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First
of all, let me start this piece by saying how thrilled I
am to have a book like this published in Spanish. It is
a dream come true. As a kid in South America I grew up
reading magazines (front to back) like Kerrang, Rip and
Hit Parader in English and I didn’t even speak the
language. So to have an actual book, dedicated to
extreme underground music in my language is ultra
cool. As a metal fanatic, Eligiendo Muerte is like the
Don Quixote of literature. A must, it is absolutely
‘necesario’ and if you truly consider yourself a
self-respected Spanish-speaking metalhead, you must have
it. Now, I am not sure what the point is of writing a
‘review’ in English of a book in Spanish, but I want to
write it anyway because I have read both versions and
both left me with diverging feelings.
So to make
myself clear, this is not a review of Choosing Death. That book,
we all know, ruled for several reasons. Eligiendo Muerte on the
other hand, improves on one aspect; it boasts a cooler cover,
one that’s fitting and retro and kind of reminds me of
Repulsion’s artwork for Horrified. On the other hand, the
translation itself absolutely fucking sucks. I was alarmed when
an ad for Eligiendo Muerte in Decibel Magazine read more awkward
than Urkel’s sex moves. Unfortunately, the book follows suit.
The Spanish featured in Eligiendo Muerte is, to be soft, a bit
of a joke. Don’t get me wrong. It can be read and understood in
the same way that non-words such as ‘balkc matel, detah metla,
morbdi angle’ can be understood by anyone into underground
extreme music, but the translation is so literal that, more
often than not, it makes little sense.
Choosing
Death was translated by Carlos San Roman. Apparently, he writes
for the Mexican edition of Rolling Stone. I don’t doubt his
credentials. The book cites his blog, which I visited and can
attest, features little content but flawless Spanish. Then why
is it that Eligiendo Muerte reads as if it was translated by one of
those free internet translation tools? There has obviously been
no effort in interpreting phrases that when translated literally to another language are absurd or totally awkward. Also,
to add insult to injury,
the book is plagued by entire paragraphs, pages, chapters, all
of it really, that erratically mix tense and genre as if the
Spanish language was a game of Scrabble for the blind.
Surely,
there is an effort to keep the Spanish neutral so as not to
alienate certain readers in the same way that an American
teenager will have plenty of difficulty understanding a book
filled with Scottish jargon. But San Roman can't even get
this right. He even uses the phrase ‘ni madres’ a couple
of times, which is Spanish for, I don’t know, something,
Hell, there even are a couple of words that do NOT exist, but
those may just be typos.
Anyway,
enough. I know it reads like I have a lot to complain about. But
I would like someone else whose first language is Spanish to
write an honest review of Eligiendo Muerte. Even knowing all
this, there is the consolation that one can sit, read,
understand and learn the story of death metal and grindcore. And
for that, the efforts of Albert Mudrian and Bazillion Points
should be lauded.
Buy Eligiendo Muerte Here
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