Experiences in self-development: A critical reflection and partial Spanish-to-English translation of Armando Nougus Fernndezs El despertar de la oruga

Rebecca Keating
Department of English, Department of Modern Languages and Literature Case Western Reserve University College of Arts and Sciences
INTRODUCTION
Doctor Armando Nougus Fernndez is a Naturist, Homeopath, Sophrologist and Professor of Chi Kung. He practices medicine in downtown Mlaga, is the creator of a self-improvement training method known as Sofrodynamia, and has published multiple books in Spain. He gave me his latest book as a parting gift when I returned home from summer study abroad last year. The book is called El despertar de la oruga. El despertar de la oruga was, in part, inspired by other essays that Dr. Fernndez wrote for the Cultural Lotus Association (an association founded by a group of people interested in activities related to human growth and development in Mlaga in 1994). The rest of its chapters were written ex professo in order to fill the text out and give it more richness. With its goal of conveying the possibility of awakening oneself to the discovery of what Dr. Fernndez calls our Interior Selves, the book could just as easily be classified as self-help as it could be classified as spiritual. To date, none of Dr. Fernndezs works have been translated into languages other than Castilian Spanish. Having seen firsthand the difference that his presence makes in the lives of his patients and his contemporaries, it was important to me try to make Armandos work available to an English-speaking audience. His material is approachable and instructive without being preachy, and his love and hope for his fellow human beings is apparent throughout his text. His work offers readers the opportunity to view self-improvement as a path they are always already on, and his approach minimizes what can be the very daunting nature of change.

CHALLENGES
The constant challenge in translating a work like this one is three-pronged. First, English and Spanish are not directly translatable languages. There is not a one-to-one correlation between the words in one language and the words and concepts of the other. Because this is the case, a translation of any text is an exercise in interpretation and faithfulness to the original material, which is the second part of the challenge. It is impossible to plainly read a text without imposing ones own personal point of view on it, let alone trying to read and then re-communicate that text to a new audience. It was difficult to find a balance between distilling Dr. Fernndezs work down to its simplest communicable form and preserving the subtleties of his writing. Every effort was made to find an equilibrium between what Hugo Friedrich calls accommodating the literary demands on language of the original text and staying faithful to it (Friedrich 11). Third, El despertar de la oruga is not a fact-based, chronological work whose vocabulary resides within in limited pool of words and concepts. It is a personal and theoretical work that lends itself to subjectivity on the part of the author and additional subjective interpretation. The possibilities for deciphering and reformulating this kind of a metaphorical and poetic text can seem endless.

REFERENCES
Fernndez, Armando Nougus. El despertar de la oruga, segunda edicin. Alicante, Espaa: Editorial Club Universitario, n.d. Friedrich, Hugo. On the Art of Translation. Schulte, Rainer y John Biguenet. Theories of Translation An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. 11-16.

MATERIALS & METHODS

In order to produce what would be an accurate and appropriate translation of the work, I made use of multiple Spanish-language resources and partnered with a university staff consultant who is a native Spanish-speaker. The work was divided into 12 15-page sections and each section was translated and turned into the consultant at two-week intervals. Once the consultants comments were made available, revisions were made to the final working copy of the text.

Figure 1: Cover of El despertar de la oruga, segunda edicin. Published by the Editorial University Club (Editorial Club Universitario) in Alicante, Spain.

EXCERPT FROM ORIGINAL TEXT

Por tanto, el autoconocimiento y el desarrollo humano no es, como algunos podran pensar, una tarea individualista o intimista, centrada en la contemplacin de nuestro propio ombligo. Muy al contrario es, sin lugar a dudas, la aportacin ms valiosa que podramos llevar a cabo de cara a favorecer a todos los seres que nos rodean, tanto si prximos como lejanos. El tiempo y el esfuerzo que dediquemos a la autorrealizacin (o al Despertar, como ha sido llamado tradicionalmente) ha de ser contemplado, pues, desde un punto de vista ms universal y solidario de lo que se hace habitualmente.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Therefore, human self-knowledge and development is not, as some would think, an individualist or intimate work, centered in the contemplation of our own core. Quite the contrary it is, undoubtedly, the most valuable contribution that we can carry out in the face of all of the beings that surround us, whether they are near to us or far. The time and effort that we dedicate to self-realization (or to the Awakening, as it has traditionally been called) has to be thought about, then, from a more universal and supportive point of view than it usually is.