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Acquisitions (55): Salvador Peña Martín



Salvador Peña Martín: Mil y una noches (2016)

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Salvador Peña Martín (1958- )


Salvador Peña Martín: Mil y una noches (4 vols, 2016)
[Amazon.com - ordered: May 30 / received: June 8, 2021]:

Salvador Peña Martín, trans. Mil y una noches. 4 vols. 2016. Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2018.
  • Tomo I (Noches 1-145)
  • Tomo II (Noches 146-482)
  • Tomo III (Noches 483-778)
  • Tomo IV (Noches 779-1001)



A Thousand and One Recaps: Jorge Luis Borges (2020)

Versions of the 1001 Nights

The Thousand and One Nights has not died. The infinite time of the thousand and one nights continues its course. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the book was translated ... The Nights will have other translators, and each translator will create another version of the book. We may almost speak of the many books titled The Thousand and One Nights: two in French, by Galland and Mardrus; three in English, by Burton, Lane and Paine [sic.]; three in German, by Henning, Littmann and Weil; one in Spanish, by Cansinos-Asséns. Each of these books is different, because the Thousand and One Nights keeps growing or recreating itself.
- Jorge Luis Borges. Seven Nights. 1980.
Trans. Eliot Weinberger. 1984 (London: Faber, 1986): 56.


Rafael Cansinos Asséns: Libro de las mil y una noches (1961)
Libro de las mil y una noches, por primera vez puestas en castellano del árabe original. Prologadas, anotadas y cotejadas con las principales versiones en otras lenguas y en la vernácula por Rafael Cansinos Asséns. 1st ed. 3 vols. Mexico: Aguilar, 1954-55.

You'll note that in his comments above, Borges distinguishes the following separate 'books' with this same title, The Thousand and One Nights. I've arranged his choices chronologically for easier reference:

  1. Antoine Galland (1646-1715) – [12 vols: 1704-1717] (French)
    Galland, Antoine, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes traduits par Galland. 1704-17. Ed. Gaston Picard. 2 vols. 1960. Paris: Garnier, 1975.


    2. Antoine Galland: Les Mille et Une Nuits (1960)


  2. Gustav Weil (1808-1889) – [4 vols: 1837-41] (German)
    Weil, Gustav, trans. Tausendundeine Nacht. 1837-41. Ed. Inge Dreecken. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: R. Löwit, n.d. [c. 1960s]


  3. Edward William Lane (1801-1876) – [3 vols: 1839-40] (English)
    Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights, Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. A New Translation from the Arabic, with Copious Notes. 3 vols. London: Charles Knight, 1839-41.


    4. E. W. Lane: The Thousand and One Nights (1839-41)


  4. John Payne (1842-1916) – [13 vols: 1882-89] (English)
    Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. 1882-1884. Publisher's Note by Steven Moore. 3 vols. Ann Arbor, MI: Borders Classics, 2007.


  5. Richard F. Burton (1821-1890) – [16 vols: 1885-88] (English)
    Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 10 vols. U.S.A.: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1940s].

    Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 1886-88. 6 vols. U.S.A..: The Burton Club, n.d. [c. 1940s].


  6. Max Henning (1861-1927) – [24 vols: 1895-97] (German)
    Henning, Max, trans. Tausend und eine Nacht. 1895-97. Ed. Hans W. Fischer. Berlin & Darmstadt: Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 1957.


    7. Max Henning: Tausend und eine Nacht (1957)


  7. Dr. J. C. Mardrus (1868–1949) – [16 vols: 1899-1904] (French)
    Mardrus, Dr. J. C., trans. Le Livre des Mille et une Nuits. 1899-1904. Ed. Marc Fumaroli. 2 vols. Paris: Laffont, 1989.


    8. Dr. J. C. Mardrus: Le Livre des Mille et une Nuits (1989)


  8. Enno Littmann (1875-1958) – [6 vols: 1921-28] (German)
    Littmann, Enno, trans. Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Vollständige deutsche Ausgabe in zwölf Teilbänden zum ersten mal nach dem arabischen Urtext der Calcuttaer Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1839 übertragen von Enno Littmann. 1921-28. 2nd ed. 1953. 6 vols in 12. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1976.



  9. Rafael Cansinos-Asséns (1882-1964) – [3 vols: 1954-55] (Spanish)
    Libro de las mil y una noches, por primera vez puestas en castellano del árabe original. Prologadas, anotadas y cotejadas con las principales versiones en otras lenguas y en la vernácula por Rafael Cansinos Asséns. 3 vols. 1954-55. Mexico: Aguilar, 1990.


