Textual Poaching

Quote: “A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando.”

English version: “One’s prayers do not obviate the need of making due effort.”

Literal translation: “Begging to God and working hard with the mallet.”

Artist’s Statement

            The quote I selected above, “A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando,” is a famous saying in the Spanish language. If the citation were to be said in English, it would be “One’s prayers do not obviate the need of making due effort.” Even though the two statements mean pretty much the same thing, this translation is still not completely word-for-word the same as it is in Spanish. If the quote were to be translated in a literal sense, it would be interpreted as “Begging to God and working hard with the mallet.” As you can see, the two English translations for the Spanish phrase are somewhat different from each other.

The aspect of myself that I chose for this project is the fact that I’m bilingual. As an American citizen, born in the United States and raised in an English-speaking household, I am fluent in the Spanish idiom. As I was learning to speak and understand Spanish for the first time over three years ago, I immediately noticed the distinctions between my native tongue and this brand new language. One of the first things I recognized was how the two are similar yet separate dialects. It did help to make connections in the beginning, but at some point I had to stop translating everything I wanted to say in English to Spanish. A majority of the time, phrases and citations don’t go hand-in-hand.

I decided to take this Spanish citation, and show how translating it both loosely and literally provide diverse results. This type of manipulation can be seen in various forms of media. I especially think music in particular is a great example of how certain lyrics are expressed and translated in distinctive ways. In just about every song in any sort of language, there are metaphors and symbolism involved. If we took each lyric of every song as a matter of fact and didn’t ponder over how it could be said differently, music would not make as much sense. I also think my project relates to the reading especially in Tibor Kalman’s photos as he intertwined two separate types of culture into one image or creation and showed how they were similar and how they were different.