José Ángel Valente and his “Two Günter Kunert’s free versions”. Translated word: testimony and reflection

Abstract

The most prominent aspect of Jose Ángel Valente’s translator is the feeling of literary affinity and own recognition with the translated text. From this perspective the exercise of the versions allows him to begin a poetical dialog in order to integrate his voice with those of the poetry that represents the same literary thought. Therefore, the knowledge of his versions takes us to a parallel reading of his poetical path. Across the study of both versions of the German Günter Kunert, dated in 1964, we have observed the confluences that were given in the literary panoramas of the existing state at the time of the GDR and Spain, to indicate then the motives for which Valente, from the translation, expresses his own poetic world.