Wednesday, February 23, 2011

God Save Catalonia, English Translation Now Posted

 We Have Been Waiting Since Last Fall For An English Version


In September and again in January there has been some discussion especially through the Desperta Ferro blog (please see blogroll, bottom right sidebar) about a book released last fall in Barcelona about the part of the War of the Spanish Succession that took place in Spain.

It would be best to read the entry on Desperta Ferro from September 8, 2010 for a preview of the book's contents. The post in January also has further details. A comment back in September suggested they were then talking about a free PDF when the English would be released, but now it looks like 20, 20 and 19 Euros for the three books available there on the WSS which is far from free and even quite prohibitive, actually. So far they were showing 32 views and 1 subscription. For free we can read articles in the wikipedia on these topics, but with less info.

There will be some mention made there that within the Catalonian view of the war heretofore their emphasis has been so much on what they call the English Betrayal, which left them in some very hot water, that they have tended to gloss over the decade-long English-British commitment before the betrayal. Now this book by Xavier Rubio, or Hernandez, or ...(there are a few versions of his name given) has a good deal of information about the English war effort which has not been available to us, and there is some interest in that.

There was then some discussion about a team of English translators working on an English version, as of September 10, with an unknown future date of completion.

The English Version is Now Posted, But

The English version is now posted online, but unfortunately I can not figure out how the download works. Some of the instructions are in Catalan, some in English, and in any event they were not working for me in Firefox, but may work better for someone else.

The publisher's page links to what looks like a you-publish-on-demand site, and there is a 'Preu,' probably 'Price,' of 20 Euro mentioned, without being clear as to what the 20 Euros are for exactly, while other instructions look like they mean it can be viewed online. I was able to get the full-screen option to work for a few minutes, but many other attempts failed to work. Anyway I might only have a few odd Euros lying around the house; I thought I spent them at the duty-free shop in Amsterdam.


Here is the publishers' page   http://llibresdematricula.cat/colleccions.asp?2/0/0/Camp_de_Mart

I was able to see some very tantalizing bits beyond the table of contents including charts of the financial cost broken down by eastern and western fronts, and some other things.

Lluis at Desperta Ferro has not yet updated, but I hope that together we can find a way. I am no expert and may have missed a few simple steps, such as "Subscribe,' or 'Pay Mucho Money' or who knows what.

I hope to hear from someone who can get this straightened out, at least for my sake. It has only been up a couple days.
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EDIT: Down in the Comments section Patti D gives a more direct link for viewing online: download doesn't seem to work. Adam from Lancashire said the same thing, but in a different voice.

English translation, God Save Catalonia, Xavier Rubio

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7 comments:

  1. Well I'm afraid I'm gonna be no help. I've taken a look and like you can't make head nor tail of any free download. I'll take a look when I get home, the PC's at work have a lot of restictions, limiting access to various sites.

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  2. Where I found that was by a different angle, I went to the blog at llibresdematricula.blogspot.com and was able to briefly once in twenty attempts get the thing to open enough to read. It was more like it wasn't working right, than blocked. On the .cat site you can select the British flag option for English.

    Also read what Lluis said in January carefully, for what those without beaucoup Euros can do. The topic in interesting.

    It is a big help to report your progress, either way. Thanks for the report.

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  3. Hi Mekelnborg

    I've had a good try to download it myself now and I think you just can't. Basically, the person who uploads the document decides what buttons you can use underneath. The person who uploaded the book hasn't put a download button underneath. For example this unrelated magazine has a download button (a box with an arrow next to the 'search this publication' box):

    http://issuu.com/comic-con/docs/ccmag_2010summer

    Like you I can read the full version online, I just can't download it. The direct link to it is:

    http://issuu.com/llibresdematricula/docs/god_save_catalonia_english_version_llibres_de_matr

    Is that what you went on to view it fullscreen? It seems to work for me, I just clicked on the picture of the front cover.

    Take care
    Adam

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  4. Just had a bit of a flick through it then. It looks very well presented.

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  5. Well, you can read it online here http://issuu.com/llibresdematricula/docs/god_save_catalonia_english_version_llibres_de_matr
    It doesn't seem to be available for download.

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  6. Thanks Patti D, I'll count that as our version of definitive enough, since I think you have the techie skills I'm not too sure about. If there was a way you'd have found it.

    I'll add your link to the bottom of the post as an edit so it works for other people and save them a couple steps of digging.

    This is info that has never been available in English before; that's the value of it. We are at the cutting edge, sort of. The Catalans are in the eastern part of Spain, around Barcelona and Valencia.

    This war in the early 1700s had them opposed to the new Bourbon regime at Madrid, replacing the older Hapsburg line before all this happened. At the same time Blackbeard and other pirates were trying to siphon off Spanish gold at the Caribbean.

    However I'd like to reiterate, on the January Desperta Ferro post Lluis shows where else to get good info on the subject besides the book, so for those searching for info it's worth looking into that, too.

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