Hacker News Reader

Comment by rjtavares | Hacker News Reader

“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice."

Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.

View on HN

"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo."

There's a rhythm to the original that's lost in translation. GGM's mastery of the language is impossible not to notice.

Gracias por esto. Entre otras cosas, la traducción de inglés no puede capturar la sutileza de "había de recordar" o "conocer el hielo". En inglés Aureliano Buendía podía ver el hielo, pero en español podía conocerlo.

"had cause to remember" and "introduce him to ice"?

Potentially to "experience ice for the first time", but that lacks the romantic-ness of the Spanish original. The problem is that English's "meet" or "know" would cause the reader to double-take, and potentially still not understand the meaning, whereas in Spanish it feels normal.

"grok"? Not in common enough usage though, and not sounding nearly as pretty.

I think "learn about ice" would have worked.

"Introduced" him to ice, maybe? It's usually translated "to know", as in "took him to know ice", but I think "introduced" works better here.

The thing is "conocer el hielo" gives you this feeling of playing and experimenting a new sensation.

It's more like took him to discover the ice, but I don't think I can translate it accurately, though the differences are subtle, they're there.

Many years later, Colonel A.B. faced a firing squad while remembering that distant afternoon when his father came to show him ice.

It's just not the same. :'(

Agreed. "Show him ice" is closer.

Lo increíble de "conocer el hielo" es que te transporta ahí, a cuando vos conociste el hielo, cuando jugabas y descubrías una nueva sensación.

"...porque las estirpes condenadas a cien años de soledad no tenían una segunda oportunidad sobre la tierra..."

And many years after reading that book, I have that line memorized in my head.

I also regret not learning Spanish well enough to read his books untranslated as I understand his writing is gorgeous in Spanish. I'm thankful that his books translated well enough into English for me to appreciate his genius. Farewell, Gabo.

Marquez praised the English translation of One Hundred Years, though. I think he said that that was the way he would like to write it, if he had used English.

Incidentally, this is why I really like reading with an e-reader. It's so much easier to get the definition of a word that it makes reading in foreign languages much more pleasant.

I love this one from same author:

"On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on. He'd dreamed he was going through a grove of timber trees where a gentle drizzle was falling, and for an instant he was happy in his dream, but when he awoke he felt completely spattered with bird shit."

Cronica de una muerte anunciada! What a wonderfull book too.

That line, that one opening line. Once I read it, it was instantly etched into my brain.

I read the book in Spanish. It was the first magic realism book that I read, and also the first book authored by Márquez that I read. I had no idea what the book was about, but that opening line hooked me, and I could not put down the book afterwards.

Unsurprisingly, I tried to read everything else written by Márquez :-)

I've been collecting great opening lines to books. This line has topped the list -- not that I ranked them, but I put it first, followed by "It was inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded Dr. Juvenal Urbino of the fate of unrequited love." from Love in the Time of Cholera.

If you know of others that are missing, let me know: http://joshuaspodek.com/great-opening-lines-to-books

On a note of remembrance, many years ago, when I lived in Paris, my friend volunteered at the English Language Library for the Blind there. She told me they valued American accents in the readings there and asked if I would read a book for them. I agreed and decided on Love in the Time of Cholera. The librarian suggested starting with a shorter book, but I loved the book so much I couldn't pick another.

Only after starting it did I realize how much longer it takes to read a book out loud than silently and how much time I had volunteered for them. Still, I finished the book. I still wonder if my reading is still there. I recorded it onto cassette tapes.

My favorite opening line is definitely "The following day, no one died.", from Saramago's Death with Interrruptions. Wonderful book.

Did you read it in English? If so, does it follow his very particular style using a capitalised word after a comma for dialogues?

Being able to enjoy Saramago at full potential is one of the few things that makes me very happy to be Portuguese.

Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Prefacing pedantry with "not to be pedantic" doesn't make what you're about to say not pedantic.

Fair enough. My intention was to avoid attacking the original quotation while still maintaining the actual translation.

I agred this translation gives a better idea of how old timer sounds the original.

"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía habría de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo."

I think rjtavares' quote is more faithful. Except for "conocer", it should be "know ice" or maybe "know about ice", not "see" or "discover".

But the thing about translating poetic literature is that the translator also needs to be a poet.

I think "see ice for the first time" might work.

You just provided the best translation :-)

Now I'm wondering if the translators were intentionally trying to avoid multiple words, or if they didn't realize how much meaning they were losing.

Sometimes you have to just leave meanings implied to avoid being very discursive. Why would you take a child to see ice? Why would it be significant? "See" doesn't usually carry that connotation of "for the first time", but really the sentence can't possibly mean anything else.

Exactly.

The sentence in English is translated perfectly in this instance - the underlying implication of 'to see ice' carries the exact same meaning as the Spanish.

Not really. "to see ice" in English is more dubious than the phrase in Spanish, as you don't really know whether or not the character is doing it for the first time. A translation closer in meaning would be "to get to know ice".

This whole debate is why the translator chose "discover". It's a bit awkward because it can be interpreted two ways, but in one of the ways it carries the connotation of seeing for the first time, without the lengthy phrase "to get to know" or "to see for the first time" disrupting the rhythm of the prose.

The crux of the problem, of course, is that the word "meet" in English only applies to people.

"The crux of the problem, of course, is that the word "meet" in English only applies to people."

Says who? The last time I met with danger, I won! ;-)

"Meet" in the sense of being introduced, not in the sense of two entities coming into contact.

Don't forget that the translator knows just as well as you or I what the Spanish means - he also understands what it means when you take a child to see something - an expression that almost without exclusion means taking a child to see something for the first time.

"To get to know" takes us further away from the meaning, not closer.

This is a more accurate translation of the Spanish, although slightly less elegant than the previous one IMHO.

And a very powerful end too:

He [Aureliano II ] had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.

So powerful. I did not understand what I had got into until the end. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember how the rubble that world turned into in the last pages just crushed me.

I see your, “Many years later [...]" and raise you, “It was the day my grandmother exploded." Iain Banks, The Crow Road.

Not as good.

Merely goes for the surprise element.

The other quote also:

1) gives more plot information (the hero is an older man, sentenced to death),

2) beautifully evokes his nostalgia before death (remembering an event from his childhood)

3) AND builds suspense: He is at the moment in front of the firing squad. Will he die? Get a pardon? Somehow be resqued?

I think another opener that's at least as good is "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know" (even though this is misleading w/o the whole context..)

Camus? The Outsider?

As much as I like Camus's The Stranger, and am not familiar with Marquez, I still agree with coldtea. In a single opening line (when you know nothing of the rest of the book), Marquez places a beginning (seeing ice) an ending (the firing squad), and makes you want to read more to see what happens in between.

To expand on #3: the "present" in the sentence isn't even taking place before the firing squad, that's "many years later". It places the reader in a timeless moment.

I was being provocative. I agree with you :) I wonder is there an anthology of first-lines?

There's a nice (not very literature heavy) first line I remember from the great late science fiction writer Frederic Brown.

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...".

Although that line is memorable I don't think it is beautiful - indeed I rather prefer the opening paragraphs of Espedair Street, which you can read on the wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espedair_Street

Edit - having said that, I think the start of The Crow Road is rather good as that immature desire to shock is rather appropriate for Prentice McHoan - but you can't really tell how appropriate that is until you've read more of the book.

True that. not only the best opening line,but also one of the greatest lines ever written

Reply on news.ycombinator.com