Going Down to Morocco by José Luis Alonso de Santos (review)

This bilingual edition of Bajarse al moro/Going Down to Morroco forms part of the Aris and Phillips Hispanic Classic series that includes English renditions of works by Lorca, Sender, Unamuno and Valle-Inclán. The format of the translation—Spanish on the left page, English on the right—is conducive to Duncan Wheeler’s intention of providing a critical edition as a tool for language acquisition. Wheeler provides an introduction, a bibliography and an interview with Alonso de Santos. He prefaces the introduction with quotes from Joaquín Sabina, Enrique Tierno Galván and Luis Villena, thus setting the tone for a helpful synthesis of La Movida. This overview is followed by an appraisal of the playwright’s contribution to the Spanish theater of the 1980s as well as a discussion of language and dramatic structure of, and reaction—both critical and commercial—to Bajarase al moro and its contemporary relevance.

Wheeler notes that Alonso de Santos’s theater, especially Bajarse al moro, hybridizes urban cinematic traditions (Hollywood comedies and the Nueva Comedia Madrileña of the 1980s). In addition, his realistic use of dialogue distances his work from the theatrical tradition that placed emphasis on the rhetorical use of poetic language. Alonso de Santos instead creates characters that bring to mind the picaresque tradition. Of special interest is Wheeler´s interview (in both Spanish and English) with the playwright, who reflects on several aspects of his theater: the presence of high and low culture, the sainete tradition, and dramatic structure. His anecdote concerning the reticence of actresses to accept roles in his first work, La estanquera de Villecas, provides a glimpse of the uneasiness and uncertainty many artists and performers experienced during the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

While Wheeler acknowledges his translation is approximate, several renditions are grammatically incorrect. For example, Chusa, exasperated by policeman Alberto’s prolonged berating of Jaimito for taking his pistol, interjects sarcastically, “Y dale” (164) which is mistakenly translated as “and hand it [the pistol] over to him” (165). Doña Antonia’s reference to her husband, “Pues nada, se llevó un disgusto” (172) reads as “Well, anyway, they’re very distressed” (173). At times, parts of the Spanish text do not appear in translation. Two cases of omissions are Jaimito’s remarks to Chusa: “Así no me da la gana” (150) and “Tú no tienes nada que ver en esto, ni yo tampoco” (150). In addition, Chusa’s comment, “No sé cómo no te das cuenta” (150), is attributed to Jaimito (151) in Wheeler’s version.

Wheeler’s translation—intended for British readers as evidenced by expressions such as “Make some dosh,” “He’s taking the piss” and “You join the queue and Bob’s your uncle,” among others—is for the most part accurate, although he runs into difficulty with register and tone, particularly the more challenging passages dealing with slang. He tends to provide literal yet inexact translations of numerous colloquialisms. For example, Alberto’s observation, “No sea que ése quite el tapón y le dé algo” (132) translated as “Just in case that one takes the cork out and it gives him I don’t know” (133), particularly the final clause, does not convey the intense surprise implicit in the expression “darle algo.” The frequent mistranslation of colloquialisms results in skewed readings of several passages. For example, Doña Antonia’s intense displeasure with Spanish television expressed with “Me da algo” (178) is rendered as “it does something to me” (178), which does not accurately convey her dismay with and distaste for media programming. Yet another example of literal translation arises when she presumptuously advises Elena to marry Alberto and have children “como Dios manda” (174). Wheeler’s interpretation of this commonly employed expression as “that’s what God says you should do” (175) does not capture more nuanced and sententious registers such as “as God commands” or “as it is meant to be.”

Alberto’s...