In 1605, Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) has published the first part of  "El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha" (The ingenious knight don Quijote de la Mancha). After publishing the second part, Cervantes has shorten the name of his work to "Don Quijote de la Mancha". Fairly late, in 1885, Mr. John Ormsby (1829-1895) has translated the book in English, though he made a horrible mistake: he has renamed the book as "Don Quixote"!

Grammatical rules in English are very clear:
1. proper names, foreign or English, are written EXACTLY AS THEY ARE ORIGINALLY; further, if the original phonetic pronunciation is difficult, then it should be explained;
2. artistic or literary creations MUST KEEP THEIR ORIGINAL NAMES; any translations of the original names come only as additional explanations.

Note that "Don Quijote de la Mancha" is not an ordinary novel--far form that. In 2002, 100 "major writers"[SIC] from 54 countries have voted that "Don Quijote de la Mancha" is the best work of fiction ever written. Of course, we do not need any "major writers" to tell us that "Don Quijote de la Mancha" is a good book; the book is very nice indeed. However, it is interesting to note the chain of perpetual mistakes related to this wonderful literary creation.

First of all, it is impossible to explain why the entire English world--better said, the English literary critics--persists in using the pompous name "Don Quixote" for over 100 years! WHAT IS THAT? It is obvious the English "major writers" adore their absurd, irrational mistakes way more than the simple, plain truth--way to go sweet Ladies and kind Gentleman "major writers"!

Secondly, there is the social-psychology aspect generated by the great work of Don Cervantes. Any good book must have a message. In this particular case, "Don Quijote de la Mancha", the message is, which is more true/real: "normal people" or the "dreamers".

There are two types of people in our society: ordinary/normal people, the vast majority, and the "dreamers". Ordinary people (the average, or "the people" for short) live reality just as it is, with their feet firmly planted on the ground. Particular to normal people is, for millennia, they laughed at the "dreamers"--those who read too many books. In our particular case, the "dreamer" Don Quijote is a very nice, innocent character who loves life and he adores the people. Unfortunately for him, Don Quijote has read the wrong books: the fantasy ones.

In the History of our Civilization have lived, possibly, few hundred billions people. However, excepting few thousand remarkable "dreamers" as was Aristotle, Archimedes, da Vinci, Newton, Laplace, Mendeleyev, etc. the "normal people" have no names, no faces, no thoughts, nothing. All those hundreds of billions of "real people", the normal ones, have vanished into the indefinite concept of "the people"--they will always do. Of course, "the people" have lived their lives in the present time, sharp and real, and they enjoyed to the fullest the fruits of our
Civilization--in their real, ordinary way. Overall, however, "normal people" are only the "background", the social-environment in which the "dreamers" have to struggle to become NAMES.

The Global Picture is, despite the overwhelming reality, all those countless masses of "normal people" mean absolutely nothing once they are gone; they will vanish for eternity into nothingness as if they never existed. In the same time, those few
socially-ostracized "dreamers" today are the only TRUE PEOPLE tomorrow: the only ones important, and the only "known people" who ever lived on Earth.

For centuries people have laughed at Don Quijote--just an old, romantic fool. Even more, to "show" they are so "smart" today, "some people" have re-named our innocent, human, Don Quijote character--which defines the best of us all--as "Don Quixote"! Such mockery! Anyway, those few, good, nice, intelligent, Don Quijote-like people will continue living for as long our Civilization would continue to exist.

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THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT ANIMAL MIGRATIONS

Although the topic is presented only summarily, it is worth reading it; just follow this BBC link. It is possible we will develop this topic in one of our future Amazing Articles, because animal migrations are still a great, unexplained mystery on our planet.
 

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