Mantxako herri batean - Gotzon Egia

In this article the author criticizes the first complete translation of "Don Quixote" into Basque by the priest Pedro Berrondo and published in a clamour of publicity by the editor B. Estornés Lasa this year. The critic expounds the idea that it is virtually impossible to translate Cervantes' text well given the socolinguistn arid religio-linguisti premises which have been pubhcly ex pressed by the translator of the work and upon which it is based.

After a brief history of the translations made of "Don Quixote" into Basque, all of which, incidentally, are biased, the writer compares the actual translation with versions by Oyeregi, J. Garbizu, Duvoisin, Lizardi, Orixe, Irigaray etc. and above all highlights the looseness of this particular translation, especially in terms of style, and the excessive purity and repetitive simplifications from which the text suffers.

One of the outstanding faults made by Pedro Berrondo in his translation is the case of the treatment given to the so-called "romanic relative", in which the lack of scientifjc criteria which dominates the translation becomes evident.