The Catcher in the Rye or El Guardián entre el Centeno: opting for literariness Francisco Yus Ramos Abstract Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has always been appealing for young readers from different generations. The reasons for its success have to do with certain discursive attributes of the novel. On the one hand its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, shows a poor discourse which somehow resembles real-life adolescents' discourse, and this implies unnecessary repetitions of sentences, many intensifying phrases to make up for the character's lack of fluency, and many inappropriate idiomatic expressions. Besides, certain textual features attempt to involve readers in the narration of the story, like the extensive use of the second person pronoun you. In the translation of this novel into Spanish, in order to acquire a more literary status for the text, all these discursive features have been suppressed, and this is an important drawback for the final quality of the novel which therefore cannot produce the same effect in the young reader as the original text. 1. Introduction In written discourse, the cultural qualities of every community impose certain limitations for translators in their attempt to provide, on the one hand, a text in the target language which matches, in its fundamental attributes, the text in the source language, although, on the other hand, translation often involves an inevitable alteration of the source text (Lefevere 1980:155). Giving up the intention to reach an exact parallelism between both texts, the translator has to produce a text which resembles the underlying intention of its author, while being faithful to the peculiarities of the target language (Vázquez-Ayora 1977:290). From the very moment that the text is contextualised pragmatically, both in its linguistic and cultural aspects, translation is no longer an objective task and, rather, turns into a microcosmos in which many extra-linguistic features fit in. A preliminary source of argument is to what extent the translator can (or has to) go beyond the actual information that the text provides, that is, to go beyond the words of the text or, as Beaugrande (in Hartman, 1980:68) points out, limit ourselves to the text: only if the reading process is consistently pursued to the point where the interpretation is maximally dominated by text-supplied information can a truly objective translation be produced, that is, a translation which validly represents the perceptual potential of the original. In the case of the novel we are analysing, the amount of idioms and teenager jargon that can be found in Salinger s The Catcher in the Rye makes us wonder if the kind of translation that Beaugrande demands, with such high textual faithfulness, is possible. As will be commented on below, idiomatic expressions, often unacceptable, are an essential requirement of the plot of the novel, and a means for Salinger to picture the psychological features of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. This paper will demonstrate that the translation of the novel which is available in Spanish, El guardián entre el centeno (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1978), despite its intrinsic values, 1
omits relevant idiomátic aspects of the novel which are, in my opinion, essential if we want to fully understand the psychological world of the protagonist, as well as his role of narrator while he watches, as a privileged spectator, the way of life in American society. 2. Holden Caulfield and compulsory idioms There is a tight link between Holden Caulfield and the model reader of the novel. This link is achieved through idiomacity and solidarity with typical teenage problems and typical teenage language (Costello 1959). This fact has led to certain criticism, for example George Steiner s (in French 1963: 105), for whom the author s semi-literary divagations about the adolescent mind match the ignorance and superficiality of his young readers. In any case, the language of this character is much more than a mere vehicle to convey information, and turns into an essential stylistic device which invites the reader to be involved in the development of the plot. In general, Holden s idiolect presents an effective contrast with the social background from which he comes, mainly due to a very poor linguistic mastery and careless grammatical constructions. In this sense, Holden s language isolates him form his everyday social context and, as it happens with any variation from the established code of behaviour, this language is rejected by his mates on several occasions: (1) A: I'm twelve, for Chrissake. I'm big for my age. B: Listen... I don't like that type of language... If you're gonna use that type of language, I can go sit down with my girl friends, you know (p. 77). Holden himself admits how por his vocabulary is: (2) I also say 'boy' quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age (p. 13). Besides, we can feel some kind of inferiority complex in Holden when compared to his brothers, much more intelligent than him: (3) My brother D.B.'s a writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard. I'm the only really dump one (p. 71). In a nutshell, Holden Caulfield s idiolect serves two main objectives: (a) characterisation of the character as opposed to his social background; and (b) to create and maintain a tight link of solidarity between the character and the reader. Now, how is it possible to translate a language which is so full of idioms and these typically American situations? (French, ibid.:124), This is not an easy task: no translator can be blamed for not recreating such a colloquial style as Holden s because the translator, unlike the author... has to make concessions to general taste (French, 2
