Speaking of things I didn’t plan to do! After I got the English version of Dracula’s May 3rd entry, I was a bit…disappointed? I had really enjoyed the writing for Dracula’s Guest and even the Spanish version of May 3rd, but the English one felt…stale. I felt like I wasn’t getting the same feelings (compared to the Spanish one, and this is rare!) and I often wondered isn’t this written wrong?
Which is why I tried to get a copy of the novel, but I failed! Though I did find other classics at the library so maybe I’ll read something else alongside this :)
Anyway, let’s start the commentary
(blue is in English, italics is in Spanish)
(Kept in shorthand.)
3 May. Bistritz — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.
This was the first time I felt like something was off. I think it was the “but train was an hour late”. It doesn’t flow as naturally in my head and I know it’s only a matter of a word, but still…
In its defense, it does make it seem more like a diary entry (though I don’t especially cut out words in my own, I just shorten them, haha)
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty.
Nos marchamos con brevedad, y llegamos pasado el anochecer a Cluj-Napoca. Aquí hice noche en el Hotel Royal. Para cenar, o, mejor dicho, como refrigerio nocturno, un pollo cocinado con pimienta roja de alguna forma que me era desconocida, que estaba muy bueno, aunque algo reseco.
I didn’t realize this until after I read the English one, but the names are different in both versions! It’s not Klausenburgh, it’s Cluj-Napoca in the Spanish one. I’m not really sure why. Is it actually Cluj-Napoca and Klausenburgh the English-ified version?
*checks online*
Ok, I was wrong. “Klausenburgh” is the german way to say Cluj-Napoca
Also, I think it’s interesting that in the English version it says “or rather supper” while the Spanish one says “refrigerio nocturno”, which, yes, I had to look up but I assumed it was a late night snack and yeah, it did mean that. IDK, supper always sounds like a meal where you sit down and everything, but snack is something you eat quickly and maybe sneak in when you shouldn’t LOL
NGL, the “but thirsty” is throwing me off. In the Spanish version it says “aunque algo reseco” and that doesn’t mean thirsty. It means the chicken was dry. I’m confused…this is why I wanted to see the physical book, haha
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it;
I know that the meaning of words changes with time but watch me zero in on the use of QUEER dreams, LOL. The spanish one uses “toda clase de sueños extraños”, which is pretty much the same as queer and i didn’t comment on it then, but yes, i am curious what those strange dreams were about. pls tell me :)
and yes, i’m screaming about the dog!! like i mentiond in the spanish version post, I read Dracula’s Guest (supposed prologue/the chapter that didn’t make it into the official novel) and in that short story, Jonathan is saved by a giant “dog” (wolf) who i suspect was dracula
and now we have a dog serenading him, LOL. is this the beginning of a bestiality BL (LOL)
It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?
Interesting how the times have changed!! Well, in Japan they’d never be late, can’t vouch for other Asian countries tho xD
The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist.
You were cute too, but then you opened your mouth
The first entry was pretty short, but we learn a few things:
the MC is Jonathan and he’s traveling toward Castle Dracula
someone named Mina is in his life (wife? sister? idk but having a woman never stopped any man from adultery and this time i even endorse it - but only if it’s with dracula, LOL)
i was really confused as to his route around Europe to get to Dracula’s place, especially since every time i looked up a name that was mentioned, google would say it’s in Ukraine (and these 5 other countries). which, ok, the rockies are too, right? (multiple states) but that didn’t help my geologically inept self
without meaning to, i found this! it’s in a doc a teacher made for their class who is reading dracula (they also explain a few other things). if you want to see the doc type “clumsy about the waist” into the search bar, i’m sure the link will come up
one of the things that it explained is the “clumsy hips”, which i didn’t understand. i thought it meant they swayed their hips a lot, but according to the doc: What Harker means here is that women in Eastern Europe do not practice wearing corsets, as Victorian women in England at the time did, which mutilated their abdomens to create tiny waists. but who knows, maybe i wasn’t too far off the mark. can you still sway your hips without a corset? especially after prolonged use?
bro has a lot to say about people
he’s interested in cooking (or at least in gathering recipes since he memos that twice). he also has an interest in old architecture
I’m still curious about Jonathan’s station. IDK what the rankings are but he’s clearly a well-to-do guy. He calls others peasants, went to the Museum library to do some research, and he’s even on a long-term trip (I don’t know how viable that would be for a working man). How did he meet Dracula? Why did Dracula invite him? And why is Dracula so accommodating? hehe
Also, why is he stalking the guy (right?! that’s totally him, I can’t be convinced otherwise, LOL)