[ʃékspir] = Shakespeare?

             Comparing a comical exchange from Love's Labour's Lost in the original and in a Spanish translation, I have tried to see how efficient translation of Shakespeare into Spanish can be (taken from Act 1 scene 1, when Biron hesitates at first in studying with the King):

English-Original

     FERDINAND:  How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

     DUMAIN:  Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!

     LONGAVILLE:  He weeds the corn and still lets grow the weeding.

     BIRON:  The spring is near when green geese are a-breeding.

     DUMAIN:  How follows that?

     BIRON:                  Fit in his place and time.

     DUMAIN:  In reason nothing.

     BIRON:                   Something then in rhyme

Spanish translation

     EL REY.- ¡Qué sabio es, cuando trata de apostrofar a la ciencia!

     DUMAINE.- ¡No se emplearía mejor procedimiento para detener el progreso!

     LONGAVILLE.- ¡Arranca el trigo y deja crecer las malas hierbas!

     BEROWNE.- ¡La primavera está próxima, cuando incuban los tiernos gansos!

     DUMAINE.- ¿Qué se sigue de eso?

     BEROWNE.- Que todas las cosas, en su tiempo y lugar.

     DUMAINE.- Pierde el concepto.

     BEROWNE.- Tanto mejor para la rima

            Something interesting: Shakespeare constantly uses the rhythmic iambic pentameter (here with an extra foot):     u / u / u / u / u / u        as in the phrase: "Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!" in Spanish, however, at least in this translation, the meter goes:       u / u / u u / / u u u u u / u u / u / u.        Seems a bit longer, and not as patterned, huh?

            But, I think the biggest difficulty in translation here comes when understanding is lost due to the lack of rhyming. This exchange is supposed to be funny, since we hear the train of related rhyming sentences (in English) before Biron changes the subject entirely while preserving the same rhyme. He then uses this context to make a statement on the importance of rhyme: "Something then in rhyme", he says. This comment still exists in Spanish, but unlike in English there is no previous rhyming to back it up. We could pretty boldly assert that there has been a very important element of Shakespeare lost.

So, one may ask, is the Spanish [ʧékspir], even Shakespeare?

Posted by Erik on 2:28 PM · Comments (1) · Full article

How to Kill a Shakespeare

             BBC's short reproduction of The Winter's Tale--loved by those who do not care to read the play in its entirety--reduces the internal conflict inside the characters by cutting their lines down by more than 90%. This gives plenty of room for each character to be taken completely out of context, and in doing so BBC has created a world far from believable in which all characters are perfectly flat. It has  embarrassingly become something not nearly related to Shakespeare in all respects save, perhaps, the plot.

     

            Watching this video was has increased my respect for the emotional struggles Shakespeare seems to understand very well and portray artistically on stage. It is so sad how BBC totally annihilates this. As a few examples: Leontes, in this rendition, is always a malevolent fiend who loves to be angry. His act in front of his wife is horrifying, and his behavior to Camillo simply cold and cruel. Camillo demonstrates no hint of loyalty or compassion to his King at all, and Leontes personality never even comes out.

     In comparison to the live 3-hour professional production, this video is mockery. Earlier, I came to love the Leontes as an anguished man who represented the sad potential for those who let jealousy reign in their hearts, which makes his redemption so much sweeter. Camillo played as genuine and affable, grieved by the pain of a man he loved before he revealed the truth to Polixenes as if to demonstrate the internal battle of deciding right from wrong. This lessons are not here in BBC's professional Shakespeare squashing.

         The true beauty of Shakespeare comes in the window it provides into our own hearts and emotions. Take away the lines of the characters, and pull the blinds on the dynamism of their personality. Take away that personality and you are reduced to flat, stale plot. You will have successfully murdered the poor 16th Century man.

Posted by Erik on 1:33 PM · Comments (3) · Full article

First Shakespeare Play!

I feel like I finally understand a little better why Shakespeare has such world-wide acclaim. Although I have read many of his plays, I never caught the full vision of Shakespeare until tonight-- the first time that I have actually gone to a live Shakespeare play:  this one A Winter's Tale. If productions are rated according to the emotive content they evoke, then this production in Cedar City, Utah was perfect.

To me it is almost audible the conversation that the planners of the play must have had before the play, in which they were discussing the concept of it all. What I can hear them answer which contributed to that success is the question of how they were going to make all the details of casting work out. For me, it was the interaction that sparked the emotive power behind the words first recorded on the page.

I would have liked to have been present at the casting of these characters to see what they looked for. The interplay of personalities, words, and emotion behind each character made the production come to life for me. So really all I am trying to say is that much more than before, I am a convert to Shakespeare. He had a motive and a message that seemed to be so clear that only could be conveyed through a medium more powerful than the written word alone. I loved it.

Posted by Erik on 8:09 PM · Comments (4) · Full article

Intentions

          I find it hard to believe that anyone ever tries intentionally to do evil. Perhaps there are people that indeed have come to that point, but I doubt that anybody starts that way. It seems like there is always a motive behind our actions that has some type of justification in our own minds. Where we go wrong perhaps is when we start to have to justify ourselves in an unnatural way... that is we start to have to go out of our way to look for the justification that we are doing right when indeed if we were to analyze our emotions we would have to admit that we are not.

