Life, of Course

Author(s): Rafael Spregelburd and Jean Graham-Jones

Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3, Theatre and Translation (Oct., 2007), pp. 373-377
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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TRANSLATION? /
WHAT'SAT STAKEINTHEATRICAL

373

of Course

Life,
Rafael

Spregelburd
I

What's

at stake in theatrical

Life, of course.

translation?

II
Not the translator as hero risking his life (it's almost always the opposite). What's at
that makes it possible
stake in all theatrical translation is the life of the text: everything
to translate life's complexity.
for written words
dictum and
language, tell two things simultaneously:
as "what's said" and as what can be explained inmore
("how it's said," the world of potential connotations
It is therefore
be as easily reduced or synthesized.

All writing,
indeed all acts of
modus. Ifwe understand dictum
or less logical formulas, modus
that dictum) cannot
supporting
much more difficult to translate.
Poets
forum's

subject:

speak of a concept

enough?physicists

and?oddly
nuance.

is the

Nuance

even more
a

of meaning,

subtlety

complex

to this

vital
of

or

feeling,

a delicacy of perception
the mind still has no words or mental categories.
for which
In the presence of nuance,
the creator suffers what might be called, in physics, an
acute

nonlinear

a microphone
into

a connection

reaction:

an

chaos?into

order

to the

similar

effect"

"butterfly

and a critical jump in the system

near a speaker

occurs,

move

it

submerging

iterative.

and

complex

suddenly

we

when

is a closed system, but our

about the world
Everything we consider knowledge
and questions are full of nuance. Of course, the world is saturated
doubts, uncertainties,
with potential nuance, filled with subtleties of meaning,
expe
feeling, and perception,
riences for which our languages and logic don't have categories or stabilizing forms.
do not belong to?our categories of
Nuance
exists in the fractal spaces between?but
thought.

When

chaos, where

we

what

makes

plays

ences and not simply

we

enter

into

at stake in theatrical

translatable

redundant

as

ambiguous,

information

a border

zone

translation

and

resides.
the life of

is, precisely,

suggestively

about a world

order

between

totality and indivisibility

of the experience's

of what's

The real question

nuance:

nuance,

experience

our grasping

rich,

true

experi

beyond words.

Ill
in
I find it difficult not to think of all forms of theatrical writing,
As a playwright
a
a
as
text
kind
is
The
of
translation.
theatrical
kernel,
work,
barely
cluding original
it and capable of being seen to
containing
lacking apparent real life yet mysteriously
grow and flower onstage. That is, behind the theatrical text there is already a writer
who
more

managed
or less

to
codified

translate
forms

an

entire

of

sentences,

world

of
retorts,

incommunicable
personal,
and words.
But
these

nuance
words

are

to
not

the play itself; they do not contain the tempi, rhythms, intentions, deviations,
fancy,
that allow a play to come to life, expose nuance, and unleash
talk, and imagination
itself from literary abstraction to the plain world of paper.

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374

Forum

Because of this, theatrical translation ismore complicated

than other disciplines. You
must keep inmind not only the particularities
of two languages but also the universe
in its three unwritable
of ideological, vital connotations
and unteachable
dimensions,
all of which
the playwright must have visualized
before writing. Translating
theatre
to
not
this
three-dimensional
the
libretto.
flat
world,
implies returning
just
dry,
con
A rhythmic difference is sometimes more important than a phrase's denotative
tent. A subtle shift in tone or register or a break in the character's written voice can
undo all our work, especially when
it sounds like a translated text. The too-obvious
of another's
it
appearance
translating hand can make the stage life recede, because
our attention

draws

to the literature behind

the text.

A fully faithful translation is a utopia. And I believe a fully effective translation is

also Utopian because if we want to simply read a play, then the translated play will
look much like any other translation. But if, instead of reading a play like one reads a
story or a poem, we want to give it (believable) onstage life, then we have to translate
it. And this is almost impossible.
for the audience who will be watching
for better or worse,

theatre is always,

Translating
a new

rewriting

it for

theatre?rewriting

of meaning.

community

IV

Oh, faithfulness! How can an author be faithful while at the same time trying tomake
a text work in a theatrical context governed
by other rules, rules the author most likely
doesn't even know? I've asked this question
thousands of times during the last few
as
I've
into
translated
years, especially
Argentine
Spanish the plays of Harold Pinter,
Steven Berkoff, and Sarah Kane. Should I "inform" how
should Imake them "work" in Spanish?
An

that illustrates my

example

aware

that

in our

in very

(as

city

dilemma:
few

other

we

these plays

residents

places)

one

uses

are in English,

of Buenos Aires
vos

(a sort

of

or

are fully

"thou")

and

t? ("you"). T? is out of the question here if

the almost-universal
second-person
the setting is St. Louis or Moscow. We translators
your play seeks any realism, whether
I'll have to take a long detour in order to avoid a
acquire invisible tricks: sometimes
that sounds too local, a sudden and unpleasant dose of Almagro
word or conjugation
in the middle
of Chelsea. Many times we have to find a way to erase the marks of a
that
is too fully ours and therefore must be rendered invisible in order to
language
not

allow

the play

a word

so

its normal

radically

development,

everyday

as

but without

anyone

noticing

we're

Another
equally important issue for theatre has to do with the number
in the dialogue.
I will always remember
the discussions
with Pinter's
sentatives

over

to

how

avoiding

t?.30

such

translate

an

apparently

simple

phrase

as

of syllables
legal repre
"of

course."

