A copy of the book ‘The Little Prince’ in the language version native to Bolivia, at the Santa Cruz book fair.
Photo: EFE – Juan Carlos Torrejón
“Mburuvicharaɨ”, the Guarani version of the universal classic “The Little Prince”, by the Frenchman Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is the new proposal from Bolivia that completes a trilogy of the book translated into native languages such as Aymara and Quechua, with the aim of strengthen and give relevance to indigenous languages and cultures.
The work, presented at the recent book fairs in the eastern city of Santa Cruz and the southern city of Tarija, is part of a collection that also includes the versions in Aymara, “Warawar wawa”, and in Quechua, “Apu wawa”, within of the Universal Works in Native Languages project of the Publishing House of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (EEPB).
The translation of “The Little Prince” was made under the premise of strengthening the 36 native languages recognized as official in the Bolivian Constitution in force since 2009, indicated the executive manager of the publishing house, Estela Machicado.
“The State Publishing House takes on the challenge of producing bibliography in native languages, since there is very little bibliography to be able to learn and read in the mother tongue of a large part of the population, read in our mother tongues works that are not only universal, but also national,” he noted.
This is how the project was created to give relevance to the native languages and “The Prince” was chosen because after the Bible, “it is the second most translated book in the world”, with more than 400 editions in different languages, he highlighted.
Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní are the native languages most spoken in Bolivia, which is why “Warawar wawa” was presented last year at the La Paz International Book Fair, “Apu wawa” was released last month and now the series is complete with “Mburuvicharaɨ”.
The novel
As in the Aymara and Quechua versions, the first part of “Mburuvicharaɨ” is in Guaraní and the second, in Spanish. Furthermore, with the idea of attracting young people to reading, each chapter contains a QR that takes the reader to the audiobook to listen to the text in Guaraní.
Readers will be able to find emblematic phrases from the work, such as “Emboyɨgua cheve metei vecha”, or “draw me a sheep”, or “Yande piapeño yaechakavi mbae; jokua mabetɨko yende yaech”, or “only with the heart can one see well; what is essential is invisible to the eyes”, from the last conversation that the Little Prince has with the fox, or “aguara”.
The translation was commissioned by sociologist Elías Caurey and professor Benjamín Cuellar Fernández. “We found the idea interesting of being able to also put a universal work in the Guaraní language and be able to enjoy it in our language, that our people can also hear in the Guaraní melody the narration of this work that is well known worldwide,” said Caurey. .
The expert explained that the aim was for the translation to be balanced and have “different varieties” of Guaraní, since Cuellar is a specialist in the linguistic variant of Isoso and Caurey in that of Ava.
Caurey maintained that it was “a very nice challenge” and that they had to consult “quite a few sources,” because there are elements and situations in Saint-Exupéry’s novel that perhaps are not codified in the Guaraní culture and language, so they are he had to “create neologisms” without moving away from the central idea of the book.
This was the case of the concept of a comet or asteroid, which “in Western logic is different” and was finally identified in the work as “mbaerendɨ”.
For the sociologist, the initiative is very relevant, since “it contributes to the linguistic and cultural revitalization of the native languages in Bolivia” and the Guaraní version in particular will allow its people to say that in their language “you can also read or tell these universal stories.”
Machicado maintained that these books will be important tools in the teaching and learning processes of native languages. After the launch of this collection, the publisher analyzes what the next work will be to continue with the project, since various authors and embassies have contacted them to suggest some titles.
The initiative is framed in the International Decade of Indigenous Languages proclaimed by the United Nations for the period 2022-2032 to prevent the disappearance of thousands of these languages.
