Translating Virgil for the 21st century Spanish reader is quite a challenge. At times, the Roman author’s masterpiece fell into the sin of being too corseted in translating it into our language, not forgetting the changes in the order of sentences so precious to the great Latin writers. language that complicates the picture even more.
The final result was a very faithful translation, but a bit rusty, too harsh, and the reader had to examine a meaningful universe that was light-years away from his own and elusive.
The translator Luis T. Bonmatí, who directed the new edition of the Aeneid that Reino de Cordelia has just presented, managed, however, to square the circle: he did not simply translate the work on -hendecasyllabic verses from the original Latin. hexameters – He also succeeded in ensuring that the epic of Aeneas and his followers comes with a clearer and more fluent rhythm without losing even a bit of the epic tone that should be in the work.
The result is a beautiful and much more accessible Aeneid in a bilingual edition that allows to follow the Latin original at the bottom, on the same page to check its relevance to what was written by Publio Virgilio Marón.
The Spanish publishing scene lacked an Aeneid that would distract from the lack of naturalness of other times when it comes to translation, and here we are, with the work of Madrid illustrator Federico del Barrio, an illustrated edition of nearly 750 pages. Regular comics magazines like French Pilote or Spanish classics Totem or Cimoc. His style is schematic, modern and highly original; These features, paradoxically, befit this great classic of Roman literature.
In the reading section there are some explanatory notes about the characters and development of the 12 books that Virgil shared the work with, which is very useful considering that the action started in medias res, as the Latins say, and then it would be Aeneas himself. Be the one to detail the background of their adventures.
The Aeneid, along with its predecessors, the Odyssey and the Iliad, is the grand triad of antiquity. Three wonders that are connected despite the fact that Virgil’s creation (Galia Cisalpina, 70-Brundisium, 19 BC) was nearly seven centuries later. According to legend, Emperor Augustus commissioned the poet, who was already famous for “Bucolics” and “Georgics”, guarded by this authentic Roman epic Maecenas, the founding legend that would connect the origin of the Romans to one of the legendary heroes. of Troy.
Virgilio accepted the challenge and, displaying his great perfectionism, composed nearly 10,000 verses of the Aeneid in the last 11 years of his life, the Aeneid without a final revision as the poet died at the age of 51. Augusto from a trip to Greece to see the actual scenes of his creation.
Aeneas and his men escape the betrayal of the Greeks and, with the help of the gods, leave Troy, the homeland of the Romans, after many events.
As an example of this new translation, the following lines are from Book Three, which describes the moment when the Trojan expedition encountered a terrible storm as soon as it left the island of Crete in full sail:
«…The clouds are imprisoning
light in itself and taken back
dome of the sky on a night of water
as the sky roars and brightens
with rays He has already lost his way,
We sail on blind waves,
so pilot Palinuro
Don’t know if it’s day or night
and cannot find the way between the waves.