Worlding Sei Shônagon: The Pillow Book in Translation

Mercè Comes (2000) Spanish

215 Mercè Comes “Libro de Impresiones” Antología de la literatura japonesa (desde los orígenes hasta el siglo XX). Seleccionada e introducida por Michel Revon. Traducción de Mercè Comes sobre la versión francesa de Michel Revon Biblioteca universal. Literaturas orientales. Barcelona: Círculo de lectores, 2000 This passage appears in Comes’s recent translation of Michel Revon’s seminal anthology—done some ninety-five years after that work first appeared in French. The Spanish book proved popular enough to be reprinted in 2001. Comes (birthdate unknown) has also translated, for the same publisher , again from the French, a collection of Egyptian stories. The translation here remains quite faithful to the French, with a few notable differences. For example, Comes twice retains the ellipsis where Revon had instead provided complements . Where Revon uses the impersonal on (one) to describe the bringing of hot coals, Comes prefers the first person plural, creating the rather odd suggestion that the ever-aristocratic Sei Shônagon is busying herself with menial housework. Also, she uses twice the number of exclamation marks, and because Spanish typographical conventions require them to appear at both the beginning and the end of a sentence, the result is a quite stunning accumulation Mercè Comes (2000) 216 throughout the paragraph. Another significant difference is her emphasis of the idiosyncratic counting of the crows: “four by four, three by three, two by two.” Spanish 217 La aurora en primavera Lo que más me gusta de la primavera es la aurora. Sobre los montes, mientras el paisaje se ilumina poco a poco, nubes violáceas flotan en bandas alargadas. Del verano, la noche.¡Naturalmente, el claro de luna! Pero también la noche oscura , cuando aparecen aquí y allá, en sus idas y venidas, las luciérnagas. Incluso cuando cae la lluvia, la noche me parece hermosa. Del otoño, la tarde. El sol poniente aproximándose con sus brillantes rayos a la cresta de las montañas. Los cuervos que, apresurando hacia sus nidos, volando de tres en tres, de cuatro en cuatro, de dos en dos, producen un sentimiento de arrebatadora melancolía, y sobre todo las largas hileras de ocas salvajes surgiendo minúsculas a lo lejos , ¿acaso hay algo más hermoso? Luego, tras la puesta del sol, el rumor del viento y el canto de los insectos despiertan también una deliciosa melancolía. Del invierno, huelga decir lo hermosa que es la caída de la nieve al amanecer. ¡Y el extremo candor de la escarcha! Sin ir tan lejos, ¡qué decir del intenso frío, cuando nos aprestamos a encender el fuego y convertimos en carbón los leños incandescentes! Nada hay más adecuado para esta estación. Sin embargo, con la proximidad del mediodía, el frío amaina. ¡Qué fastidio entonces si el fuego de los braseros se convierte en cenizas blancas! (pp. 261–262) Mercè Comes (2000) 218 The dawn in spring What I like the most about spring is the dawn. Over the mountains , while the landscape illuminates bit by bit, violet clouds float in elongated bands. About summer, the night. Naturally, the brightness of the moon! But also the dark night, when they appear here and there, in their comings and goings, the fireflies. Even when the snow falls, I find the night lovely. About autumn, the afternoon. The setting sun moving closer with its brilliant rays: to the crest of the mountains. The crows that, hurrying towards their nests, flying three by three, four by four, two by two, produce a feeling of captivating melancholy, and above all the long rows of wild geese appearing so miniscule in the distance, is there anything more beautiful? Then, after the sunset, the murmur of the wind and the song of the insects also awaken a delicious melancholy. About winter, it goes without saying how beautiful the snowfall at daybreak is. And the pure whiteness of the frost! For example, what to say about the intense cold: when we hurry to light the fire and make coal out of the incandescent logs! Nothing is more suitable for this season. However, with the closeness of midday, the cold eases. What a bother it is then if the fire of the braziers turns into white ashes! [S. H.] ...