ibid.:128). This need to satisfy the literary quality of the translation is, precisely, the main point of criticism in this paper. 3. El Guardián entre el Centeno: an idiomatic translation In general, the Spanish translation of this novel is filled with examples which denote the translator s attempt to produce as idiomatic a translation as possible. In order to achieve that goal, the translator makes use of different techniques, especially what Vázquez Ayora (1977) refers to as - transposition and modulation. Let s have a look at a few examples. a) Transposition. It consists in replacing one part of the language in the source language for a different part of the text in the target language (Vázquez Ayora 1977:268). There are many transpositive varieties, and many of these can be found in the translation which we are analysing, as we can see form the following examples: (1) From adverb (or adverbial) to verb: A: He always made you say things twice (p. 24). B: Siempre le hacía a uno repetir las cosas (p. 27). (2) From adverb to adjective: A: Right on my head (p. 27). B: En plena cabeza (p. 30). (3) From verb to noun: A: They named our wing after him (p. 20). B: Le pusieron su nombre a ese ala (p. 23). (4) From adjective to noun: A: It's pretty disgusting (p. 14). B: Da bastante asco (p. 16). (5) From noun to verb: A: Do you feel absolutely no concern? (p. 18). B: No te preocupa en absoluto? (p. 21). (b) Modulation. On the other hand, modulation consists in a change in the conceptual base inside a proposition, but the final sense acquired remains unaltered, which means that what takes place is a change in point of view or a change in the metaphorical base (Vázquez-Ayora, ibid.:291). The changes introduced do not affect grammatical categories but, rather, mental categories. This translating technique demands a deeper knowledge of both the source and the target languages. Examples would be the following: 3
(1) From concrete to abstract: A: Where'dja get that hat? (p. 33). B: De dónde has sacado eso? (p. 37). (2) From general to particular: A: Why aren't you down at the game? (p. 12). B. Cómo no estás en el campo de fútbol? (p. 14). (3) From the whole to a part of the whole: A: At the window (p. 44). B: En la repisa de la ventana (p. 48). (4) The opposite of the term in the source text and turned negative: A: He kept laughing (p. 27). B: No paró de reírse (p. 30). («stop» is the opposite of «keep on» and it is in negative form) Besides, certain idiomatic expressions in the source text demand extra effort from the translator. In the translation of this novel much attention is paid to finding the closest equivalent to these expressions, and some of the resulting translations are good, as we can see in the following examples: A: I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place (p. 6). B: En todo el tiempo que estuve allí no vi un caballo ni por casualidad (p. 8). A: I couldn't have sat there another ten minutes to save my life (p. 19). B: No hubiera aguantado allí ni diez minutos más aunque me hubiera ido la vida en ello! (p. 21). A: Freezing my ass off (p. 8). B: Pasando un frío de mil demonios (p. 10). A: All he did was keep talking in this very monotonous voice (p. 41). B: Siguió, dale que te pego, hablando (p. 45). A: That gives me a royal pain in the ass (p. 33). B: Otra cosa que me pone negro (p. 36). This high level in the translation is darkened, somehow, by examples in which the translation either provides more information than the source text with no justified reason, as in the following examples: 4
A: This very cute girl who's always speeding (p. 22). B: Una chica muy mona a la que siempre están poniendo multas por pasarse el límite de velocidad (p. 25). A: He started laughing in this very high falsetto voice (p. 27). B: Empezó a reírse como un loco, con esa risa de falsete que sacaba a veces (p. 30). A: He wasn't too interested (p. 37). B: Le importaba un pito (p. 41). A: I'd been to the movies with B. and A. before -They both laughed like hyenas at stuff that wasn't even funny (p. 40). B: No me gustaba ir al cine con B. ni con A. Los dos se reían como hienas de cosas que no tenían ninguna gracia (p. 45). A: He had this very red hair (p. 42). B: Tenía el pelo más rojo que nadie (p. 46). Or, on the contrary, examples in which the translation provides less information than the source text, again with no justified reason, as in the following examples: A: He'd written me this note asking me to stop by and say good-bye before vacation started on account I wasn't coming back (p. 12). B: Me había escrito una nota para decirme que fuera a despedirme de él antes del comienzo de las vacaciones (p. 14). A: Stradlater was putting on his tie, in front of the mirror, when I got there. He spent around half his goddam life in front of the mirror. I sat down in my chair and sort of watched him for a while (p. 37). B: -NO TRANSLATION- A: Ackley, it was different. Ackley was a very nosey bastard (p. 37). B: -NO TRANSLATION- A: It was Saturday and everybody was out or asleep or home for the weekend (p. 44). B: Todos estaban durmiendo o pasando el fin de semana en casa (p. 49). A: You don't even know if her first name is Jane or June, ya goddam moron!' Now shut up, Holden, God damn it (p. 48). 5