    10. Rafael Cansinos Asséns: Libro de las mil y una noches (3 vols: 1990)


One could object to some of the omissions in this list. It's perhaps understandable that Borges leaves out Salier's pre-war Russian translation, but he should probably have included Francesco Gabrieli's excellent post-war Italian one. There are, too, some interesting specimens among the post-Galland, pre-Bulaq translations - Chavis & Cazotte in French, Habicht in German, and Lamb in English - unreliable textually though most of these may be.

  1. Denis Chavis & Jacques Cazotte (fl. 1780s / 1719-1792) – [4 vols: 1788-89] (French)
    Chavis, Dom, and M. Cazotte, trans. La Suite des Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes. Cabinet des Fées 38-41. 4 vols. Geneva: Barde & Manget, 1788-89.


    2. Chavis & Cazotte: Continuation des Mille et Une Nuits (vol. 2: 1788)


  2. Maximilian Habicht et al. (1775-1839) – [15 vols: 1824-25] (German)
    Habicht, Max., Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall, trans. Tausend und Eine Nacht, Arabische Erzählungen. 1824-25. Ed. Karl Martin Schiller. 12 vols. Leipzig: F. W. Hendel, 1926.


  3. Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856) – [3 vols: 1826] (French / German / English)
    Lamb, George, trans. New Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Selected from the Original Oriental Ms. by J. Von Hammer, and Now First Translated into English. 1826. 3 vols in 1. Milton Keynes, UK: Palala Press, 2015.


    4. J. von Hammer: New Arabian Nights' Entertainments, trans. George Lamb (1826)


  4. Mikhail Alexandrovich Salye (1899-1961) – [8 vols: 1929-36] (Russian)
    Salye, M. A., trans. Тысяча и Одна Ночь. 1929-36. 6 vols. Санкт-Петербург: «Кристалл», 2000.


  5. Francesco Gabrieli (1904-1996) – [4 vols: 1948] (Italian)
    Gabrieli, Francesco, ed. Le mille e una notte: Prima versione integrale dall’arabo. Trans. Francesco Gabrieli, Antonio Cesaro, Constantino Pansera, Umberto Rizzitano and Virginia Vacca. 1948. Gli struzzi 35. 4 vols. Torino: Einaudi, 1972.


    6. Francesco Gabrieli: Le mille e una notte (vol. 2: 1980)


By and large, though, his selection is (not unexpectedly, considering its author) a very judicious one. The nine versions he names - two French, three English, three German, and one Spanish - are certainly are the most substantive and memorable ones.

Mind you, since 1980, when Borges wrote his essay, the field has not precisely stood still. There are at least four important new versions to add to his list: two English, by Haddawy and Lyons; one French, by Bencheikh & Miquel, and (now) another one in Spanish, by Peña Martín:

  1. Husain Haddawy (?) – [2 vols: 1990-95] (English)
    Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights: Based on the Text of the Fourteenth-Century Syrian Manuscript edited by Muhsin Mahdi. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990.

    Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights II: Sindbad and Other Popular Stories. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995.




    2. Husain Haddawy: The Arabian Nights & The Arabian Nights II (1990 & 1995)


  2. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel (1930-2005 / 1929- ) – [3 vols: 2005-7] (French)
    Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard, 2005-7.


    3. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel: Les Mille et Une Nuits (2005-7)


  3. Malcolm Lyons (1929-2019) – [3 vols: 2008] (English)
    Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. Penguin Classics Hardback. London: Penguin, 2008.


    4. Malcolm & Ursula Lyons: The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights (2008)


  4. Salvador Peña Martín (1958- ) – [4 vols: 2016] (Spanish)
    Salvador Peña Martín, trans. Mil y una noches. 4 vols. 2016. Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2018.


    5. Salvador Peña Martín: Mil y una noches (2016)



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Rafael Cansinos Asséns: Libro de las mil y una noches (1st edition: 1954-55)

Las mil y una noches en español

Now, happily, we have a Spanish version by my teacher Rafael Cansinos-Asséns. The book has been published in Mexico; it is perhaps the best of all the versions, and it is accompanied by notes.
- Jorge Luis Borges. Seven Nights. 1980.
Trans. Eliot Weinberger. 1984 (London: Faber, 1986): 55.


