Del lago a la montaña: La traducción del sentido trágico unamuniano a través del valor simbólico del paisaje cultural

Abstract

In the novel San Manuel Bueno, mártir (1933), Unamuno's existential contradiction is expressed through the intra-histow of the characters, the cultural landscape and the village of Valverde de Lucerna. How does the translator-reader identify and reproduce the symbolic value of nature at different moments in history? What kind of historical and cultural connotations do elements like a lake or a mountain have in Spanish and German culture? This novel reflects the human paradox of believing or not, the consciousness of the unamunian historical "self' that emerges throughout an indirect narrative in which the symbolism of nature and the constraints of the civilized world are in constant opposition. Thus, the novel gains a symbolic value due to the scenery suggested by the lake of Sanabria (in the village of San Martín de Castañeda), the ruins of convent of Bernardos and the mountain (Peña del Buitre). They represent the most intimate and deep aspect of unamunian consciousness, typical of the Generación del 98's Spain. After describing the symbolic value of these natural elements, three translations into German of San Manuel Bueno, mártir shall be analyzed focusing on the interpretation of nature in an existential and cultural sense.