Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English (review)

Scholars such as George Steiner, William Arrowsmith, and Edith Hall have all written on the problems of reading and producing drama in translation. J. Michael Walton’s Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English contributes to the conversation by examining why the theories and methods of literary translation are often fatal for scripts intended for performance. Through close reading of several translations, Walton explores the major dilemmas facing would-be translators. Foremost among these is the fact that ancient Greek plays were performed for a specific occasion and location with a particular cultural and political framework. How can translators address the task of making these plays equally specific to the time in which they are translated and revived? By examining historical attempts to translate Greek drama into English, Walton deepens our understanding of Greek tragedy and comedy as well as the nature of dramatic translation.

The first section of the book addresses the issues of translating tragedy for performance, beginning with a review of translation theories advanced by John Dryden, Lawrence Venuti, Edith Hamilton, and others. While acknowledging the values of these approaches, Walton insists that translating for performance means allowing a director and design team the freedom to once again bring the play to life. Building on Patrice Pavis’s idea that performance has no ur-text, Walton further suggests that a theatrical translator must be a dramaturg and guide for the director.

Walton initially explores early modern literary translations of Greek drama, beginning in the mid-sixteenth century and ending in the mid-eighteenth, noting the influence of time and society on specific translations. He then surveys the translation history of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, looking at how different translators balance literary faithfulness, theatrical production, and especially audience reception. “[A]ny collaboration,” Walton argues, “includes the audience at the point of impact, bringing to their perception their own historical, political, and cultural experience” (44). Audiences’ perceptions of a translation are, of course, shaped in large part by the choices the translator makes. Literal translations of the playwrights’ words are inadequate to communicating nonverbal elements of performance such as “mask language,” stage business in the text, and expressions of grief. The same limitation applies to the numerous exclamations in Greek tragedy that served as a mere suggestion for the original actors in interpreting stage action and dramatic rhythm. Choices made in the translation of such nonverbal expression can free a theatrical production, or conversely limit options that should remain open.

Turning his attention to Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Walton shows how translators have adapted the Greek myth to speak meaningfully to virtually any situation. Comparing Oedipus’ tragic fall across several translations, Walton demonstrates how differing translations of key phrases reflect changing attitudes toward power, fate, and politics: “If in the eighteenth century the fall of Oedipus was tied to ambition and its comeuppance, the early nineteenth preferred a romantic view of him as a victim of his fate . . . rather than its master” (96). Twentieth-century translators, by contrast, influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche, found “the way people behaved in its own right the target for literature and for drama” (97).

The central chapters of Found in Translation helpfully address the differing issues involved in the translation of prose and subtext, as opposed to the more common challenge of verse. Walton feels there must first be a balance between the original text and the purpose of the translation in deciding on the appropriate word choice, which may involve translating metaphor and subtext rather than exact phrasing. Although it is not possible for the translator to work on every production of his or her play, Walton suggests that “the translator for a particular production may need to ask for a brief from the director . . . before deciding what the scene needs to mean on this occasion” (121).

The later chapters of the book are devoted to comedy. Walton reviews the underlying principles of Aristophanes’ comedies and satyr plays, noting particularly their...