La ermoza istorya de Robinzon o la mizerya: Sephardi Versions of Robinson Crusoe

In the second half of the 19th century the Haskalah, an intellectual movement whose objective was to educate and westernize Eastern European Jews, also reached the Sephardic communities in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, there emerged Sephardic modern secular literature, represented mainly by narrative ction, theatre plays and press. It should be added that modern Sephardic literature is primarily based on translations or adaptations of Western novels. Among these texts we nd Sephardic editions of classics of European literature, such as Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swi. I have found four dierent versions of Robinson Crusoe that were written in Judeo-Spanish and edited in aljamía. Two of them were published serially in Sephardi press, one in Salonica in 1881 and the other in Constantinople in 1900. e other two editions were prepared by Ben Tsiyon Taragan and published as complete versions, the rst one in Jerusalem in 1897 and the second one in

I n the second half of the 19th century the Haskalah, an intellectual movement whose objective was to educate and westernize Eastern European Jews, also reached the Sephardic communities in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, there emerged Sephardic modern secular literature, represented mainly by narrative fiction, theatre plays and press. It is worth noting that the novel became the preferred genre for Sephardic writers (Borovaya, 2012, p. 23;Díaz-Mas, 2006, p. 196;Romero, 1992, p. 177). Furthermore, newspapers was instrumental in the diffusion of modern Judeo-Spanish literature because lots of novels and theatre plays were serialized in journals or appeared as chapbooks (Borovaya, 2012, p. 24;Díaz-Mas, 2006, p. 196;Romero, 1992, p. 179).
Modern Sephardic literature is primarily based on translations or adaptations of Western novels. The translations were ordinarily published in instalments in newspapers (usually distributed by subscription) or as chapbooks without indication of the source version and its author (Borovaya, 2003, p. 152). Both kinds of editions were quite cheap and widely available. The texts were often abridged to some 20 pages and appeared with the indication trezladado (translated), rezumido (summarized), imitado, adaptado (arranged) or reeskrito (rewritten), the terms being used synonymously (Borovaya, 2003, p. 32;Díaz-Mas, 2006, pp. 198-199). Moreover, the translation and publication of translated works aims, on the one hand, to create a Judeo-Spanish version of the style that corresponded to literary or cultured language in its written form; on the other hand, in this way Sephardic authors intended to educate and civilize their readers while entertaining them (Borovaya, 2003, p. 32;Linde-Usiekniewicz & Kacprzak, 2016, p. 44 (Borovaya, 2012 p. 148;Díaz-Mas, 2006, p. 199;Romero, 1992, pp. 247-248 (Costantinople 1924;Taragan, 1924), Sephardic versions of Robinson Crusoe by Defoe (Romero, 1992(Romero, , pp. 68, 231, 246, 247, 2012. e discrepancies mainly concern morphology and orthography. is paper aims to provide a brief analysis of the second edition entitled La ermoza istorya de Robinzon o la mizerya. It consists of 150 pages and is a bit longer than the rst edition, Robinzon o la mizerya, with 124 pages. Apart from that, the content of both is the same and the versions seem to be quite faithful to the original text by Defoe. e syntax, however, indicates that Taragan's translations were not based on the original but probably on a Hebrew version. I have not found out yet which version it actually was. Nevertheless, in Romero (1992, p. 247) we can read that Taragan's translation of Robinson Crusoe was based on a Hebrew version which was rst published in Vilnius in 1862.
It is worth mentioning that at the end of La ermoza istorya de Robinzon o la mizerya, in addition to the story about Robinson Crusoe, there are three short texts of a moralistic, educational nature. e rst one, entitled Komportamyento del padre i la madre kon sus kriaturikas, is a set of advice, probably from the author, for parents on how to educate their children so that they become good people. e second one is a moral tale entitled Las tres demandas de Frederiko El Grande. e last text, Konsejos a los mansevos, is a compilation of advice written in verse, primarily aimed at young girls.