B: -NO TRANSLATION- 4. Opting for literariness in the translation Focusing now on the title of this paper, what I noticed in my analysis of both texts is that, in general, the translator of The Catcher in the Rye pays too much attention to the literary possibilities of the Spanish text, and leaves aside many important idiomatic aspects of the novel which should have been stressed in the translation but which would have lowered its literary quality. This opting for literariness affects four aspects of the translation. The first one has to do with the dialogic link between the author and the reader, a link which is established through the insistent repetition of the second-person pronoun you, and which helps Salinger to sound as if he was speaking to the reader. The other three aspects affect the protagonist s poor idiolect, with unnecessary repetitions, intensifying expressions, and explicit slang register. In these four aspects of the source text, an option for literariness has taken place in the target language which, in my opinion, deprives the translation of the degree of pragmatic equivalence that the translator should have achieved. (1) Second person pronouns. These have been suppressed in the translation, producing a decrease in the relationship between Salinger and his reader. Indeed, the feeling that Salinger is talking to us is prevented mainly by the removal of most of the pronouns you in the novel. On most occasions, I think the equivalent tú should have been provided explicitly in the translation and as often as the pronoun you appears in the source text. Here is a list of the different alternatives that the translation uses to remove these pronouns (in brackets there is an optional proposed translation): (1) To replace you with impersonal «se»: A: If you saw him in the dining-room... (p. 23). B: Cuando se le veía en el comedor... (p. 26). (Si [tú] lo vieras en el comedor...) (2) To replace you with a first-person singular pronoun: A: You never saw anybody nod as much (p. 12). B: Nunca he visto (yo) mover tanto la cabeza (p. 15). ([Tú] jamás verás a nadie mover tanto la cabeza) (3) To replace you with a second-person plural pronoun, which is of little use since the dialogic link with the (singular) reader is affected anyway by a too genertic plurality of addressees: A: And you rescued him in a goddam boat (p. 40). B: Y (ustedes) fueran a rescatarle en una barca (p. 44). (y tú fueras a rescatarle en una jodida barca) 6
(4) To replace you with haber: A: You should've seen the way he did with my room-mate's parents (p. 18). B: Había que ver cómo trataba a los padres de mi compañero de cuarto (p. 20). ([tú] tenías que haber visto cómo se portaba con los padres de mi compañero de cuarto) (5) To replace you with parecer: A: You wouldn't think such an old guy would be so sarcastic (p. 16). B: Parecía mentira que un vejete así pudiera ponerse tan sarcástico (p. 18). (a ti no se te podría ocurrir pensar que un tío tan viejo fuera tan sarcástico) (6) You with no translation: A: You should see old Ossemburger (p. 20). B: Bueno es el tal Ossenburger! (p. 23). ([tú] tendrías que ver al viejo Ossenburger) (7) To replace you with impersonal uno: A: He wanted you to think... (p. 23). B: Quería que uno creyera... (p. 27). (quería que [tú] creyeras...) (8) To replace you with los: A: If you knew him the way I did (p. 31). B: Los que le conocíamos bien (p. 35). (si [tú] lo conocieras tan bien como yo) (9) To replace you with todo el mundo: A: He was always asking you to do him a big favour (p. 32). B: Siempre estaba pidiendo favores a todo el mundo (p. 35). (siempre te estaba pidiendo que [tú] le hicieras un gran favor) (10) To replace you with a first-person plural pronoun: A: They gave you steak (p. 39). B: (A nosotros) nos daban un filete (p. 43). (te daban filete) (11) To replace you with alguien: A: It drove him crazy when you broke any rules (p. 45). B: Le sacaba de quicio que alguien hiciera algo contra el reglamento (p. 50). (le sacaba de quicio que [tú] incumplieras alguna regla) 7
