Translation and Adaptation in the Contemporary Drama

TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY DRAMAl GENERAL RULES for the translation of literary works have to be so general that their usefulness becomes questionable. The literary genre, the time of writing, the relationship of the languages involved, and other factors provide too many variables. It is possible, however, to set standards for groups of works which are sufficiently homogeneous in kind or purpose to permit reasonably specific definitions. The contemporary drama of Western culture constitutes such a group. The importance of its transfer from one language to another needs no discussion. But apart from its importance it also presents interesting and complex problems, for in the drama, more so than in any other literary form, prominent consideration has to be given to matters not connected with the verbal transfer of the work from one language to another. The reason for the presence of these extralinguistic components is that the drama is a communal experience which transcends the realm of written material. Like Granville-Barker in his essay on translation, "I speak of plays written for the theatre and translated for use in the theatre,'>:! and in the case of the contemporary drama this is undoubtedly a correct point of departure. For the drama of another, earlier period, for a play of recognized stature as a classic, the translator may view his task somewhat differently. But the drama of one's own time is written for the stage--otherwise it is not really drama-and must therefore be translated with the stage in mind, even if it is also to be presented to readers in book form. If it is not translated with the stage in mind, then the translator embarks on his task in violation of the author's intentionwhich would be an unpromising beginning. It is important therefore for the translator to remember that a play is a communal experience. His intended end result is not merely a written work, but a work whose full impact depends first on the community on stage and behind it-actors, director, designer, etc.-and second on the community in front of that stage-the audience. The purpose of a translation is to make it possible for the first community to present the play to the second. A play therefore needs a minimum of general acceptance-not necessarily the success of the "smash hit" produced at some imaginary low common denominator, but neverthe1 . This paper was originally given at the Eighth Congress of the International Federation of Modem Languages and Literatures in Liege, Belgium, August-Selltember 1960. 2. Harley Granville-Barker, On T,anslatlng Plays (London, 19~2), p. 19. 31 32 MODERN DRAMA May less some acceptance based on its comprehension and more than that, its use by a variety of people. If one compares these requirements with those of translating other literary works-the novel, let us say-one can see the difference in the problems. We may accept unusual phrases or unnatural gestures when we can contemplate them written down, when we can imagine them modified in our minds by our intonations or gestures, even when we can see them carried out by people to whom they are native. But not when we see or hear them live, in our language, rendered by people of our culture. (Chekhov done by Russian actors in Russian is quite a different matter from Chekhov done in English by Americans.) Ortega says: "AI conversar vivimos in sociedad; al pensar quedamos solos:'3 The play is a conversation, a communal experience; it therefore holds a mirror up to nature which is more restrictive in its immediacy than that of any other work of art. How does this affect the translator? One can agree safely with Saint Jerome that translations should be made "eodem spiritu quo sCripti sunt." Or with Tytler, as he defined a good translation more specifically almost two hundred years ago as ... that in which the merit of the original work is so completely transferred into another language, as to be as distinctly apprehended , and as strongly felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak the language of the original work...