Would that the story were as simple as that! In fact the history of The Thousand and One Nights in Spanish is long and vexed, as Borges revealed in a fascinating interview with two Venezuelan journalists in 1964:
“Tuve el honor de pertenecer al cenáculo de Rafael Cansinos Asséns, en el café Colonial, en Madrid. Cansinos Asséns ha muerto hace poco y era un hombre que parecía haber leído todos los libros, en todas las lenguas. Además, fue un gran poeta; un poeta en forma sálmica o en prosa, pero sin duda un gran poeta, y ahora ha sido olvidado con injusticia ... No sé porqué, posiblemente por la misma generosidad de Cansinos. El hecho de que dedicó buena parte de su vida a alabar a escritores muy inferiores a él (si yo les digo que ha dedicado libros a Concha Espina, que ha elogiado con exceso - me parece a mí - a Gabriel Miró, harto inferior a él en el mismo tipo de prosa musical y pictórica), todo esto, creo, debilitó el juicio que otros tuvieron de él. Pero esto ocurrió porque Cansinos era un gran poeta: de igual manera que para un gran poeta una puesta de sol, o una rosa, o una calle, o el rostro de una mujer entrevisto, puede ser el punto de partida para un poema, así ocurría para Cansinos con la lectura de un libro mediocre, pues no escribía sobre el libro mismo sino sobre lo que el libro hubiera podido ser. Esa sería una de las razones para el olvido en que ha caído Cansinos Asséns y que yo, personalmente, he hecho lo posible por corregir. Otra cosa: Cansinos publicó la primera traducción española de "LAS MIL Y UNA NOCHES". Resulta un escándalo que en España, el país de Europa que está más vinculado al Islam, ya que los árabes vivieron durante tantos siglos ahí, no hubiera otra cosa sino traducciones del libro de "LAS MIL Y UNA NOCHES", hechas de segunda mano (es decir, versiones del inglés y del francés). O sea que Cansinos, por increíble que parezca, fue el primer escritor español que en el siglo XX publicó una traducción directa de este libro, que no pudo publicarse en España, porque el Estado juzgó que no convenía publicar libros islámicos, además no siempre decorosos. Por eso la Editorial Aguilar tuvo que publicar esa versión en México porque en España eso era y es imposible.”
- Alejandra Pizarnik e Ivonne Bordelois. "Entrevista a Jorge Luis Borges." Zona Franca 2 (Caracas 1964)


[I had the honor of belonging to the circle of Rafael Cansinos Asséns, in the Colonial Café, in Madrid. Cansinos Asséns has recently died. He was a man who seemed to have read all the books, in all the languages [perhaps an allusion to Mallarmé's "La chair est triste, hélas ! et j'ai lu tous les livres" {The flesh is sad, alas! and I've read all the books}? - Ed.]. In addition, he was a great poet; a poet in psalmic or prose form, but undoubtedly a great poet, and now he has been unjustly forgotten ... I don't know why, possibly because of Cansinos' own great generosity. The fact that he devoted a good part of his life to praising writers far inferior to him (if I tell you that he dedicated books to Concha Espina; who praised excessively - or so it seems to me - Gabriel Miró, far inferior to him in the same kind of musical and pictorial prose poetry), all this, I believe, undermined the judgments others made of him. But this happened because Cansinos was a great poet: in the same way that for a great poet a sunset, or a rose, or a street, or the sight of a woman's face, can be the starting point for a poem, so it was for Cansinos with the reading of a mediocre book, because he did not write about the book itself but about what the book could have been. That would be one of the reasons for the oblivion in which Cansinos Asséns has fallen and which I, personally, have done everything possible to correct. Another thing: Cansinos published the first Spanish translation of The Thousand and One Nights. It is a scandal that in Spain, the country in Europe that is most closely linked to Islam, since the Arabs lived there for so many centuries, there was nothing but translations of the book The Thousand and One Nights made at second-hand (that is, from English and French versions). In other words, Cansinos, as incredible as it may seem, was the first Spanish writer to publish a direct translation of this book in the 20th century. And yet it could not be published in Spain, because the State judged that it was not acceptable to publish Islamic books, which were not always decorous. That is why Editorial Aguilar had to publish his version in Mexico, because in Spain that was and is impossible.]


Rafael Cansinos Asséns: Libro de las mil y una noches (3 vols: 1989)


It's important to remember that the Franco dictatorship was still in power in Spain until 1975, so there was no question of freedom of speech there at that time, in the fifties and sixties.

In the Wikipedia article devoted to "Translations of One Thousand and One Nights," the following versions are listed:
Older Spanish translations were made particularly by Pedro Pedraza (from Galland), Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (from Mardrus), and Eugenio Sanz del Valle, Alfredo Domínguez, & Luis Aguirre Prado (from Mardrus). More accurate translations were made by the Arabists Juan Vernet and Rafael Cansinos Asséns.
I do own copies of the first and the last of these, but the others I have yet to uncover:
  1. Antoine Galland. Las Mil y Una Noches: Cuentos orientales. Trans. Pedro Pedraza y Páez. Biblioteca Hispania. Barcelona: Editorial Ramón Sopena, 1934.