(2) Unnecessary repetitions in the source text. This stylistic feature helps us readers connote the protagonist with a typical teenager s way of speaking. Often, the teenager s inability to construct complex utterances leads to a repetition which fills the gap in the flow of speech when the teenager is lost for words. In the particular case of this novel, this stylistic feature adds to the feeling that Holden has a very poor command of his mother tongue. However, the translation makes concessions to literary quality, and one can notice a systematic removal of these repetitions. On most occasions, this is achieved through anaphora and cataphora. Examples of anaphoric suppression would be the following ones: A: I started horsing around a little bit. I horse around quite a lot (p. 25). B: Me puse a hacer el ganso. A veces me da por ahí (p. 28). A: He started cleaning his goddam fingernails with the end of a match. He was always cleaning his fingernails (p. 26). B: Empezó a limpiarse las uñas con una cerilla. Siempre estaba haciendo lo mismo (p. 29). A: He was always asking you to do him a big favour. you take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he's a real hot-shot and they are always asking you to do them a big favour (p. 32). B: Siempre estaba pidiendo favores a todo el mundo. Todos esos tíos que se creen muy guapos o muy importantes son iguales (p. 35). A: I thought she went to Shipley. I could've sworn she went to Shipley (p. 37). B: Creí que estudiaba en Shipley. Lo hubiera jurado (p. 40). A: She only signed out for nine-thirty... 'Who the hell signs out for nine-thirty on a Saturday night?' (p. 45). B: Ella sólo había pedido permiso hasta las nueve y media... - A quién se le ocurre pedir permiso hasta esa hora? (p. 50). Examples of cataphoric suppression would be: A: She wouldn't move any of her kings. What she'd do, when she'd get a king, she wouldn't move it (p. 35). B: Ella nunca las movía. Cuando tenía una dama nunca la movía (p. 39). A: He went back to the room... Then I went back to the room, too (p. 37). B: Se fue... Luego volví también a la habitación (p. 40). Other times, the repeated expression is replaced by an alternative expression in Spanish: 8
A: He's got this superior attitude all the time... He's got this goddam superior attitude all the time (p. 27). B: Siempre con esos aires de superioridad... Y siempre dándoselas de listo (p. 31). A: I'll be up the creek if I don't get the goddam thing in... I'll be up the creek if I don't get it in (p. 32). B: Si no la presento el lunes me la cargo... Si no la entrego, me las voy a ver moradas (p. 35-36). This is particularly noticeable in the idiom to get a (big) bang out of something: A: They got a bang out of things (p. 11). B: Seguían disfrutando con sus cosas (p. 13). A: Spencer'd got a big bang out of buying it (p. 11). B: Spencer lo había pasado de miedo comprándola (p. 13). A: They can get a big bang out of buying a blanket (p. 11). B: Resulta que se lo pasan bárbaro comprándose una manta (14). Finally, sometimes contextual information makes it possible to suppress the repeated expression, as in the following example: A: Then I laid down on my bed... He got all undressed, down to his shorts, and I laid down on my bed and lit a cigarette (p. 45). B: Luego me tumbé en la cama... Él se desnudó hasta quedarse en calzoncillos y yo encendí un cigarrillo (p. 49). (it is obvious that the character is already in bed when he lights the cigarette) (3) Intensifying phrases. These are made up of two words, the first being a linking word, and the second having no definite meaning (López Rúa 1997:144): and all, or something, or anything, and stuff. These are frequent in the language of teenagers, and in this novel they also add to Holden s poor command of the language. Despite the importance of these phrases in Holden s language, they have been suppressed in many (if not most) of the instances because this repetition prevents the translator form reaching a highly literary Spanish translation. My opinion is that these phrases should have been preserved, no matter how repetitive they may sound. López Rúa (1997:149) agrees when she states that she is aware of the fact that some languages are more permissive than others concerning the accomodation of informal lexicalized structures in written discourse... It is not possible to translate such colloquial expressions all the time, so they must be omitted or modified so as not to force the rules of the TL [target language]. However, if those expressions are purposedly repeated, [she] believe[s] that they cannot be omitted or modified all 9
the time, because this repetition is meaningful and has a function in the original (her emphasis). Some examples follow, with personal suggested translations in brackets: a. And all. A: What my lousy childhood was like and all (p. 5). B: Cómo fue todo ese rollo de mi infancia (p. 7). (Lo mal que me fue en mi infancia y todo eso) A: He's my brother and all (p. 5). B: Es mi hermano (p. 7). (Es mi hermano y tal) b. Or something. A: He was probably born in or something (p. 12). B: Que debía tener desde que nació (p. 14). (Que igual lo tenía cuando nació o poco menos) A: When he was in some kind of trouble or something (p. 20). B: Cuando tenía alguna dificultad (p. 23). (Cuando tenía algún problema o algo así) Sometimes we do find translations of this or something but, again, the variety of translations indicates the translator s will to avoid the distasteful repetition: A: Commit suicide or something (p. 6). B: Suicidarse o poco menos (p. 8). A: Giggling or something (p. 6). B: Riendo o lo que les diera la gana (p. 9). A: Like it was a turd or something (p. 15). B: Como si fuera una plasta de vaca o algo así (p. 18). A: Pick up your jock strap or something (p. 26). B: Coger un slip o cualquier cosa así (p. 29). c. Or anything. A: I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything (p. 5). B: No crean que voy a contarles mi autobiografía con pelos y señales (p. 7). (No voy a contarte toda mi jodida autobiografía ni nada de eso) 10
