PRODUCTIVE CRITICISM OF TWO VERSIONS IN SPANISH OF ROBERT LOWELL’S “THE HOLY INNOCENTS”

Abstract This work aims to offer a productive criticism, following the French theorist Antoine Berman, of the translations of the poem “The Holy Innocents” by Robert Lowell into Spanish. Robert Lowell is not only one of the most important poets of the second half of the twentieth century, but has also been rendered into Spanish on several occasions. The two versions were made by translators who were also poets and academics. The comparison between translations was made following the system of analytical translation by Berman. When carrying out the criticism, the hermeneutical analysis of the poem, the position of the translators and the translation project were taken into account —also according to Berman— in order to appreciate the different subjective readings that are presented in each translation.