Recent Pacific Overtures Revival Questions — Page 2

I may be wrong, but I think most multi-lingual people would agree that a translation is always by nature more of an adaptation; translation is more than just substituting one word in the new language for one in the old.

It was Edith Skinner (I think, perhaps another renowned Brit speech coach - Cicely Berry?) who said that the sound of the word influences the meaning, so when you change the word, you change the meaning, either subtly or un-.

Personally, I have enough German, French, and Russian to observe significant differences in meaning from the originals in all translations of Chekhov, Moliere, and Brecht.

UPDATE: there was a specific example of this idea that I vaguely recalled, but it took some time to verify. Shahidha Bari, in The Guardian, wrote "One long hiss is how Medea replies to Jason when he explains why he has chosen to abandon her for the affections of another woman: “Esosa se esosa hos isasi hosoi”. I saved your life, she retorts, rebuking him with a simmering fury. In the original Greek, there is no way to deliver that line other than to spit it out, spilling with venom and bile. It makes for “one long hiss” as the translator, Moses Hadas, astutely described it. Ben Power’s clunky new translation for the National Theatre rattles through the drama without much care for details like this."

Updated On: 3/28/18 at 01:33 PM