Bierhorst Bashing

[Rudiger V. Busto]

Friends,
 Recently I was comparing the translations of the Cantares quoted by
Leon-Portilla in his "Testimonios Nahuas..." with Bierhorst's and was
surprised by the differences:

folio 42v: lines 6-7 [Bierhorst, p. 272]:

Yc ompahualli ye anchicueytica necahualo tlatemachilo ye o~ tlaocoyalotoc
nentlamachotoc ye ixquichan motlachihualhua~ ye cemanahuaco ohuiya

Bierhorst [p. 273]:

For forty-eight days there's fasting, there's rationing.  All your
creatures throughout the world are sad and afflicted.

Leon-Portilla [p. 19; english trans. of Spanish by Julie Goodson-Lawes]:

Ya durante dos cuentas de dias, por ocho veces, se ha hecho el ayuno, se ha
cumplido la penitencia.  Han estado apesadumbrados, han estado afligidos,
cuantos son hechura Tuya, aqui en la tierra, rodeada por todas partes de
agua.

[For two counts of days, for eight times there has been fasting, the
penance has been completed.  They have been afflicted, they have been
distressed, all your creations, here on the earth, surrounded on all sides
by water]

I don't have any particular expertise on the Ghost Dance interpretation
(but have my intuitions), but was most surprised by the brevity and
incompleteness of Bierhorst's English translation, particularly when he
writes (128):  The Translation is an undoctored English rendering of the
Cantares mexicanos, ruthlessly preserving the sequence of matter, including
erroneous scholia, headings, and asides inserted by the Cantares glossator.
It is intended as a neutral instrument, which the reader may use in
formulating his own interpretations."

For those without any facility in Nahuatl, the line-by-line translations
seem less than "ruthlessly preserved" for the English-only reader.  I don't
have any particular ax to grind with Bierhorst, but am somewhat concerned
about the technical apparatus.




*************************************************
Rudy V. Busto		rude at leland.stanford.edu
Assistant Professor		 415.552.0257
Religious Studies
Stanford University
(ON LEAVE 1999-2000)