Garcia Lorca’s Riddle of the Guitar — in French, Italian & Portuguese
One of the draw backs of the book I have put out is that it is not a bilingual edition. It is wholly in English. I am not as knowledgeable as I should be with copyright law but there is debate as to how much of Garcia Lorca's work is still protected under copyright law.
One interpretation of the law states that, "A translation is a derivative work, and only the copyright owner can authorize a translation that will be distributed. This envisions a work that is translated into another language and distributed in parts of the world where that language is spoken. Derivative works are infringing if they are not created with the permission of the copyright holder." However, prior to the passing of the United States 1976 Copyright Act, many "copyrighted literary works, movies and fictional characters are soon to pass into the public domain due to their 56 year maximum copyright terms."
In other words, the book of Federico's poetry I was translating from, published in Buenos Aires in 1945, has passed the 56 years of copyright protection (it's been 63 years since 1945) and so, theoretically, has passed into public domain. However, what makes this insanely complicated and the reason I left out the original texts was that the Garcia Lorca estate in Spain has been attempting to reestablish copyright ownership over some of Federico's poetry in American courts. The attempt was made in 2006 and so far (as far as I can tell) there has been no verdict. It is one reason I put out the book now, since it falls into this gray zone of legal doubt. But I want to be in good faith if suddenly the Garcia Lorca estate is successful and retains copyright protection. I suppose if I was getting my book published through a large publishing house then I could find out what I could do and not do; self-publishing comes with its own dangers, it seems.
I thought that one way of getting around the whole issue of using original texts or not, but keeping the book true to the idea of a bilingual text (what I really, really want) is to present two translations, one in English and one in a third language, say Italian or French. I am terrible in languages (even English) but I have friends who offer me suggestions once in a while and if I was successful I could offer something to the reading public no one (to the best of my knowledge) has done. Sure, you can go down to Barnes and Noble and buy an English translation of Federico's poetry but an English and Italian and Chinese (with one version in Eastern Armenian thrown in)? That would be worth $9.99 I think.
So here is three new experimental attempts at reworking Garcia Lorca's Adivinanza de la guitarra. One in English:
Riddle of the Guitar
At the round
crossroads,
6 maidens
dance.
3 of flesh,
3 of silver.
Dreams from yesterday pursue them,
but they are held fast by
a Polyphermus of gold.
Ai!, the guitar!
In French:
Devinette de la Guitare
Au carrefour
tout rond,
6 jeunes filles
dansent.
3 de chair
et 3 d’argent.
Les songes d’hier les cherchent,
mais elles sont
au bras
d’un Polyphème d’or.
Ai!, la guitare!
In Italian:
Indovinello della chitarra
Nel rotondo
crocicchio,
6 donzelle
ballano.
3 di carne
3 d'argento.
I sogni di un tempo le cercano,
ma le tiene avvinghiate
un Polifemo d'oro.
Ai!, la chitarra!
And in Portuguese:
Adivinanza de la guitarra
Na redonda
encruzilhada,
6 donzelas
bailam.
3 de carne
e 3 de prata.
Os sonhos de ontem procuram-nas
porém têm-nas abraçadas
um Polifemo de ouro.
Ai!, guitarra!