         I was just thinking about my own life how I soften look for justification in doing what isn't totally right. But I have noticed that it is often a subconscious thing. Yet, I feel like this is not the case with Leontes, and I think that is an interesting statement on Shakespeare's part. It increases the potency of the message that forgiveness is still possible for wrongs that are premeditated.

Posted by Erik on 8:33 PM · Comments (2) · Full article

Anguish

                                                         "/that he did but see
                                                         The flatness of my misery, yet with eyes
                                                         Of pity, not revenge!"
                                                                                 -Hermione, The Winter's Tale



                                     "They would have been friends, but they saw each other only once
                                     face to face, on much-too-famous islands,
                                     and each of them was Cain, and also Abel.

                                     They were buried together.
                                     Snow and corruption know them.

                                     The event I refer to took place at a time we cannot understand"
                                                                        -Jorge L. Borges, "Juan Lopez and John Ward"

     (own tansl.)

Painfully, it seems, Hermione enumerates the things that matter most in her life: (1) the favor of her husband, (2) her first-born, and (3) the child Perdita that was taken away to be "murdered". Shakespeare presents the quintessential situation of agony when all of these are taken way-- and still Hermione maintains her character. She does not blame anyone; she feels overwhelmingly a deep sorrow simply for what is happening.

Borges, who was raised by his English grandmother and called his native Buenos Aires home, must have felt similar anguish when he witnessed the Falklands War (between England and Argentina), which resulted in deaths that to him were certainly not just one-sided.

When conflict arises, do we become angry? Or, as it seems Borges and Shakespeare are, are we genuinely pained by the debauchery inherent in man? I am impressed by the similarity of Shakespeare and Borges in their reactions and hope to internalize this message that they left behind. 

Posted by Erik on 11:24 AM · Comments (2) · Full article

Borges meets Shakespeare

      That's right. In this blog the world-renowned Jorge Luis from La gran Buenos Aires will take center stage. Interestingly enough, in my Spanish Lit class today, we talked to some length about an interview that my professor had with Borges many years ago in Argentina. The subject of the conversation quickly turned to Borges' work, and why he had chosen never to write anything in English (after all, alongside Spanish it had been his native language, although growing up in Argentina). He responded to Dr. Ted Lyon, "What, me? Write in the same language as Shakespeare? You must be kidding."

      Borges was exposed to literature of all kinds, but the fascinating thing is his naturally assumed position in comparative literature. He was never exposed to a bias between either Spanish or English because of his independently studious nature. And yet, above all, he has preferred the master Shakespeare as one of his role models. Another testament to the universality of Shakespeare, even in Hispanic circles.

Posted by Erik on 9:24 PM · Comments (0) · Full article

Shakespeare Acculturation

Elements of English culture reflected in Shakespeare's writing (that must have seemed like a second nature to all those listening to his productions) may have had an influence of acculturaton among the hispanic audience. I am interested in finding out to what extent that may have happened-- whether just among the academic sector (in which acculturation is not very likely anyway) or if Shakespeare's influence was actually able to reach and influence a broader audience generally (the way Japanese comics affect American teens). I venture a guess that it is somewhere in between.

Alas. That is not the theme for today really. I wanted to keep it here just as a reminder, so that I can remember the details and come back later.

I love the theme that Shakespeare presents about madness and sanity that seems prevalent in Hamlet. This was the first reaction that I had of something that enjoyed thinking about. This is the thing that I wonder most if has affected at all the cultures of others, actually. It seems such an English thing to me that we overanalyze, become obsessive, and work ourselves up to madness. This was one of the first thoughts that I had while reading him.

 Social interactions in my mind are the best indicator this really happens. The way Hamlet treats his family and "family", the way Claudius treats his wife and his step-son, etc all seem to indicate a lasting tension.

In the Hispanic community that I have come to know well, family relations are not always happy and certainly not blithe, but have a simplicity about them that Hamlet's family certainly does not. I cannot ever recall having dealt with complicated mental or emotional conflict among the Hispanic people with which I served. I wonder if the presentation of these ideas to the Hispanic community ever rubs off.

Posted by Erik on 3:47 PM · Comments (2) · Full article

First Impressions

Everyone who seems to know what they are talking about revere Shakespeare as a sovereign of English and even world literature. I have never quite been able to understand the reasons behind that, myself. I have been exposed to Shakespeare briefly in Elementary School, a little more in High School when I participated in the play Macbeth, and also marginally in college courses in introductory literature. I have, however, never been quite aware of the factors that apparently make this man's work among the impressive pieces of the history of literature. I am fascinated by the global extent of his work and am curious about the reach and the scope that he enjoys; I am anxious to find out just how large of a prestige he enjoys across the world. Here in this blog I undertake the project of researching Shakespeare's influence in the Hispanic World.

Posted by Erik on 10:32 PM · Comments (0) · Full article