Verse Translation as an Interpretive Art

Abstract

The English versions of two Chilean epics La Araucana and Arauco Domado, by Professor C. Maxwell Lancaster and myself, are first complete translations which have been published.* Though there have been many translations of short passages from La Araucana, and translators have attempted English versions of whole poem, we have seen no other complete translation. We have heard of a French translation by Alexander Nicholas, in two volumes, published in Paris in 1869, and a Dutch translation, but we have not been able to locate copies of either translation. We have therefore had to make our interpretation of intricate and questionable passages without recourse to other interpreters. The literary, historical, and ethnological value of these epic poems has been discussed and evaluated by voluminous criticism during past four centuries. It was desire to make available to English-speaking world Ercilla's masterpiece, which has been called the sublimest expression of cultural heritage of Latin America, that prompted us to attempt formidable task of making a poetic version in English. It was our ambition to reproduce, as far as possible, spirit, poetic vigor, and beauty of imagery of sixteenth-century epics, as well as to produce accurate translations and to recreate martial and picturesque atmosphere of Arauco, indomitable courage of Araucanians and fervor of conquistadores. There are poetic inadequacies that mar effectiveness of all early American literary works. We have recognized these shortcomings in both La Araucana and Arauco Domado but, wishing to be true to originals, we have neither emphasized nor eliminated weaknesses. Both poems are cluttered with irrelevant episodes and sixteenth-century moralizing. The narratives lack unity. The style of authors changes rapidly from elegance to unimaginative prose. Many strophes are saved to poetry only by adherence to required hendecasyllables and rhyme scheme. Classical allusions and mythological references, inserted to impress readers with poets' erudition, are as badly out of keeping with aboriginal America as are many typically European landscapes and beauteous Indian ladies of impeccable manners, speaking language of regal alons. From mouth of savage chieftain Colocolo flows oratory which, according to Voltaire, surpasses that of Nestor in Iliad.