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Abstract
In this article, three type of translation are presented. The work of the three authors, Gabriel Aresti, Milan Kundera, Martin Heidegger have been translated into Spanish in the case of the first author and French in the case of the other two, with varying results.
The poem "Maldan behera" by G. Aresti has been translated into Spanish twice, the first time published by Kriselu it was so littered with mistakes that it was denounced in the magazine Jakin (n. 36, 1985) by the writer J. Azurmendi. J. Atienza admitted to having done the second translation which was published by Catedra (Madrid, 1979).
The writer of this article comments on this translation pointing out the bias and even phobia shown by the translator/critic towards G. Aresti; the total lack of understanding and knowledge of the context in which the latter writes and also denounces the falseness of the so called translation "from the original" done by J. Atienza. This "translation" is really no more than the adaptation of the one by Kriselu (1976) —it includes all the previous mistakes and even a few more.
G. Aresti's case is not, however exceptional. Almost the same thing happened with the first translation into French of work by the Czech author, Milan Kundera, the 1982 Europa Literature Prize winner. "The Joke" was translated into French —or 'rewritten' insists M. Kundera in 1968. Most of the translations of this piece of work published in the Western world are retranslations of the first one —and include all the errors. Fortunately, M. Kundera, unlike G. Aresti, has been able to revise the translations of her work and be more personally involved in the translating.
The case of the translations into French of the philosophical texts written by M. Heidegger is just the opposite and serves as a reference point in the other two cases, showing the effort made in linguistic adaptation, the clarity and great pains taken in this work by the team of translators.
