The Day April 23 marks the “World Book and Copyright Day” by UNESCO declaration.
As itself says UNESCO:
“ 23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.”
Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said on the occasion of the celebration of the year 2013:
"All forms of books make a valuable contribution to education and the dissemination of culture and information. The diversity of books and editorial content is a source of enrichment that we must support through appropriate public policies and protect from uniformity. "
The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia (Spain) where it has become a tradition to give a rose and a book as a gift.
Well, a tradition in Spain in some public and private institutions these days is to proceed to a continuous reading of "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha". There is certainly a good initiative.
“Don Quixote” was printed for the first time January 16, 1605. Since then he has published countless times in Spanish and has been translated into more than 50 languages and is one of the most translated books in the world.
It has also been translated into Latin, and this allows us to include it in this blog dedicated to the classical world "Greco-Roman". It has been translated into Latín at least twice.
One of them is due to Antonio Peral, born April 14, 1922 in Elche,(Spain), a multilingual and expert teacher in Semitic languages, died in 2000, with the satisfaction of having realized his whim, to publish his “Historia domini Quixoti a Manica”, a good translation of Don Quixote into Latin.
The other is actually more curious. Is the “macaronic” Latin translation (kitchen Latin or atrocious or pidgin translation) of Ignacio Calvo, priest, born at Horche (Guadalajara); in his seminary days was punished to translate during the summer "Don Quixote" into Latin. When he presented the translation of the first chapter, he received the blessing of his teacher with "sufficit, Calve, jam habes aseguratum garbanzum."
Well, Calvo continued the translation, which is a summary of the work of Cervantes. Was published in 1922 and recently, in 1999, has been reissued by Editorial Aache of Guadalajara.
Note: “macaronic” is said of a Latin wrong, burlesque and humorous which mixed and confused correct terms and structures with other Latin incorrect terms or terms of other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Latinized in form. The term appears in the scrupulous humanists Latin scholars to refer to a kind of burlesque poems that appear in northern Italy. The authors form a group of revelers and freeloaders "macaroni eaters", so she called them and caricatured as macaronei and his poetry "macaronic". It attributes the first poem of this type to Tifi Odassi (circa 1450-1492), after his death was published the poem Maccharonea or Carmen Macaronicum. In another time we will address the issue in more detail.
We reproduce in the first place a small piece of “macaronic” Latin version, then a correct Latin and finally an English translation; so that the reader can compare:
CAPITULUM PRIMERUM
In isto capítulo tratatur de qua casta pajarorum erat dóminus Quijotus et de cosis in quibus matabat tempus–
In uno lugare manchego, pro cujus nómine non volo calentare cascos, vivebat facit paucum tempus. Quidam fidalgus de his qui habent lanzam in astillerum, adargam antiquam, rocinum flacum et perrum galgum, qui currebat sicut ánima quae llevatur a diábolo. Manducatoria sua consistebat in unam ollam cum pizca más ex vaca quam ex carnero, et in unum ágilis-mógilis qui llamabatur salpiconem, qui erat cena ordinaria, exceptis diebus de viernes quae cambiabatur in lentéjibus et diebus dominguis in quibus talis homo chupabatur unum palominum. In isto consumebat tertiam partem suae haciendae, et restum consumebatur in trajis decorosis sicut sayus de velarte, calzae de velludo, pantufli et alia vestimenta que non veniut ad cassum.
Talis fidalgus non vivebat descalzum, id est solum: nam habebat in domo sua unam amam quae tenebat encimam annos quadraginta, unam sobrinam quae nesciebat quod pasatur ab hembris quae perveniunt ad vigésimum, et unum mozum campi, qui tan prontum ensillabat caballum et tan prontum agarrabat podaderam. Quidam dicunt quod apellidábatur Quijada aut Quesada, álteri opinant quod llamabatur otram cosam, sed quod sacatur in limpio, est quod suum verum apellidum erat Quijano: sed hoc non importat tria caracolia ad nostrum relatum, quia quod interest est dícere veritatem pelatam et escuetam.
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Capitulum 1. Ubi agitur de condiione et indole illustris fidalgi domini Quixoti a Manica
In quodam loco Manicae regionis, cuis nominis solo memenisse, nuper vivebat quidam fidalgus ex eis de quibus fertur eos habere lanceam in repositorio, scutum antiquum, equum macrum canemque venaticum cursorem. Etiam erat ei olla potius ex carne bovina quam ovina, pluries in coena condimentum coquebatur, sabbato autem angores et afflictiones ut dicitur, die Veneris pulmentum de lentibus, dominico die vero ad haec omnia addebatur quaedam columba quibus et hoc modo tres partes boaroum eius consumebantur. Quod ei supererat serviebat ad vestes emendas tamquam femoralia ex serico praetexto pro diebus festivis cum tibialibus eiusdem generis, tamen per hebdomadam induebat vestem praestantem.
Domi autem erat ei hera domus plus quam quadraginta annos nata et neptis, quae viginti annos nondum adimpleverat, et etiam famulus agri, qui eodem modo cingebat sellam equo vel utebatur forfice ad arbores putandas. Aetas huius fidalgi erat circa quinquagita annos. Complexio eius erat fortis, sed macillentus corpore et gracilis vultu, promptus ad surgendum mane ex lecto atque aliquando fruebatur venatione. Dicebatur nomen eius esse Quixada sive Quesada, in quo est aliqua diversitas apud auctores qui hoc tractant, quamvis per veras oiniones eorum reperiatur eum Quexanam fuisse. Tamen hoc non est prorsus tam magni momenti ad nostram fabulan: satis est nobis ut narratio omnem veritatem ostendat.
(Historia domini Quixoti a Manica . Michael A Cervantes Saavedra ; versio latina ab Antonio Peral Torres)
DON QUIXOTE. CHAPTER I
WHICH TREATS OF THE CHARACTER AND PURSUITS OF THE FAMOUS GENTLEMAN
DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA
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. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook.
The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was called Quexana. This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; it will be enough not to stray a hair's breadth from the truth in the telling of it.
(DON QUIXOTE, by Miguel de Cervantes. Translated by John Ormsby (1829-1895))