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Translating Amparo Dávila's "el huesped" into Vaakre: Part 1

first four paragraphs woo! I'm putting the Vaakre first, then the spanish it's translated from for comparison, then notes.

Vai, ank xakahcet alpe wektay par ue-al amer ne taelmek. Ne duae kehf ne atkone vai amer retuef-tarie. 

Egao-wek, ya aurs ne duae suadr arre wek-ponuc-vai, aurs neadr ayasai eee ne va ji-enfiretchne. Par ne duae ne taele eriead vikah tiore, alpe bihlce evtroe vai, xa kahcet dai xa ank tal ne. Egao-wek, ne taelmek vai nijke-ut vai - saúra e yamawa e vai va ahkahrer dai ánk, eee xa kehf xa gaos vai. Ne egao-wek taelmek ae xa dai libire*, e ae xa adurabayo tal aetrester par aeto.

(*so-so-do melody attached)

Dai nuc’yelum par linme, evtroe ue-al par wektay ane. Cikravpre dleram, fahriyn.  Hrap nuc eyrs sltiashr, vikah bayon ee xa hvetsl, evtroe vackuras nokbayo ya csilore - vikah vai e meire. 

Ne vitaele bilhce reasein fahriyn limuygul. Nishmuya egae-wek ue-al amer, palltei ne duae xa vai tal ue-al vai, par vikah puinoh. Dai xa ateirwe airmee; ne esah valiyhauh e pulihrk. “Retuef-al feinehr tauszo” ne duae dai, ci’prav nartatro eee evtroe nuc tal airmee. “Ta esah bilhce ya ne vai, ee ke kaena ta va erhas…” ank ne dai ne duae dai par ue-al xareactui. Ue-al vai ne taelmek.

~~~~

Nunca olvidaré el día en que vino a vivir con nosotros. Mi marido lo trajo al regreso de un Viaje.

Llevábamos entonces cerca de tres años de matrimonio, teníamos dos niños y yo no era feliz. Representaba para mi marido algo así como un mueble, que se acostumbra uno a ver en determinado sitio, pero que no causa la menor impresión. Vivíamos en un pueblo pequeño, incomunicado y distante de la ciudad. Un pueblo casi muerto o a punto de desaparecer.

No pude reprimir un grito de horror, cuando lo vi por primera vez. Era lúgubre, siniestro. Con grandes ojos amarillentos, casi redondos y sin parpadeo, que parecían penetrar a través de las cosas y de las personas.

Mi vida desdichada se convirtió en un infierno. La misma noche de su llegada supliqué a mi marido que no me condenara a la tortura de su compañía. No podía resistirlo; me inspiraba desconfianza y horror. “Es completamente inofensivo” —dijo mi marido mirándome con marcada indiferencia. “Te acostumbrarás a su compañía y, si no lo consigues…” No hubo manera de convencerlo de que se lo llevara. Se quedó en nuestra casa.

~~~

Translation choices:

First off I'm not starting the entire piece with a proper tonesetting, because if I wrote it out we would have a paragraph straight of "vai vai vai vedrai vai vedrai tihas" and nobody wants that. A single vai works in this case.

This is... primarily Balkour vaakre, for no other reason than I prefer writing it, and this is my stress relief translation. As such, ci'prav is used in place of cikravpre, and second-person-pronouns are geography-ized, and a few other things like that.

The guest is a "ue-al" second person for a couple reasons - first off being the... vague sort of communications disconnect between Northern and Eastern Balkour? They aren't fighting but there's a bit of historical separation, so a Northern storyteller might emphasize the distant ominous nature of the guest by using an overly-formal (double-emphasized) Eastern You. [the husband's use of "ta" clues us in that they're Northern Balkour]

duae for the husband instead of a more formal laume, one part because it's a more Balkour term, and one part because we're starting this story with a general... not-fully-hostility to the guy? Bear with me, okay I'm emphasizing the thematic difference between the husband and the stranger at the start by using the more endearing term for the husband at the start of the story, this will change.

Taelmek for the house as opposed to Virechek to emphasize that the house doesn't feel like the speaker's proprietary domain.

what else... the "libire" with so-so-do melody is reference to the Coupatre paier, so it's not saying the town is literally sickly but that it's just slowly fading into unpassable territory.

There's probably more but I can't think of it, so that's all for this installment!

(Obviously I am not doing the google translate "word for word translation" translation)

-Jakxy