#shakespeare in translation

[shakespearenews]

The son of Bangladeshi immigrants, Zaman was first seduced by the theatre’s siren song as a teenager. “I know exactly when it happened. I was 15 or 16, and my school took a group of us to a show in Newcastle, which was an international telling of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was an RSC production, with an entire company of actors from the Asian continent, across East and South Asia, all speaking different languages. The whole play was done in every language they spoke but English, and it was so beautiful and physical. I was blown away by it, and seeing people who looked like me on stage.”

[shimyereh]

I like Vladimir Benediktov’s translation adaptation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, because he manages to prominently rhyme “alter ego” with «снега», «нега», and «ночлега». There is no quadruple rhyme in the original Shakespeare. Benediktov went out of his way to do this!

[wafflesex]

We now have all of Octatrio’s Unique Magic incantations! I translate them as follows:

Jade: “Don’t be scared. I only want to help you.”

Floyd: “This is a nice place, but how about I interrupt?”

Azul: “The song ceases, the sun sets. Show mercy upon this poor soul. Come, let’s make a deal!”

[starlene]

Every time someone comments the state of musical theatre in their country by saying musicals here should be presented in English because the translations are awful, a muse loses its lyre.

I mean, sure, if you think musicals should always be sung in their original language to preserve the exact vocal flow the original artists intended or whatever other purist connoisseur reason, fine. You're entitled to that opinion.

But other than that, the correct statement is this: musicals here should be translated better because the current translations are awful.

Just saying.

[bodhrancomedy]

Macbeth is my favourite play and actually it was so much harder to do the translation because the original is iconic.

[latinare]

Umbrae si offendimus

Id nondum defendimus.

At corrigam dicens sic:

Dormivistis omnes hic

Fabulaque imbecillis

Somnium est rarum illis

Qui nolitis obiurgare

Nos conatos delectare.

Linguam itaque serpentis

(Honestate meae gentis)

Immeriti si vitemus

Omne deinde emendemus:

Aut me semper castigate.

Manus tuos mihi date

Cari, et per somnia

Nunc restituam omnia.

(Requested by @dondarfsnowbonk)

[shakespeare-official-account]

Do you like turtles?

Ye, I adore turtles!! I hath babysitted them, twice; ‘twas wondrous! Turtle supremacy :)

[windwenn]

The divine comedy is going well

[felixravinstills]

no, actually, I'm going insane. I need someone to tell me right now. has anyone made the connection that Plutarch's name might not just be a reference to the Roman historian who wrote biographies on Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, but also an indirect Shakespeare reference?

Because his Parallel Lives was translated into French by Jacques Amyot and then that version was translated by Sir Thomas North into English, and that translation was used by Shakespeare to help write his historical tragedies (or at least Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus).

And if you're thinking who cares what biographies Shakespeare used to write his plays. maybe it is a coincidence. then consider that from my recollection of being a high schooler reading North's translation of The Life of Caesar, he follows the biography pretty closely. Shakespeare uses the anecdotes of the account and notably to high school freshman me, both describe Cassius as lean and hungry with the same speculation at how that pertains to his character.

[sforzesco]

Shakespeare's JULIO CESAR trans. Bienvenido Lumbera

you know the scene, "You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you." "Nor construe any further my neglect, Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men," aka the conversation in Act I Scene II that makes me feel a little unraveled in every language I read it in :')

and ofc, the shows of love

society6 | ko-fi | twitter (pillowfort, cohost) | deviantart

[shakespearenews]

