The Waste Land in Spanish Translation (1930-2022)

Abstract

Between 1930 and 2022, no fewer than 35 people (including professional translators, scholars and amateurs) met the formidable challenge of translating into Spanish either The Waste Land in full or only some of its sections. With varying degrees of success, these translations found their way into the pages of single books, anthologies, literary magazines or journals both in Spain and in Hispanic-American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Santo Domingo. Undertaking a close analysis of all these versions not only provides an excellent opportunity to revisit T.S. Eliot’s best-known poem on the centenary of its publication, but may also contribute to the study of the complex process of its retranslation over more than nine decades.