To cite a few more examples: "In Colombia, any gathering of more than six people, regardless of class or the hour, is doomed to turn into a dance." García Márquez's original reads, in a more direct translation, "from whatever class or at whatever hour," which is clearer. In another passage, the translator renders a sentence this way: "Colombia had not been aware of her own importance in the international drug trade." In English we are more likely to say, "Colombia had not been aware of its own importance. ..." The translation refers to "a city martyrized by violence," thus rendering García Márquez's "martirizado" literally. But in English, the word "martyrized" is peculiar and ungainly.

The translation says about a lawyer: "His manners were punctilious, his rhetoric high-flown, and he was more obsequious than affable--suicidal circumstances if one wishes to serve two masters at the same time." But the word "circumstances" is wrong. García Márquez's word is "condiciones," which in this case should be translated as "impulses." And so forth.