QUEEN: Hamlet, wheesht. Nae mair  o’ this.  My een ye’ve turnt tae stare back inwarts,  An’ in my saul I see the blackent smutches, stains,  That keep their awfu’ colour.  HAMLET: To live atween the sheets,  In the sweaty spunky greasy sheets o’ yir kip,  Stewed an’ bubblin’ a’ corruption’s heatit honey,  Makin’ houghmagandie in the pigswill –  QUEEN: O will ye haud yir wheesht! Eneuch!  Yir words are blades that slice intae ma lugs, they gang richt in.  Nae mair, for peety’s sake, douce Hamlet.  HAMLET: A murtherer, a villain,  Juist a slave, no’ e’en a twentieth pairt the wee-est bit  O’ him ye jinked wi’ last. A doitit fuil, a clown,  A measlie-mean an’ mealy-mou’d bluidsucker o’ the empire,  Wha liftit frae a shelf the croun whan naebody else was keekin’,  An’ slipped it in ’is pooch.  QUEEN: Nae mair!  HAMLET: A king o’ tatters, scraps an’ patches –  (Enter Ghaist)  Abune me wi’ yir wings, O gairds o’ heivin!  Sauve me, fluther owre! Och, man, yir grace, yirsel’, whit’s up?  QUEEN: Ochon, ochon! He’s gyte.  HAMLET: I ken I’m slow tae stert, ye’re here to nudge me,  Deavit doun in passin’ ’oors an’ gumption, a’ gane by  Yir strang command an’ my obeyin’ o’ ’t.  Speak tae me nou!  GHAIST: Dinnae forget, an’ dinnae forgie, ye’ll mind o’ this, an’ mind  o’ me.  I’m here to roust yir purpose oan the whetstane aince again. It’s bluntit.  Shairpen up, son. Luik. Yir mother’s visage flauchters wi’ amaze.  Nou get atwixt her an’ her ragin’ saul. Imaginin’ in dwaiblie fowlk works strang.  Speak tae’r nou, Hamlet. Oan ye go.  HAMLET: Hou’s yirsel nou, mither?  QUEEN: Naw, naw, hou’re you?  Yir een are set on naethin’ness,  And a’ yir words are sent intae the tuim an’ bodiless air.  Oot o’ yir een yir speerits keek like craziness,  An’ juist like sodgers sleepin’ through alarums,  Yir hair, richt there, starts up, staunds up, on ends. Och son,  My denty chiel, owre the flamin’ het o’ yir wierd govin’,  Spatter the cool o’ patience. Whit’re ye luikin’ at?  HAMLET: Him! Him! He’s wan as a full muin at midnicht. Luik!  He’s glowrin’ at us nou. Baith hou he luiks an’ whit he tells  Is nou the ae thing, anerlie, jined. He could preach tae stanes  An’ see them sympathise. 

[oakgreenoak]

the sea of human emotion and experience is too vast for you to limit yourself to only certain genres or mediums

read a comic book, watch an anime, read a romance novel. read classic lit, watch an arthouse film, listen to an opera. read fanfic. read shakespeare. the distinction between highbrow and low art is time and marketing

[unabashedqueenfury]

Reign 2013-17

Maria e Francesco

" Non è mai notte quando vedo il tuo volto; perciò ora a me non sembra che sia notte, né che il bosco sia spopolato e solitario, perché tu per me sei il mondo intero; chi potrà dunque dire che io sono sola se il mondo è qui a guardarmi? ”

(William Shakespeare, "Sogno di una notte di mezza estate" )

[lipstickhamlet]

i was complaining about korean translations of hamlet always leaving out the you/thou divide on my main blog (which i didn't rb here because i didn't think it was important enough) and realized i can just. do it myself. i can translate the entirety of hamlet myself on my tumblr.com blog and no one will be able to stop me

[soupinaboot]

What if 't be true thee w're a jehovah's witness

yond wast m'rely pretending to beest into christmas

gath'ring clues and blending in

to taketh down the holidays from within?

Going deep cov'r past foe lines

making ev'rybody bethink i'm on the christmas side

Rockin' warmeth did sweat'rs, hangin' big rampallian lights

if 't be true the bacon-fed sir couldst seeth me, yo, t's gotta behold right

I'll gaze all the tv specials yond i nev'r couldst

I'll coequal caterwauling during the depress'd ones liketh james bond wouldst

And at which hour the big night cometh, t's timeth to setteth the bait

bitter cold milketh, hot cookies, dec'rative plates!

And that gent'll cometh down the chimney and 'twill beest just that gent and me

but that gent wonneth't knoweth we're enemies, 'cause i'll playeth sinc're

bringeth a trapeth, liketh yond, hugeth that gent tight, receiveth on his lap

and bid that gent that gent can cometh backeth ev'ry year

cause i am jehovah's most secret witness

So i might has't to dedicate mine own life to christmas

and act just liketh i loveth t 'til the day i kicketh the bucket

A-b-e-d

Connoisseur of christmas

On the spectrum? none of thy business

Thoughts too festinate to comprehend

just wanna doth right by mine own cousin

if 't be true years w're seasons, this decemb'r

wouldst beest the decemb'r of our decemb'r

m're blueprints than howard hughes

but if 't be true th're art blueprints, how doth we chooseth?

We has't to beest joyous to receiveth to the endeth

we has't to saveth christmas to saveth our cater-cousins

We has't to saveth christmas to saveth our cater-cousins

We has't to saveth christmas to saveth our cater-cousins!