It recently came to our attention
through
an article written
by University of Glasgow Senior Lecturer Dr. Jordi Cornella-Detrell that the original
1968 Spanish-language translation of Rosemary's Baby had been a victim not of witchcraft,
but worse — censorship. And that that censorship had carried over, unbeknownst to us, into
the present day. Dr. Cornella-Detrell shared two major expurgations with us (below), after
which we ourselves found — through only a cursory examination — two smaller ones, as well
as the removal of the occasional entirely non-Satanic line, such as "...a chair was behind her"
and "She drank more tea."
On the basis of the above, along with further historical information gleaned from our
correspondence with Dr. Cornella-Detrell, it's abundantly clear that what's called for
is a completely new, fully faithful, and entirely un-censored Spanish translation of Rosemary's
Baby. Until that can be realized, we've prepared this webpage so that readers can see what they've
been missing, and can run the original censored English text (provided below) through the translation
tool of their choice (such as Google Translate) should they wish.
We deeply lament that Spanish-language readers have been presented with something over the years
that was not faithful to what Ira Levin wrote — and equally, that they were not told that this was
the case. We thank Dr. Cornella-Detrell for his work in this area, and it's our hope that other
literary estates might become aware of the issue of past Spanish censorship, and re-examine their
own current translations, with an eye towards rectifying any similar offenses which might have
carried over into the present day.
— The estate of Ira Levin