If This Be Treason Review

Gregory Rabassa. If This Be Treason.
Translation and Its Dyscontents: A

Memoir. NY: New Directions, 2005. 189p.
Daniel C. Villanueva
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Gregory Rabassas name is one we have long seen under titles of masterful English
translations of Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Amado, and
many others. This reviewer is but one of many introduced to Spanish-language
literature via his translations. His recently published memoir will be of interest to
scholars both of translation studies and literature. In addition to being an edifying
window into the often anonymous world of an accomplished literary translator, this
anecdote-filled memoir illuminates the sometimes contentious interplay between
the fields of literary studies and translation. The book is, however, neither a toolkit
for aspiring translators nor a broad philosophical treatise. Indeed, Rabassa has else-
where provided many examples of excellent translation theory and practice over his
multi-decade career as the best Latin American writer in the English language, in
the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
If This Be Treason is divided into three parts of significantly unequal length, imag-
ined as an amicus curiae brief in the trial of a translator being a traitor to language
(Traduttore, traditore). While his ultimate answer is in the affirmative, he eruditely
demonstrates why pleading guilty to such charges cannot, in the end, be worthy of
punishment. The first part of Rabassas self-effacing memoir sketches his early years,
demonstrating certain traits that fit in nicely with the needs of translation (10).
Readers are taken through his childhood, undergraduate and graduate years, his
service in the military and his emergence as a translator of renown with his rendering
of Julio Cortzars Hopscotch (Rayuela) into English in 1963. A recurring theme is how
fortunately his circumstances and abilities aligned, whether serving in a cryptology
unit during the war, editing a short-lived literary magazine requiring translation,
several of whose contributors later won Nobel Prizes, touring Brazil with summer
travel money to make long-lasting contacts, and more. There is undoubtedly more
than serendipity at work given this polymaths superlatively nuanced skills in both
translation and narration, yet his tale is as organically mystical as his well-known
interpretations of magic realism.
The second and largest section of Rabassas work contains his self-styled rap
sheet (50): a list organized by author and works that he has translated, together
with impressions and anecdotes relating to the texts. For those such as this reviewer
whose translation experience has been not from the Spanish or Portuguese, but
German, the book is made quite relevant in that it acquaints one with the breadth
and reputation of Rabassas work. Those familiar with these authors only in English
fall 2007 Rocky Mountain Review 53

will appreciate the palpable joy he conveys in the process of having translated them,
carrying their expressions and riddles into the target language. Those with detailed
knowledge of both source and target texts will find insight into Rabassas personal
path as a translator as well as encouragement to craft potential alternatives to the
authoritative, final version.
Like Rabassa, a tenured professor as well as translator, many of us straddling
the fields of translator and traditional scholar have experienced that translation
cannot always be taught in the way academic convention might require. He asks:
You can explain how translation is done, but how can you tell a student what to
say without saying it yourself? Glib as it may at first appear, there is truth in this
statement and its corollary: You can tell him what book to read but you cant read
it for him. For him, a good translation is essentially a good reading (49): a cre-
ation personal to each translator that depends significantly on the reading skills
of each individual artist.
To describe ones translation process, one must often employ metaphors to describe
that which is unteachable (41). An accomplished translator friend of the reviewer
imagines her work as forcing a source text through an imaginary linguistic-cultural
sieve, kneading together what remains, pushing it through again and again until
after many attempts she is satisfied with the remnant of text. Likewise, Rabassas
many descriptions of the craft and product of translating include, at various places,
simply reading [the foreign work] in English (42), letting the words lead me
(53), gestated, not assembled out of dead parts (28), and shift[ing] between
two selvesinduced schizophrenia (20). Rabassas vivid and personal metaphors
underscore once again the notion that translations and the process by which they
are produces remain more easily rendered oneself or enjoyed as a third party rather
than being codified and systematized for wider use. He advances a point that is
perhaps the only teachable maxim: the intimate interior translation process cannot
be wholly reproduced by others except to show the choices which a translator may
make. Here, his discussion of the myriad ways in which the seemingly innocuous
Garcia Marquez title Cien aos de soledad or Virgils Arma virumque cano can be
legitimately translated is illustrative (95).
Some scorn is palpable where his memoir tackles the contracting practices of
literary agents, some reviewers of literary translations and the field of translation
studies itself. As to the latter, he believes that aspects of translation studies are
often too compromised by schools of philosophy to be fully useful to professional
translators. Rabassa understands one often needs a professorship to ensure a stable
income while pursuing ones passion. Yet this can lead to translation, along with
the rest of literature, [falling] into the hands of the big kids, who like to take things
54 Rocky Mountain Review fall 2007

apart to see how they work. Deconstruction of a completed translation, an organic
inseparable whole, can never re-construct the original vision of the translator, which
has its seat in the [individual] imagination (42). Though his gently-stated opinion
against fashionable theories in translation studies might be construed as treading
on the specialties of his fellow academics, Rabassas prodigious scholarship in both
literary studies and translation imbue his current reflections with the authentic-
ity of considerable experience. In any case, his greatest vitriol, characteristically
displayed with more humor than venom, is reserved for others, namely academic
critics from the field of the source text language (Alastair Reeds translation police,
Sara Blackburns Professor Horrendo). Tin-ear alternatives and tepid adjectives
such as flowing or awkward are the best that they can offer, which for Rabassa
is clearly not enough (42-43).
The final section is but two pages long and acquits the translator of any treason-
ous crime with the Scots verdict of not proven (189). Rabassa concludes it is both
impossible for a third party to recreate a translators crime and nearly so to find
a jury pool not tainted by academic pedantry. Thus, it is foolhardy to prosecute
anyone involved in the process. His legal brief is crafted with as much infectious
good will as attention to detail. It provides compelling evidence that a translator
can remain free from prosecution, except perhaps from a healthy perfectionism
whispering one may have done something treasonable in our own work (189).
Once released from this imaginary courtroom, we admire the professionalism of
Rabassa in the role of prosecutor, defendant and jury and prepare to enjoy more
treason with his next publication. h
fall 2007 Rocky Mountain Review 55

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Gregory Rabassa. If This Be Treason.

Translation and Its Dyscontents: A

fall 2007 Rocky Mountain Review 53

54 Rocky Mountain Review fall 2007

fall 2007 Rocky Mountain Review 55

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