With regard to the content, Taragan's translations of Robinson Crusoe, as mentioned above, seem to be fairly faithful to Defoe's original text; however, Taragan cut the plot a bit and removed all references to Jesus. We can see that the author Judaized the text, because his Robinson celebrates Shabbat and holidays. As we read in the third chapter: I looked for a tree and I started to scratch into it: 'On 30 September 1659 Robinson landed on the island'. And below, every a ernoon day by day I scratched the name of the day of the week and the day of Shabbat and the day of the rst day of the month in large letters. In this way I could know the count of the days in order and I was resting on the same day that people in populated places rested and I was celebrating Passover along with them during their Passover holidays. (Taragan, 1924, pp. 46-47) 2 2 "Bushkí un árvol i enpesí a_kavakar sovre él: «En 30 septembre 1659, entró Robinzon en la dita izla». I abasho kavakava kada tadre día por día, nombre del día de_la semana i el día de shabat i el día del primo de mez kon letras grandes. En esta regla podía saver la kuenta de los días en regla i olgava en el día ke olgan en él la djente povlada i paskuava djunto kon eyos en sus paskuas. " All translations from Judeo-Spanish into English are by the author of this paper. In the transliteration from Hebrew Rashi to Latin letters I follow the modi ed system of the magazine "Aki Yerushalayim" putting written accents (tildes) according to the rules of accentuation in Spanish.

COLLOQUIA HUMANISTICA
As we can see, Taragan keeps the dates based on the Julian calendar. Furthermore, in his versions of Robinson Crusoe we can also observe some Christian elements, for example when Robinson is sick and gets on his knees to pray: Yesterday's thoughts passed through my mind and also the fears of death and the torrential waves, also the great mercies that the High God granted me appeared before my eyes, I got down on my knees and I praised God the Saviour of my soul! (Taragan, 1924, p. 29) 3 I knelt on my knees and made my prayers to God. (Taragan, 1924, p. 52) 4 roughout the text, Robinson gets down on his knees six times, to pray or to thank or praise God.
Another thing that stands out when reading Taragan's adaptations of Robinson Crusoe is the use of Hebraisms, for example the cardinal points always appear in Hebrew. …but he decided not to go shing in the sea; unless it is clear in the part of tsafón (north) and without taking food. (Taragan, 1924, p. 19) 5 I tried to turn my ship back to the part of tsafón (north) that is towards the island. (Taragan, 1924, p. 61) 6 Another very interesting issue is the moment when Robinson, having recovered, is exploring the island to nd a suitable place to build a house: …it seemed to me that I was in paradise (Gan Eden). (Taragan, 1924, p. 53) 7 It seemed to me that I was adam harishón who was in paradise before he had a woman. (Taragan, 1924, p. 55) 8 As we can see, the Hebraisms also serve as glosses; 9 Taragan introduces the word paradizo and in parentheses writes Gan Eden, meaning "the Garden of Eden" in Hebrew. In the same way, he introduces the word lapa 3 "Me pasaron por tino todos mis pensamyentos de ayer, tambyén los myedos de muerte i las olas aravdonantes, tambyén los grandes mersedes ke el Dyo Alto izo kon mí, se aparavan kuentra mi ojos me echí sovre mis rodías i alaví al Dyo Eskapador de mi alma!" 4 "Me arodií sovre mis rodías i ize mi orasyón al Dyo. " 5 "(…) ma él aresivyó sovre él de no abashar más en mar por peshkar, sin ke de la parte de tsafón este byen klaro, i sin tomar kon eyos vianda. " 6 "Apreví de aboltar mi navío para la parte de tsafón ke es para la izla. " 7 "(…) me paresía ke me topo en el paradizo (Gan Eden)." 8 "Me paresía komo adam harishón ke estava en el paradizo antes ke tuviera mujer. " In Hebrew adam harishón means "the rst man. " 9 To translate the glosses I used the following dictionaries: A lexicon of the Hebrew and Aramaic elements in modern Judezmo by David M. Bunis (1993), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol by Joseph Nehama (1977) and New Redhouse Turkish-English dictionary by James William Redhouse (1968).