In Spanish we say por supuesto, but Pinter's rhythmic precision and tight dialogues
sometimes make it impossible to replace a dry bisyllabic phrase with one sonorously
of claro instead
twice the original's length. So we ended up at the happy compromise

30
We

porte?o

pears

translators

know

ir a fijarte?"
"?podr?as
in the conditional.

conditional

how

to transform

(would

you

go

phrase
The

look?).

like

"anda

imperative's

fijarte"

exposure

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(go look) into the

of the voseo disap

WHAT'SAT STAKEINTHEATRICAL
TRANSLATION? /
of por supuesto, paying more
its literal translation.

to the retort's duration

attention

375
than to

and dryness

Another Pinter problem: Night School's aunts are two very dignified
ladies living in
the greatest of poverty with a nephew who spends most of his time in jail. The aunts
have a very simple, very ingenious way of speaking, typical of British working-class
English. But onstage they take tea! This is very hard to translate for Argentines. What
local slang or quasi-criminal
dialect rich in ingenuity is compatible with such a bour
it
British
that
doesn't become
geois
activity
totally absurd? England's
tea-drinking
no
it with the ceremony of our local mate
ceremony has
equivalent here. Replacing
itwould make spectators feel
and our local lunfardo slang would be totally merciless:
even further away from the original. I chose to subject them to a simple and exotic
fiction according to which,
if itwere the most normal

in other countries,
thing in the world.

take tea as

women

these impoverished

V
exoticism,

Faithfulness,

and

lastly

the

morals:

for

dangers

the

are

translator

many.

Look at what happens with one of Pinter's simpler titles, The Lover. This title repre
sents an aberrant simplification
of the play's content and points basically to a moral
In
The
Lover
is
gendered; this is the play's secret engine.
problem.
English,
ambiguously
IsMax Sarah's lover behind Richard's back? Or is she in reality Richard's overly bony
or feminine.
lover? Spanish nouns are unavoidably
gendered; they must be masculine
A choice must be made. Of course, there is an ingenious solution: we simply retitle the
reasons
the article: Amante. But that would be impossible, for publishing
play without
all the Romance
alone, given that everyone knows the play?in
languages?through
as El amante, and Sarah is the unfaithful
It'smasculinized
the same moral insinuations.
the translated play with the same
spouse condemned
by the play's title. I published
title as before, restricting my gender doubts in the Losada edition to a footnote.31
VI
It has

play:

for

additional
the

example,

times

many

necessarily

possess:

that,

information
character's

is forced to identify

ish English,
don't

to me

occurred

into English,

social

in order

class,

background,

all characters
status,

birthplace,

a work

for

to be

of mine

of me by the translator

is required

and

through

accent.

English,

at

least

Brit

traits we Argentines

linguistic

profession,

translated

taking on my

neighborhood.

This

is

an appropriative
because it ends up producing
effect on the part of what
madness,
is already an almost imperialistic
all
translated
into English become
theatre;
plays
realistic (much like 99 percent of its own theatre), even though they come from other
continents and might bear absurd, abstract, or simply poetic attributes. It is no coin
cidence that British actors' resumes include a list of dialects they can reproduce (e.g.,
Irish, Cockney, American, Welsh, and so on), now that their theatre has become a kind
of industry run by a casting system similar to Hollywood's,
with its specific rules of
if an actor is from C?rdoba and speaks with an accent,
In Argentina,
verisimilitude.
this doesn't

31
Harold
Aires:

signify

anything

other than the actor is from C?rdoba;

Pinter, El amante, Escuela

Editorial
Losada,
2005).

nocturna,

y Sketches

de revista,

trans. Rafael

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the accent doesn't

Spregelburd

(Buenos

Forum

376

carry

any

social

connotation

other

than

the

actor's

When

origin.

my

have

plays

been

and even
staged in Great Britain, translators have had to invent social backgrounds
seem
to
the
will
for
be
the
translated
characters;
otherwise,
geographic
origins
play
into

a neutral,

no-place

English.

