How about you? How much human emotion do you think gets lost in translation?
Write about it.
To be or not to be
Hello, guys! It's Graciela here and I'm
intrigued
this week. I've always felt like this when reading one of the most
celebrated of Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet. And I was wondering how much
of the intense emotion expressed in the play is lost when it's played in
a language other than our own.
We might understand the meaning of all the words in English but
can we be touched by the emotions if they reach us in a language other
than the one we've learnt from childhood? The long
soliloquy starting with the famous "to be or not to be" is very
unsettling
in its philosophical reflection on life and death. It's that bit when
Hamlet, the young prince tormented by the suspicious death of his father
and his uncle's marriage to his mother, talks to a skull.
The English classical actor Derek Jacobi as Hamlet
I've been chatting with some British colleagues here in the
department to find out how they feel about this "star" of their culture.
They have to study Shakespeare's work at school and I was wondering to
what extent a teenager can appreciate the Bard. It mustn't be easy, as
he writes about the human condition and it requires some life experience
to be able
to relate to it on a deeper level.
Some colleagues told me that they had to memorise
speeches from King Lear, Macbeth and other plays and in the original
Elizabethan English. Let's face it: relating to the archaic forms of our own native languages is always a bit
taxing
and for the Brits it's no different. Poor Carrie still remembers some
of it. Richard was luckier as he studied it in depth at university and
was blown away by Shakespeare's plays. He said Shakespeare is not a particularly good read but it is pure drama - it has to be acted out!
Catherine agrees that it is not
an exaggeration to
say that for British kids Shakespearean English does sound a bit like a
foreign language. Well, guys, it's foreign for us too. She watches the
plays at the Globe theatre and the richness of Shakespeare
comes to life in the actor's facial expressions, the tone of his voice etc.
It all made me wonder about language and emotion. Can you feel all
the emotion of a word even if it's in a different language? For me, a
Portuguese speaker, "love" and "amor", for example, feel a bit
different.
How about you? How much human emotion do you think gets lost in translation?
Useful vocabulary:
intrigued - fascinated, curious about something
soliloquy - it's a speech an actor delivers which describes his thoughts
unsettling - disturbing
to relate to - to feel empathy for
speech - a series of lines delivered by one character
Elizabethan English - 16th century English
taxing - that demands some degree of effort
was blown away - was amazed and very impressed by
an exaggeration - an overstatement
comes to life - becomes animated