    2. Antoine Galland: Las mil y una noches (1934)

  2. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. El libro de las mil noches y una noche, traducción desde la versión francesa de J. C. Mardrus. 1889. 6 vols. Valencia: Editorial Prometeo, 1916.


    3. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez: El libro de las mil noches y una noche (1967)

  3. Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Las Mil y Una Noches. Trans. Eugenio Sanz del Valle, Alfredo Domínguez, & Luis Aguirre Prado. Ilustraciones J. Narro. 2 vols. Madrid: Nauta, 1967.


    4. Eugenio Sanz del Valle, Alfredo Domínguez, & Luis Aguirre Prado: Las mil y una noches (1967)

  4. Juan Vernet. Las mil y una noches. Traducción, introducción y notas del Dr. Juan Vernet. 3 vols. Clásicos Planeta. Barcelona, Editorial Planeta, 1964-67.


    5. Juan Vernet: Las mil y una noches (3 vols: 1968)

  5. Rafael Cansinos Asséns. Libro de las mil y una noches, por primera vez puestas en castellano del árabe original. Prologadas, anotadas y cotejadas con las principales versiones en otras lenguas y en la vernácula por Rafael Cansinos Asséns. 1st ed. 3 vols. Mexico: Aguilar, 1954-55.


    6. Rafael Cansinos Asséns: Libro de las mil y una noches (1961)


By contrast, the Spanish version of Wikipedia is considerably more circumstantial in the translations it lists:



    Traducción de la edición expurgada:

  • A partir de la edición francesa de Khawam (1986-1987), Gregorio Cantera tradujo la obra en la editorial Edhasa.

    • Traducciones directas del árabe de ediciones canónicas:

  • Edición de Rafael Cansinos Asséns, publicada por M. Aguilar en México (1955), que es la primera versión directa, literal e íntegra al castellano y que Jorge Luis Borges consideraba «la mejor», calificándola como la más «delicada y rigurosa versión del libro famoso». Se basa en Bulaq y Calcuta II.
  • Edición de Juan Vernet, considerada la más aceptable filológicamente, publicada por Planeta (1964). Se basa en Bulaq y Calcuta II.
  • Edición de los arabistas de la Universidad de Barcelona Juan Antonio Gutiérrez-Larraya y Leonor Martínez, publicada por Argos Vergara (1965) y reeditada por Ediciones Atalanta (2014). Se basa únicamente en Bulaq.
  • Edición de Salvador Peña Martín, publicada por Editorial Verbum (2016). Se basa en Bulaq y se complementa con Calcuta II.

    • Traducciones de ediciones no canónicas (modificadas):

  • A partir de la edición francesa de J. C. Mardrus (1889), Vicente Blasco Ibáñez tradujo y editó la obra en la valenciana Editorial Prometeo (6 volúmenes).
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    [Translation from the expurgated [= eclectic?] edition:

  • Gregorio Cantera translated the work for the publisher Edhasa from the French edition of [René] Khawam (1986-87).

    • Translations directly from the Arabic of the [two] canonical editions [Bulaq (2 vols: 1835) and Calcutta II - or Macnaghten - (4 vols: 1839-42)]:

  • Rafael Cansinos Asséns' edition, published by M. Aguilar in México ([1954-]1955), which is the first direct, literal and complete version in Spanish, and which Jorge Luis Borges considered "the best", qualifying it as the most "delicate and rigorous version of the famous book." It is based on Bulaq and Calcutta II.
  • Juan Vernet's edition, considered the most acceptable linguistically, published by Planeta (1964). It is based on Bulaq and Calcutta II.
  • The edition of the two University of Barcelona Arabists Juan Antonio Gutiérrez-Larraya and Leonor Martínez, published by Argos Vergara (1965) and reissued by Ediciones Atalanta (2014). It is based solely on Bulaq.
  • Salvador Peña Martín's edition, published by Editorial Verbum (2016). It is based on Bulaq complemented by readings from Calcutta II.

    • Translations from non-canonical (modified) editions:

  • Vicente Blasco Ibáñez translated and edited the work from the French edition of J. C. Mardrus (1889) in 6 volumes for the Valencian publisher Editorial Prometeo.]


This adds two further editions to our reckoning. First of all there is Gregorio Cantera's translation of René Khawam's very eclectic and inaccurate French text.



