Signs Preceding the End of the World

Translation is important to both the plot and text of Signs Preceding the End of the World. In the “Translator's Note,” Lisa Dillman comments on the complex task of translating Herrera's Spanish into English. Rather than trying to imitate the “colloquialisms, slang, expressions, [and] culturally-embedded references […] that could only take place in Mexico” or on the border, Dillman chose “an English that was geographically non-explicit” (111). This non-specific “dialect” helps decenter the novel from the familiarity of border issues between the US and Mexico. In addition, Herrera uses the neologism “jarchar,” to mean “to exit or to leave.” Dillman explains that the word “is derived from jarchas (from the Arabic kharja, meaning exit) which were short Mozarabic verses or couplets tacked on to the end of longer Arabic or Hebrew poems written in Al-Andalus, the region we now call Spain” (112). Because of this, “to verse” carries with it the connotation of transition; rather than meaning “to leave,” it instead highlights the connection between the two spaces being “versed” from. When Makina reaches the dark room in the final chapter of the novel where she is given a new identity, she sees that “over the door was a sign that said Verse” and she “tried to remember how to say verse in any of her tongues but couldn’t” (105).