, she naturalizes them. The
translator inflects all anthroponyms into cases when using them in the text.
Margarito Duarte
Margarito Duarte
Rafael Ribero Silva
Rafael Ribero Silva
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini
Carlo Calcagni
Carlo Calcagni
Shën Marku
San Marco
Gjoni XIII
Juan XIII
In the examples mentioned above (sentences in two languages), the
translator takes care to preserve the syntax of the sentence without affecting
its fluency or meaning in Albanian. Perhaps this is related to the desire to
preserve the style of the author.
In these stories, the translator takes care not to interpret the literary
text, not to add clarifications to the translated text, and tries to make the text
comprehensible and contemporary for the reader through the traditional
language register, dressed in the Albanian tosk dialect, popular expressions,
and idioms of the Albanian language.
3. Translation of cultural elements as a process of communication
Translation requires the reproduction in the receiving language of the
message written in the source language through the closest and most
natural equivalent, first in terms of meaning and then in terms of style. The
equivalent is found by following the golden rule for all translations: to say
whatever the original text says, to say nothing that the original does not say,
and to say everything with the correctness and naturalness that the
language into which it is being translated allows. But the translator is not
always faithful to this postulate. (García Yebra 1982) In some instances, the
translator betrays what the author wants to say by a simple omission or by a
wrong translation.
In the last story of the book, The trail of your blood in the snow, first
published in 1980, the story of Nena Daconte and Billy Sanchez, a newly
married Colombian couple. They travel from Cartagena de Indias, Colombia,
to France to spend their honeymoon in Bordeaux. Nena loses her dream of
love as she loses her life on the wedding journey. A rose thorn pricked her
finger upon her arrival in Madrid, and in Paris, she was hospitalized.
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The story was written twenty years after García Márquez left Paris.
His official biographer says that when he lived in Paris, he was a young man
in economic difficulties but experienced a passionate love story with the
Spanish actress Tachia Quintanar in 1956 that did not have a happy ending,
which inspired him to write this story. (Martin 2009)
Here the author uses Colombian words (part of the lexicon of the
Spanish language in Colombia) that are not found in the Dictionary of the
Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), but we find them
in the Breve diccionario de Colombianismos, a publication of the Colombian
Language Academy.
• mamasantas
Më vonë zunë të futeshin nëpër gabinat e shkreta të Marbejës ku fati i
kish vënë ballazi për herë të parë dhe arritën deri aty sa të futeshin të
maskuar gjatë karnavaleve të nëntorit nëpër dhomat me qera të lagjes
së vjetër të zezakëve të Getsemanit, duke qenë në mbrojtjen e
selestinave, të cilave pak muaj më parë u ishte dashur të vuanin nga
Billy Sançes dhe banda e tij e zinxhirëve. (García Márquez 1995: 137-
138)
Después, cuando los coches se les volvieron demasiado fáciles, se
metían por la noche en las casetas desiertas de Marbella donde el
destino los había enfrentado por primera vez, y hasta se metieron
disfrazados durante el carnaval de noviembre en los cuartos de alquiler
del antiguo barrio de esclavos de Getsemaní, al amparo de las
mamasantas que hasta hacía pocos meses tenían que padecer a Billy
Sánchez con su pandilla de cadeneros.” (García Márquez 2009: 201)
In this particular case, the translator Mira Meksi has translated the
word mamasanta with Celestina. Mamasanta, in the Colombian dialect,
means: Prostitute who performs the activity in secret, while in public she
behaves and shows herself as virtuous. (Academia 2012:71)
Celestina (selestina) is a word originating in the Spanish of Spain,
written as it is pronounced in South America, and explained according to the
RAE: A person who arranges or facilitates love encounters for others. From
here came the expression Ser una celestina o Estar hecho una celestina,
which today has a negative meaning and refers to someone who
manipulates to organize meetings between two people in order to get to
know each other or have a relationship. (RAE 2014)
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Celestina is a literary character that comes from the end of the XV
century, in the book Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea, written by Fernando
de Rojas. She organized the meeting of the two main heroes, where they fell
in love.
The name Celestina has no meaning for the Albanian reader, who
does not know Spanish literature, nor does it carry the literary meaning that
the profession of the characters mentioned in the novel carries. The
translator did not use the equivalents of the word in the Albanian language,
such as: kodoshe, ndërmjetëse, shkuese (whoremonger, mediator, mediator
in a marriage).
In the story, García Márquez used some popular expressions from a
vulgar register that are quite interesting in translation and deserve attention.
• Romperle la madre a cadenazos
As soon as Billy Sanchez is informed that his beloved wife has died,
he leaves the hospital very angry and wants to vent his anger...
Iku pa thënë lamtumirë, pa falenderuar askënd, duke menduar se e
vetmja gjë e ngutshme, për të cilën kish nevojë, ishte të gjente dikë që
t’ia bënte copë të ëmën me zinxhirë, për t’u çliruar nga fatkeqsia e tij.
(García Márquez 2005: 151)
Se fue sin despedirse, sin nada que agradecer, pensando que lo único
que necesitaba con urgencia era encontrar a alguien a quien romperle
la madre a cadenazos para desquitarse de su desgracia. (García
Márquez 2009: 220)
This is a popular vulgar expression that is used in some countries of
South America; in México, it is very popular, and the translator has
translated it literally, losing the meaning and vulgarity. We think the
translator was reserved in the translation, maybe because this kind of
vulgarism was not very popular and acceptable by the reader in the early
1990s when the book was translated. The effect they convey to the reader in
Albanian is softer than in the original text.