    René Khawam: Les Mille et une nuits (2001)

    René R. Khawam (1917-2004) – [4 vols: 1965-67 / 1985-88] (French)
    • Les Mille et une nuits. Traduction Nouvelle et Complète faite sur les Manuscrits par René R. Khawam. 4 Vols. Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 1965-67.

    • Khawam, René R., trans. Les Mille et une nuits. 4 vols. 1965-67. 2nd ed. 1986. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1989.

    • Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Marin. Paris: Phébus, 1985.

    • Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Terrien. Paris: Phébus, 1986.

    • Khawam, René R., trans. Le Roman d’Aladin. Paris: Phébus, 1988.


  1. Gregorio Cantera, trans. Las mil y una noches. Versión de René R. Khawam. Barcelona, Edhasa, 2007.

    2. Secondly there's the Barcelona translation by the two Arabists Juan Antonio Gutiérrez-Larraya and Leonor Martínez.



    Gutiérrez-Larraya & Leonor Martínez: Las Mil y Una Noches (2014)

  2. Juan Antonio Gutiérrez-Larraya & Leonor Martínez Martín, trans. Las mil y una noches. 3 vols. Barcelona: Argos Vergara, 1965.


    3. I'd like to add to these the one volume selection of tales from the Nights translated from the Arabic by Julio Samsó.


  3. Julio Samsó, trans. Antología de Las Mil y Una Noches. Libro de Bolsillo: Clásicos 599. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1975.

Here's a quote from the introduction to his version:
Esta pequeña Antología debe mucho a las dos traducciones completas y honradas de Las Mil y Una Noches que existen en castellano: la de Juan Vernet, por una parte, y la de Juan A. G. Larraya y Leonor Martínez Martín, por otra. Como testimonio de la deuda que este librito y mi persona tienen contraída con mis maestros Juan Vernet y Leonor Martínez, a ellos van dedicadas estas páginas.

This little anthology owes a lot to the two complete and celebrated translations of The Thousand and One Nights which exist in Castillian: that of Juan Vernet, on the one hand, and that of Juan A. G. Larraya and Leonor Martínez Martín, on the other. As testimony to the debt which this little book and I myself have contracted to my masters Juan Vernet and Leonor Martínez, these pages are dedicated to them.
You may be a little surprised to read this reference to the two "complete and celebrated translations of ... which exist in Castillian," excluding all mention of Rafael Cansinos Asséns' pioneering work of 1954-55. However, given that my own copy of Samsó's book is dated 1975, the last year of the Franco dictatorship in Spain, it seems reasonable to conclude that Cansinos Asséns' translation must still have been considered forbidden fruit in Spain at that time - despite being readily available in Latin America.

In all then, there appear to be at least nine substantive translations of The Thousand and One Nights in Spanish: one from Galland, one from Khawam, two from Mardrus, four complete versions from the Arabic original, as well as Samsó's "anthology" of stories, mentioned above. Here they are in (approximate) chronological order:

  1. Pedro Pedraza y Páez, trans. Las Mil y Una Noches: Cuentos orientales. Versión de A. Galland. Biblioteca Hispania. Barcelona: Editorial Ramón Sopena, 1934.
  2. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, trans. El libro de las mil noches y una noche, traducción desde la versión francesa de J. C. Mardrus. 1889. 6 vols. Valencia: Editorial Prometeo, 1916.
  3. Rafael Cansinos Asséns, trans. Libro de las mil y una noches, por primera vez puestas en castellano del árabe original. 3 vols. 1954-55. Mexico: Aguilar, 1990.
  4. Juan Vernet, trans. Las mil y una noches. 3 vols. Clásicos Planeta. Barcelona, Editorial Planeta, 1964-67.
  5. Juan Antonio Gutiérrez-Larraya & Leonor Martínez Martín, trans. Las mil y una noches. 3 vols. Barcelona: Argos Vergara, 1965.
  6. Eugenio Sanz del Valle, Alfredo Domínguez, & Luis Aguirre Prado, trans. Las Mil y Una Noches: Versión de Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Illustrated by J. Narro. 2 vols. Madrid: Nauta, 1967.
  7. Julio Samsó, trans. Antología de Las Mil y Una Noches. Libro de Bolsillo: Clásicos 599. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1975.
  8. Gregorio Cantera, trans. Las mil y una noches: Versión de René R. Khawam. Barcelona, Edhasa, 2007.
  9. Salvador Peña Martín, trans. Mil y una noches. 4 vols. 2016. Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2018.


Even Borges would probably have to agree that they've now made up for any deficiencies in this respect - with a vengeance!



Devir: Las mil y una noches (juego [game])



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