going to bring down the collective IQ points of everyone here
thought I’d share another detail from my recent roberto arlt re-obsession: the adaptation/translation of perhaps the greatest sentence in the history of world literature.
From Chapter 1 (“El Hombre Neutro”) of Los Lanzallamas
Hipólita is in conversation with the Astrologer, and as part of a blackmail scheme, she attempts to seduce him. However, he declines her advances and explains:
(Roberto Arlt, Los Lanzallamas, from Novelas completas y cuentas, Vol. II (Buenos Aires: Compañia General Fabril Editoria, 1963), 25.)
I mentioned in the other now on-hiatus thread that I find the recent english translation of Los Lanzallamas to be a fairly poor piece of work. Fucking up this line is one of its many sins.
How does the Riley translation render this line?
(Roberto Arlt, The Flamethrowers, Larry Riley, Tr. (Saint Paul, MN: RIver Boat Books, 2018), 35.)
I don’t agree with the syntax change or the placement of Hipólita within a parenthetical. It’s also just not really an accurate translation of The Astrologer’s affect or description of how he fell through a skylight and onto a bannister railing, causing his balls to explode. I just don’t like the work overall. There’s no reason to re-engineer this passage to the degree that he has as the literal translation settles fairly painlessly into English. But what really irritates me is Riley’s translation into a singular grenade-like explosion of two (2) balls. Doesn’t make sense. They both exploded like grenades. That’s ball-explosions PLURAL. This is just logical and it’s right there in the Spanish.
There’s also a question of interpration here, as “granadas” can also refer to pomegranate fruit, and there are several mentions of pomegranate trees growing on The Astrologer’s estate in both Los Lanzallamas and its prequel Los Siete Locos. Is this what The Astrologer has in mind? Furthermore, the verb “estallar” can also mean a kind of bursting or eruption outward. So is The Astologer describing the destruction of his balls like pomegranates bursting rather than like grenades? I’ll admit that’s a more eccentric reading, but I thought it at least worth considering. I invite the forum Spanish-speakers to offer their insights if they are inclined. I’m personally of two minds here. Realistically, balls would blow out more like smashed pomegranates rather than explode like hand grenades (not a doctor). On the other hand, the novels abound in descriptions of military equipment and the brutal methods of then contemporary warfare (the novels are set in 1929), so it’s entirely plausible that The Astrologer is thinking of military ordinance.
I was also curious about how this line was presented in the two film adaptations of Los Siete Locos and Los Lanzallamas.
Let’s look first at the 1973 film Los Siete Locos (dir Leopoldo Torre Nilsson)
Accurate until the crucial line. Disappointingly, The Astrologer (portrayed by José Slavin) resorts to a euphemism. I like this film quite a lot though, although it’s somewhat difficult to follow unless you know the novels well. The plot is a bit compressed. It’s a cool movie though.
But how does the the 2015 Argentine public TV adaptation (dirs, Ana Piterbard and Fernando Spiner) present the ball-destruction line? Bear in mind that this version was adapted by renowned Arlt scholar Ricardo Piglia.
One key difference is that The Astrologer (Pompeyo Audivert) full on drops trou to show Hipólita (Julieta Zylberberg) the aftermath, which is not in the original text.
Apologies for the poorly formatted auto-subtitles
A couple of things worth noting: 1) the description of the accident doesn’t quite make as much sense as in the original text. Or at least it doesn’t “show the math” on how the balls were destroyed. Falling through a skylight, crotch-first onto a railing makes sense, but this adaptation lacks mechanical detail. And 2) it looks like Piglia has settled on the grenade vs pomegranate question (and who am I to argue with the master?). He has changed “estallar” to “explotar” which clearly signals a kinetic grenade type explosion rather than a ripe fruit burst/eruption event. And again, these are grenades PLURAL exploding. Two balls exploding like two grenades, not two balls exploding like “a grenade” god darn it
