Just to be clear, normally we wouldn’t refer to any of our source material as ‘nonsense,’ but sometimes, there’s no other word for it! There is a rich and wonderful world of nonsense prose. Take the Jabberwocky, for instance, which appears in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Perhaps the greatest loved English nonsense poem, and although an enjoyable read, the language used in it can cause some serious headaches for translators.

So what do you do when translating nonsense? There are many different opinions on the matter: academic George Steiner declared nonsense language untranslatable, but Jabberwocky, for example, has been translated into many languages (although the exact number seems to be a secret, as no amount of googling would reveal it to me). The majority of translators invent their own words to mimic the lexicon of the text and recreate the same feeling and rhythm in their rendering, but not all – some prefer to transliterate the nonsense. Case in point: Helene Scheu-Riesz, who first translated Jabberwocky into German, translated ‘Jubjub bird’ and ‘Tumtum tree’ as ‘Jubjubvogel’ and ‘Tumtumbaum,’ respectively. See the Spanish translation below for an example of the other, more popular, approach.

The main difficulty in deciding how to translate these words is that the words often don’t have set meanings, and rely on their sounds to create a meaning in the mind of the reader. The most obvious instance of this is probably the word ‘slithy,’ which brings to mind all kinds of associations for English readers (slimy, slither, lithe, etc.). According to the definition of the word given by Humpty Dumpty later in the novel, ‘slithy’ does indeed mean ‘lithe and slimy,’ so we can grasp the meaning of the word without ever having encountered it before. In the same way that you can understand a word in context but not be able to define it, we can understand these words as part of the narrative, and they create imagery without concrete meanings. In my opinion, the translation should do the same for the new target audience, and should reproduce the strange sensation of understanding, but not knowing, the words used…

Here is the original poem, and a Spanish translation for comparison. What do you think? What would you have done differently? Could you have done better?

JABBERWOCKY: Lewis Carroll, 1872

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought–
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

‘And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

GALIMATAZO: Jaime de Ojeda, 1973

Brillaba, brumeando negro, el sol;
agiliscosos giroscaban los limazones
banerrando por las váparas lejanas;
mimosos se fruncían los borogobios
mientras el momio rantas murgiflaba.

¡Cuidate del Galimatazo, hijo mío!
¡Guárdate de los dientes que trituran
Y de las zarpas que desgarran!
¡Cuidate del pájaro Jubo-Jubo y
que no te agarre el frumioso Zamarrajo!

Valiente empuñó la espada Vorpalina;
a la hueste manzona acometió sin descanso;
luego, reposóse bajo el árbol del Tántamo
y quedóse sesudo contemplando…

Y así, mientras cavilaba firsuto.
¡¡Hete al Galimatazo, fuego en los ojos,
que surge hedoroso del bosque turgal
y se acerca raudo y borguejeando!!

¡Zis, zas y zas! Una y otra vez
zarandeó tijereteando la espada Vorpalina!
Bien muerto dejó al monstruo, y con su testa
¡volvióse triunfante galompando!

¡¿Y hazlo muerto?! ¡¿Al Galimatazo?!
¡Ven a mis brazos, mancebo sonrisor!
¡Qué fragarante día! ¡Jujurujúu! ¡Jay, jay!
Carcajeó, anegado de alegría.

Pero brumeaba ya negro el sol
agiliscosos giroscaban los limazones
banerrando por las váparas lejanas,
mimosos se fruncian los borogobios
mientras el momio rantas necrofaba…

LAUREN WEBB