I’m on chapter six of Don Quixote and I’ve got to wonder what one has to read to be the translator of a Spanish text that is 400 years old.  Chapter six has DQ’s two closest friends going through his collection of romantic-chivalrous books and deciding which to save and which to burn.

This chapter lists several of the texts by name — I guess the 17th century readers would have been familiar with them and the notes for chapter six describe most of the books mentioned (they’re real books, not made up titles) for those of us who hang out in the 21st century.  These are the romantic-chivalrous books that have driven DQ insane.  I wonder if it’s a bit like romance novels for women or the Star Trek series for serious trekkies.  Those romance novels can screw with the way one see’s men (perhaps warping reality in a similar way as DQ’s books screwed with his perception of reality.   I can’t speak for Trekkies — most of those that I’ve met enjoy the silliness of the whole thing and are firmly grounded in reality.

So if you’re the translator, do you read each book mentioned in chapter six, or do you read the Cliff Notes edition of these old books?  Also, do modern day Spanish speakers read Don Quixote in it’s original, or is there an updated language version of the text for them?  Think about it.  We have modern day translations of The Canterbury Tales because most of us can’t understand the English from 1400 A.D. .  Don Quixote was written in 1605, approximately 200 years later.   How much has the Spanish language changed?

Time to go hunt down my Spanish speaking friends to ask.

I wonder if Susan Wise Bauer considers this part of ”The Great Conversation”.

Today I am thankful for warm September evenings, times with my daughter when my baby is asleep, internet real estate searches, and See’s candy just when I need or don’t need it.

No purfume today, just sweat and a bit of spit-up.

I spent the Fall and Winter months of this pregnancy reading my sister’s copy of The Well Trained Mind  by Susan Wise Bauer– an absolutely inspiring book about classical education and how to do it (in children).  Last summer, I also started slogging my way through The Charlotte Mason Companion.  For those of you unfamiliar with those names, both books indicate that I’m considering alternatives to public school.

I’d also heard an interview with Susan Wise Bauer in the ‘Mars Hill Audio Journal’ (BTW, an excellent -though not inexpensive- source of really well-thought-out articles) where she spoke on another of her books, The Well Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had.  In this book, she applies the Trivium thinking process to about thirty great works (each) in five genres: the novel, autobiographies, history, drama, and poetry.  I was pleased to see how many of the books I’d already read, but still– I recognize that my knowledge of the works was fairly shallow.

Well, I have a two year old, and I like to research things well in advance of when I have to make decisions…especially about something this important; and I’m very interested in providing Kate with a classical education.

So I’ve decided to try “it” on myself. 

The fist book in The Well Educated Mind is Don Quixote.  I’ve just finished chapter one.   I won’t tell you how long it took me to slog through the introduction and the translators notes – but I was doing it while balancing the novel on my breastfeeding pillow, so I give myself a lot of slack.

Don Quixote is 982 pages long (1023 pages with the notes – and yes, I’m reading the notes) and has 669 characters.  At the rate that I’m going, I should be done by Spring.

Today, I’m thankful to God for my husband who noticed that I busted my buns unloading groceries and came and gave me a hug; for good books; for my Bradley instructor who gave me breastfeeding insight by e-mail yesterday;  for last minute vacation plans; and for His timing in bringing things to my life.

What I’m wearing today:  Safari by Ralph Lauren