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Old June 11, 2010, 03:00 PM
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Don Quijote

Hi,

I hope this is the right place to post this. Is anyone here reading Don Quijote in the original Spanish? Or have you read Don Quijote in the Original Spanish?

Thanks!

Ryan
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Old June 11, 2010, 03:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rpgray View Post
Hi,

I hope this is the right place to post this. Is anyone here reading Don Quijote in the original Spanish? Or have you read Don Quijote in the Original Spanish?

Thanks!

Ryan

Hi:

What is/are your question(s).
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Old June 11, 2010, 03:14 PM
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Hi, Ryan,
I read the whole Don Quijote in the original Spanish about 27 years ago, when I was 20. I have an English version (I have not read that yet) and the Gustavo Doré illustrated version in Spanish, which I want to re-read one of these days... My Dad has the Dalí illustrated version and some other versions...
I have had realizations about this book "after the fact", i.e., even after having read it long ago, I become aware of things already said there that happen "now". By the by, the second part to me is the best.

If you have any questions about some specific section or phrase, do not hesitate to ask... I will answer you with my Spanglish... and sure enough I will have to find the answer, if I don't know... (I bet when I read it again I am going to feel awed, by the number of details I missed in my first reading...)

By the by, welcome to the forums!!
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Old June 11, 2010, 03:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chileno View Post
Hi:

What is/are your question(s).
Hi,

I have been told that the Spanish in Don Quijote is VERY different from modern Spanish and yet Spanish is sometimes called "The language of Cervantes". So, how different is it? If someone scooped up Miquel de Cervantes with a time Machine and dropped him in the middle of 2010 Madrid would he be able to communicate?

I picked up a Spanish edition printed by a company called punto de lectura. I notice it has numerous notes explaining some of the more archaic phrases.

By the way, I am much better at READING Spanish than I am in writing it. So if it seems strange that I am writing this post in Spanish that is why!

Cheers,

Ryan

Quote:
Originally Posted by JPablo View Post
Hi, Ryan,
I read the whole Don Quijote in the original Spanish about 27 years ago, when I was 20. I have an English version (I have not read that yet) and the Gustavo Doré illustrated version in Spanish, which I want to re-read one of these days... My Dad has the Dalí illustrated version and some other versions...
I have had realizations about this book "after the fact", i.e., even after having read it long ago, I become aware of things already said there that happen "now". By the by, the second part to me is the best.

If you have any questions about some specific section or phrase, do not hesitate to ask... I will answer you with my Spanglish... and sure enough I will have to find the answer, if I don't know... (I bet when I read it again I am going to feel awed, by the number of details I missed in my first reading...)

By the by, welcome to the forums!!

Thanks! I am reading it, very slowly, and I wonder, is this the very first literary example of what we now call a parody? It is mocking a style of fiction that was popular at the time.

Last edited by AngelicaDeAlquezar; June 11, 2010 at 07:19 PM. Reason: Merged back-to-back posts
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Old June 11, 2010, 03:50 PM
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Well, you may call it a 'parody'.
In many senses, it is a 'parody' of all the 'chivalresque novels'... some author (I don't remember who, just now) said, "representa el fracaso de una España enajenada en un ideal casi sublime, pero evidentemente anacrónico = (roughly) = "it represents the failure of Spain, [a country] deranged in pursuit of an almost sublime [noble, lofty], but obviously anachronistic [out of its 'old times] one [the pursuit]"

(I take Chileno has answered you while I got into other things, but I bet Cervantes would be able to understand a lot of what is going on in today... in the same way Shakespeare would in current England... there would be some linguistic shock in many cases... but I think they both could get along... somehow...
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Old June 12, 2010, 05:30 AM
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OK, I confess I have tried several times to read Don Quijote both in Spanish and English, and have given up at various places near the beginning. Now I don't give up easily - I have read the most difficult classical literature in Greek, German, and French. I have read Márquez El amor en los tiempos del cólera three times. I have read Milton Paradise Lost, but I can't think why. I have even read the whole of several PhD theses, one on Laser physics, one on ancient Greek history, and a German one actually written in Latin. I can name only a handful of books which I have been unable to finish. One of them is DQ. It is on my desk in front of me, unopened for over a year. I just fail to see the point. Obviously I am missing something, because just about everybody claims it to be the pinnacle of Spanish literature. Why? I've never known a book to be such hard going.

Perhaps I should try again.
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Old June 12, 2010, 08:01 AM
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@Ryan: Punto de Lectura is a serious printing company, so it must be a good edition.
I doubt that Cervantes could communicate in 2010 with his original Spanish. Languages are dynamic institutions and what was popular or common or correct one time, a few years later is very different, and that's what makes them a huge part of the spirit of a nation.

As for reading the book, I have never been able to go past the first 20 pages or so. I've tried different versions: with notes, without notes, adaptations to modern Spanish...


@Perikles: This is a formal declaration of love.
(Same story with Ulysses, remember?)
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Old June 12, 2010, 08:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar View Post
@Perikles: This is a formal declaration of love.
(Same story with Ulysses, remember?)
Yes, Ulysses is another one. I forgot that I had a rant about that one as well.
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Old June 12, 2010, 09:48 AM
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Is Ulysses actually intended to be read? I rather assumed that it was intended to show how clever Joyce was.

At least with Quijote there are probably a dozen abridged or paraphrased versions for children.
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Old June 12, 2010, 09:51 AM
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Is Ulysses actually intended to be read? I rather assumed that it was intended to show how clever Joyce was..
Writing something totally unreadable is hardly a display of cleverness, but I see what you mean.
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