He Leonese writer Andrés Trapiello and the Espido Freire, novelist from Bilbao were the protagonists of the morning session of the last day of the “Cervantine Days”, which take place celebrate in Castro del Rio. In these Saturday sessions, they delved into both the process of writing “Don Quixote” and the use of language by Cervantes and his female characters. Trapielauthor of the famous adaptation into contemporary Spanish, defined “Don Quixote” as a “sacred” and “fundamental” text of Spanish literature and delved into the reasons that led him to dedicate 14 years of his life to “translation » from the adventures of the famous gentleman from La Manche.
As he explained, the reason for undertaking this adaptation arose alongside the writing of his novel “When Don Quixote Dies”, in which there were already some passages adapted from the original work. Added to this was the feeling that the work, although “being a founding book of the modern novel and the Spanish language”, It had barely been read by the Spanish themselves.
Trapiello recalled that according to a CIS survey which was made more than ten years ago only 20% of those consulted admit to having read the work. “Don Quixote is a difficult book and my intention with this adaptation into current Spanish was to put it at the service of the Spanish language so that it is a novel to read and not to study, which is what novels are for”, he explained the writer.
In his presentation, Trapiello highlighted some fundamental aspects of this hard work. “I did it in the afternoon and almost in secret,” he said. He commented on the adaptations of various common and popular expressions that appear in “Don Quixote” and which are hardly used today and the way in which he translated them into current Spanish, always trying to maintain the original meaning of the work.
He also explained that in the case of poetic texts appearing in books, it was more conservativein the sense that they were barely played to maintain the original rhythm and rhyme. Out of curiosity, he revealed that the process of knowing certain expressions continues to be updated over the years. For example, he recounted the case of an expression as famous as that of ‘launch at the shipyard’which for years was understood as a little used or forgotten spear when more recently it was discovered that this expression meant ‘spear ready‘ or ready for combat.
Freire’s point of view
The morning session of the Cervantine Conference ended with the presence of the writer and philologist Espido Freireauthor of famous novels such as “Frozen Peaches” or “Ireland”. The author expressed his excitement at being able to celebrate “our love for Cervantes’ work in front of a packed theater.”
Espido Frerire, this Saturday during his speech at the Cervantes Conference in Castro del Río
The writer explained that “Don Quixote” is “a funny novel, very entertainingwith humor that ranges from the eschatological to the subtle, from open irony to compassionate joke, but it is also a work that demonstrates enormous compassion for all those who have encountered misfortune in life.
Freire, who defines herself as melancholic, emphasized that in her case she remains “with her heart on fire in the moments when no one understands what’s going on in your head except Dulcineabecause it is his work and it has arisen to complete what he does not find in the world, beauty, purity and devotion. All this in an “increasingly corrupt and maskless society, a tired country”.
The author also explained that in the heroines of Cervantes we observe the phenomenon that “no one is what they seem” and there is also “one great diversityfrom highest to lowest rank. He also explained that “They are all extremely alivethey are palpable. Marirtormes or Dorotea are some of the female characters that Espido Freire explored to demonstrate Cervantes’ ability to represent the diversity of the female world in the complex context of the era in which he lived.