A: I didn't have any alternative or anything (p. 15). B: No tenía otro remedio (p. 18). (No tenía otra alternativa ni nada) A: Without getting up or anything (p. 25). B: Sin levantarme (p. 29). (Sin levantarme ni nada) d. And stuff. A: My equipment and stuff (p. 20). B: Mi equipo (p. 23). (Mis cosas y demás) A: I left the goddam foils and stuff (p. 24). B: Me olvidé los floretes (p. 27). (Me dejé los putos floretes y tal) A: All the commas and stuff (p. 33). B: Todos los puntos y comas (p. 36). (Todas las comas y demás) e. Intensifying adjectives. Lastly, there are adjectives in the novel which are very hard to translate, such as goddam, damn, bleeding, etc, whose only role to play is to underline some emotive quality of the utterance. These adjetives, also typical of teenagers, disappear in the translation: A: He stopped reading and put my goddam paper down (p. 16). B: Dejó de leer (p. 19). (Dejó de leer y soltó mi maldito ensayo) A: You're right in my goddam light (p. 24). B: Me estás tapando la luz (p. 28). (Estás justo en mi jodida luz) (4) Milder idiomatic expressions. This last point in the analysis of El Guardián entre el Centeno refers to the problem of how to reproduce the idiomatic level of the source novel in the target language. As Vázquez Ayora (1977:305) points out, a very common and idiomatic expression in English should not be translated into another little known or not widely used expression in Spanish. In the translation under analysis here, even though we can deduce that the translator is indeed 11
good at providing alternatives to idiomatic expressions in English, there are occasions on which a tendency to soften, as it were, the idiomacity of the English expression by providing a more acceptable (and eventually more literary) equivalent in Spanish. An example is the English word crap, which is never translated into mierda, and the loss of connotations in Holden s language is clear: A: And all that David Coperfield kind of crap (p. 5). B: Y demás puñetas estilo David Coperfield (p. 7). (Y toda esa mierda como David Coperfield) A: I had to sit there and listen to all that crap (p. 15). B: Tuve que quedarme allí sentado escuchando todas aquellas idioteces (p. 18). (Tuve que quedarme allí sentado escuchando toda esa mierda) A: I don't think I'll ever forgive him for reading me that crap (p. 16). B: Creo que no le perdonaré nunca que me leyera aquellas gilipolleces en voz alta (p. 19). (No creo que le perdone nunca por leerme esa mierda) A: And all that crap (p. 19). B: Y todo eso (p. 22). (Y toda esa mierda) A: Full of lathers and hairs and crap (p. 31). B: Llena de espuma, de pelos y de porquería (p. 35). (Llena de espuma y pelos y mierda) A: And all that David Coperfield kind of crap (p. 5). B: Y demás puñetas estilo David Coperfield (p. 7). (Y toda esa mierda como David Coperfield) A: I had to sit there and listen to all that crap (p. 15). B: Tuve que quedarme allí sentado escuchando todas aquellas idioteces (p. 18). (Tuve que quedarme allí sentado escuchando toda esa mierda) A: I don't think I'll ever forgive him for reading me that crap (p. 16). B: Creo que no le perdonaré nunca que me leyera aquellas gilipolleces en voz alta (p. 19). (No creo que le perdone nunca por leerme esa mierda) A: And all that crap (p. 19). B: Y todo eso (p. 22). 12
(Y toda esa mierda) A: Full of lathers and hairs and crap (p. 31). B: Llena de espuma, de pelos y de porquería (p. 35). (Llena de espuma y pelos y mierda) Concluding remarks As we have seen in the analysis of these four categories, the translation into Spanish of The Catcher in the Rye suffers from a certain loss of connotative linguistic features which are relevant for the correct comprehension of the character Holden. We can conclude that this loss has to do with a certain need to opt for literariness, which was perhaps imposed on the translator. REFERENCES Costello, D.P. 1959: The language of The Catcher in the Rye. American Speech 34(3): 172-181. French, W. 1963: J.D. Salinger. Boston, Twayne Publishers (Hall & Co). Hartman, R.R.K. 1980: Contrastive Textology: Comparative Discourse Analysis in Applied Linguistics. Heidelberg, Julius Groos Verlag. Lefevere, A. 1980: Translating literature/translated literature: the state of the art. En O. Zuber, ed., The Language of Theatre. Londres, Pergamon. López Rúa, P. 1997: The translation of idiolects in The Catcher in the Rye: An approach though lexicalized structures. Miscelánea 18: 139-158. Salinger, J.D. 1958: The Catcher in the Rye. Harmondsworth, Penguin. Salinger, J.D. 1978: El Guardián entre el Centeno. Madrid, Alianza Editorial. Vázquez-Ayora, G. 1977: Introducción a la Traductología. Washington, Georgetown University Press. 13