• Velar el cadáver
Accompanying the deceased and listening to the person who has
passed away is a socio-cultural phenomenon present in many societies
around the world that, in addition to showing respect for the person who
passed away, also proves the person's spiritual pain. As far as it is perceived
in the story, there is no important cultural difference between Colombia and
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our country, and it is quite understandable for the Albanian reader. In the
text, the interception of the corpse is a very important ceremonial funeral rite,
as it is in our culture, which assumes the participation of family members
and companionship until the last moment.
Prindërit e Nena Dakontes kishin mbërritur të shtunën në mesditë dhe e
kishin përgjuar kufomën në kishën e vogël të spitalit, duke pritur deri
minutën e fundit ardhjen e Billi Sançesit. (García Márquez 2005: 150-
151)
Los padres de Nena Daconte habían llegado el sábado a mediodía, y
velaron el cadáver en la capilla del hospital esperando hasta última hora
encontrar a Billy Sánchez. (García Márquez 2009: 219)
• Piñata
The tradition of children breaking pinatas for birthdays comes from
Latin America. The pinata is prepared in a glass, clay, or cardboard
container that is filled with various sweets. At the moment when the party
culminates, the birthday child approaches the hanging pinatas and hits them
with a stick until they break. There is no equivalent in European culture, but
we noticed that it has been adopted in many European languages, in
Albanian too. In Albanian, it is pronounced as it is pronounced in Spanish. In
the book, the translator has explained at the bottom of the page how it is
built and how to deal with it. We think that when the book was translated, it
was an unknown word, but today it is known by the younger generation, and
we have even borrowed the tradition of preparing and breaking pinatas at
birthday parties.
“Shkollën fillore e kishin bërë bashkë, dhe kishin thyer kushedi sa
pinjata nëpër ditëlindje...” (García Márquez 2005: 136)
“Habían estado juntos en la escuela primaria y habían roto muchas
piñatas en las fiestas de cumpleaños...” (García Márquez 2009: 199)
• Chinchorro
Netët e vështira të korrikut i kaluan në terracën e brëndshme të shtëpisë
ku kishin vdekur gjashtë gjenerata njerëzish të shquar të families së
Nena Dakontes, - ajo duke luajtur këngë në saksofon dhe ai me dorën
në allçi duke soditur paprehje që nga hamaku me një lloj admirimi të
budallallëpsur. (García Márquez 2005: 136)
Pasaron las tardes difíciles de junio en la terraza interior de la casa
donde habían muerto seis generaciones de procrees de la familia de
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Nena Daconte, ella tocando canciones de moda en el saxofón, y él con
la mano escayolada contemplándola desde el chinchorro con un
estupor sin alivio. (García Márquez 2009: 199-200)
El chinchorro, which originated in Latin America, is a cultural heritage.
In the RAE dictionary, it is explained: "Hamaca ligera de tejida de cordeles o
fibra" (Light hammock woven with ropes or ribbons).
In Albanian, we know it as a hammock chair, swing hammock,
hammock with strips, garden hammock, etc. This is an object that is
available for sale in markets and whose name is not naturalized, such as a
rocking bed, swing chair, etc. Even the translator used the word hamak,
which was not very popular in the early 1990s, and did not explain it at the
bottom of the page. Hamac was known by the French, who took it from the
French colony of Haiti, and we think that this is where the use of this word in
Europe originates.
4. Conclusion
García Márquez tells us that this book is the fruit of his life experience
as a pilgrim writer in the vast geographical area of Europe. His pilgrim
characters encounter strange situations and events during their European
travels and are carriers of Latin American culture and fantasy. In all the
stories, the author reflects on the match between different cultures, which
has come into Albanian fluently and quite dynamically. The Albanian
translator comes close to the author's approach to making the culture of the
author's country of origin readable and understandable.
Intercultural translation requires a complete understanding of the
cultures involved in the exchange, not only linguistic but also communicative:
gestures, rituals, etc. This approach exposes the translator to cultural
differences and involves him in the transfer process, as illustrated in this
article.
The author reflects in all the stories the match between different
cultures, which has become fluent and quite dynamic in Albanian. The
Albanian translator approaches the author's approach to make the culture of
the author's country of origin readable and understandable. The author,
García Márquez, uses a rich vocabulary that reflects the culture and
civilization of Europe and South America. The language in general has
different registers, such as intellectual and popular. In the article, we bring
some cultural elements, translated into Albanian by the translator Mira
Meksi, to illustrate how literature becomes a transmitter of cultural values
and the translator is the author's best collaborator.
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The results of our analysis show us the difficulties of translating the
cultural element, the challenges, and the achievements so that the Albanian
reader can get hold of a literary creation close to the original. We think that
the translator Meksi has made a successful translation even towards the
arrival pole, oriented towards the reader. In cases where foreign words are
adapted to Albanian, we think that, in most cases, it is a question of linguistic
naturalization. The translation from the lexical-semantic perspective
approaches the contemporary reader.
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