VII
in a kind of "idiolect"?its
the original play is written
happens when
a new idiolect would have to be in
invented private language? Normally,
vented, but the translator's con job will be palpable: everyone knows that the original
provided no signals. Berkoff and Kane have provided me with exemplary headaches
in this respect. Berkoff mixes language registers?upper-crust,
and crude
Elizabethan,
to
the
East
sometimes
West
End
from
End,
expressions
incomprehensible
theatregoers;
In The
Kane writes words like music: sonority and rhythm are as important as meaning.
And what

author's

Secret Love Life of Ophelia, for example, Berkoff takes off from Hamlet's
and Ophelia's
are
never
that in Shakespeare's
read
aloud. The
letters, those famous missives
play
textual citations and the most atro
Berkoffian
letters oscillate between Elizabethan
cious pornography?that's
the play's merit.32 Spanish has an astonishing flexibility for
capturing this oscillation, but all the Shakespearean
when tinged with pornographic
brutality.

quotes

even

too cultured,

sound

all do that in one way or another. The

So rewriting isn't the biggest problem?we
to the original text's purposes
is rewriting while
and
problem
feigning faithfulness
pragmatics.

VIII
a

Moreover,

such

countries,

is guided more

translation
On

the

other

hand,

its own

contains
nearly

origins
play's
as
Germany,

always

there

point
where

ever-changing
theatre
is a well-known

by principles
are

other

code. Thus, when

automatically

to an

road

for

of communication
such

countries,

as

the

bearer

There

translator.
of messages.

than by artistic

Argentina,

where

an Argentine

are

There,

creation.

the message

play is translated into German,

with
in a kind of re-ideologization.
messages
charged

it is

but the setting is Las Vegas, Nevada,

For example, Iwrote Stupidity in Argentina,
with US characters speaking a neutral, chimerical Spanish, like the bad Puerto Rican
or Mexican
dubs of foreign films. How can that be translated into German? Worse
can
the
it be translated into English,
the language in which we suppose
how
still,
characters

are

speaking?

a playwright
The British translation was created by Crispin Whittell,
(British, though
because
in
of
All
New
York).
dubbing's magic disappeared,
presumed neutrality
living
and television shows are not dubbed. The play turned
in the UK, US B-grade movies
tone was missing.
It turned realistic. And be
serious because that wild, nonexistent
a
as
on
in
the
US English's repetitions
translated
UK
sides, being
parodie commentary
connotations.
and set phrases, it acquired some pleasant and quite funny chauvinistic
war in Iraq,
a
the
Americans
called
about
Furthermore,
Stupidity, produced during
play
to
the
intentions.
the
say things lurking beyond
author's?original
begins
play's?and
it
be
is
It
This is unavoidable
shouldn't
avoided.
moreover,
and,
perhaps the reason
32
Stephen

Berkoff,

The Secret Love Life of Ophelia

(London:

Faber

and Faber,

2001).

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WHAT'SAT STAKEINTHEATRICAL
TRANSLATION? /

377

the British were interested in translating the play in the first place. There is an added
in its
value that their own culture could not avoid projecting onto this play, which,
different:
the
of
monetary
something entirely
original language, speaks
Argentinean
into chaos.
system's 2001 dissolution
IX
Once again, the challenge for theatre is not just the play's translation, but rather the
of the community
that will come to
deep, unnamable,
unexplainable
understanding
a
see it, taking its place in darkened theatre in order to give life back to the submerged
nuances beating in the depths of every text.
(Translated by Jean Graham-Jones)
***

Some

Thoughts

on Garcia

Lorca

Caridad

Writers
our

national

do not write
consciousness,

in a vacuum. We
and

to

and

of Translation

Svich

respond

international

the Arts

to our immediate
concerns

and

themes.

surroundings,
True

to

exchange

can only happen

if work
is seen in context and in dialogue with the form of other
artists who are advancing
it. The translator is the mediator,
the negotiator of text, and
its meeting point. The responsibility
of translation is significant because as a transla
tor, you are often the only conduit for the work to be heard and seen. How audiences
of
perceive and receive the work, therefore, is crucial to their potential understanding
the original's intentions, and it is in the translator's hands tomake this understanding
as complete as possible while still speaking to the audience in a
language that is free
and accessible and within
the living theatre tradition.
The art of translation is a delicate one. At its best, you should not notice as an au
dience member
that a play has been translated, but feel as if you are watching
and
to
the
of the Spanish
original. Of course, the rhythms and inherent musicality
listening
language are not necessarily present in English. The hard, naturally flattening sounds
of the English language make a different kind of poetry possible:
the poetry of con
sonants instead of vowels, and the poetry of short elliptical phrases rather than long,
as many of the best translators of fiction from the Americas
fluid ones. However,
and
over the last fifty-odd years, and as some of the finest Gar
Iberia have demonstrated
cia Lorca translators and scholars have also shown us, the English language is indeed
able to capture the intricacy and flow of the Spanish language with an efficacy and
unique translit?rai brilliance of its own. Part of the joy of bringing his work to light
in English, therefore, is one of recreating the melodious,
precise, and free aspect of his
a
new
to
in
bear
writing
language.
I have been translating Garcia Lorca's plays for some time now. He is my closest
artistic ally and probably my best collaborator
in translation. My understanding
of
his work has gone from dedicatedly
studious to intuitive, as ifwhen I am translating
his plays I am breathing with him. This ease of entering a master playwright's
world
comes only after considerable
time and effort; it also comes from a spiritual kinship

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