HUMANISTICA that derives from Portuguese and means "cave"; Taragan glosses it with the Hebrew word meara. It should be added that explanatory glosses were a typical feature that Judeo-Spanish authors used to introduce new concepts which were related to the non-Sephardic world, or to replace words that derived from non-Romance languages with contributions from Romance languages (like French, Spanish or Portuguese) (Bunis 2011, p. 27;García Moreno, 2010, p. 80;Subasi, 2016, p. 456).
There are actually more glosses in the text, for example in the fourth chapter when Taragan refers to the Bible, he uses the Hebrew acronym referring to the Hebrew Bible, Tanah. Nevertheless, in the text we can also find glosses in Turkish, for example in the second chapter we read that "Kesori topo una lyevre (taushán) i la kasó por muestra komida" (Taragan, 1924, p. 21) ("Kesori found a hare and hunted it for our food"); Taragán uses the word lyevre taken from the Spanish and in parentheses he glosses it as taushán, which derives from Turkish.
The influence of Hebrew on the vocabulary of Taragan's Robinson Crusoe deserves special mention. Below are some examples to appreciate expressions that derive from Hebrew, for instance: "topó grasya en sus ojos" (Taragan, 1924, p. 23) ("He found grace in his eyes") is a tracing of the Hebrew expression matsa ḥen be-einav ‫בעיניו(‬ ‫חן‬ ‫)מצא‬ which means "he liked it". We can find another case in the phrase "ke no se vyeron de tyempo", where de tyempo is a tracing of the Hebrew expression mizman ‫,)מזמן(‬ "for a long time". Another example worth mentioning is the phrase "i lo mirava komo demandándole por su pas" (Taragan, 1924, p. 110) ("And he was looking at him as if asking about his peace"), which is equivalent to the Hebrew expression lishol ma shlomo ‫שלומו(‬ ‫מה‬ ‫,)לשאול‬ meaning "ask/asking how he is".
On the other hand, the influence of Hebrew is also discernible in the syntax of Taragan's versions of Robinson Crusoe; this mostly concerns nominal phrases, such as "Si me alegraré ke djente de mi puevlo eyos!" (Taragan, 1924, p. 114) ("If I will be glad that they are people of my nation!") or "Uno de eyos ke paresía ser el más grande respondyó por nombrado de todos: mozotros todos esklavos" (Taragan, 1924, p. 127) ("One of them that seemed to be the greatest answered on behalf of all: we all slave"). In these phrases the syntax seems Hebrew, from a nominal phrase, because the verb to be has been suppressed. Moreover, throughout the text we can observe a lot of long and compound phrases that also closely resemble the style of writing in Hebrew.
In summary, the aforementioned abundant Hebraisms and syntactic elements, such as nominal phrases and numerous traces of Hebrew expressions, confirm that Taragan's Sephardic adaptations of Robinson Crusoe were based on a Hebrew version of the story.
With regard to the vocabulary, we can observe glosses of the words used in parentheses. It was a typical feature of Judeo-Spanish literature for introducing new concepts which were related to the non-Sephardic world, or replacing words that derived from non-Romance languages with contributions from Romance languages. Taragan's translations of Robinson Crusoe show a considerable in uence of Portuguese, Turkish, and especially of Hebrew.
As far as the literary content is concerned, both of Taragan's adaptations seem to be quite faithful to Defoe's original text. However, it is notable that the author Judaized the texts, as his Robinson celebrates Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and all references to Jesus have been removed. We can also notice the educational value of the narrative and interpret the moral of the story as a warning against travelling away from one's home and the consequences of disobedience and opposing one's parents' will. (2) (Constantinople, 1924;Taragan, 1924, p. 3)