Imagery in Translation

DRAMA UNIT 2:

TRANSLATING EDWARD ALBEE INTO RUSSIAN

Introductory Notes

Edward Franklin Albee(born in 1928) is an American playwright, one of the famous dramatists of the 1950s-1960s associated with the so called Theatre of the Absurd. The term "absurd" is used in the meaning it was formulated in Camus's essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942), where it was stated that the world is purposeless and indecipherable, the absurdity of which causes in man the feelings of frustration and bewilderment. According to the principles of the Theatre, the actions and dialogues of the plays are usually meaningless, senseless, contradictory. The reader — and spectator — of the plays is left bewildered and puzzled, for there may be no obvious logic in such a play, just a flow of incomprehensible dialogues, strange behaviour and lack of action. Yet, by some strange chemistry, these plays make you think and understand things better, trouble your imagination and sharpen your feelings and relations with the world and people.

The first (and most famous) play by Albee was The Zoo Story (195 8). It was staged at the same off-Broadway theatre where early works of Eugene O'Neill had been staged 50 years ago. Even when famous and renowned, Albee disregarded commercial theatres of Broadway. He believed that they presented what the audience wanted, rather than what is new and provocative. He thought that the Broadway public "are basically lazy audiences who want mere entertainment" and demand not big plays but big stars.

Edward Albee, in his best plays, is a sharp and shrewd crit-icist of the today's society. His absurd-looking situations and dialogues have much sense in themselves, for they turn the reality

inside out and show people their own hidden and suppressed emo-

________ Практикум по художественному переводу__

tions, reasons and aims. The feeling of estrangement of man in the modern society has found its expression in his plays. The playwright is a skilful dramatist with a sharp feeling of the scene and tone. Some of his dialogues and remarks sound real poetry due to the shape, colouration and rhythmic value of words he has found for them.

The Zoo Story presents his wits and talent. The content seems really absurd; it tells how Peter, a gentle, well-dressed publisher and well-mannered intellectual, on a Sunday afternoon in the Central Park of New York meets a Jerry, lean and hungry, lost and lonely underdog. Peter tells Jerry that he lives in one of the fashionable "high-income" districts of New York (the East 70^lhs streets), with a wife, two lovely daughters and a pair of parakeets, his life full of comfort and measure.

Jerry lives alone in a small room without a soul to speak or turn to. He tells of a mixed-up childhood, always drunken parents. He emphaticelly asks Peter if he wants to know what happened at the Zoo, but the story never comes to the point.

The two men speak the same English language, but they fail to understand each other because they live as if in two separate worlds, incapable to share the experience of each other. The impenetrable wall of estrangement, prejudices, fears and stereotypes is being built with words. They are mostly "absurd" words, which do not say what is meant, but threaten, puzzle and irritate.

It is no easy task for translator to reconstruct this wall in the Russian language and associate it with Russian speaking habits and associations.

Task for comparison:

The Zoo Story — Про зоопарк

THE ZOO STORY The players:

Peter:

A man in his early forties, neither fat nor gaunt, neither handsome nor homely. He wears tweeds, smokes a pipe, carries

222

Imagery in Translation

horn-rimmed glasses. Although he is moving into middle age, his dress and his manner would suggest a man younger.

Jerry:

A man in his late thirties, not poorly dressed, but carelessly. What was once a trim and lightly muscled body has begun to go too fat; and while he is no longer handsome, it is evident that he once was. His fall from physical grace should not suggest debauchery; he has, to come closest to it, a great weariness.

The scene:

Central Park, New York, on a Sunday afternoon in summer. There are two park benches; toward either side of the stage, they both face the audience. Behind them: foliage, trees, sky. When the curtain rises, Peter is seated on the right bench, reading a book. Jerry enters the stage from the left and crosses to the centre.

Jerry: I've been to the Zoo. {Loudly) Mister, I've been to the Zoo.

Peter {looking up): Hm? What? I'm sorry, were you talking to me?

Jerry: I went to the Zoo, and then I walked until I came here. Have I been walking north?

Peter {Puzzled): Why — 1 — I think so. Let me see... Jerry {Pointing out front): Is that Fifth Avenue? Peter: Why,yes, yes, it is.

Jerry: And what is that cross street there; that one, to the right? Peter: That? Oh, that's Seventy-fourth Street.

Jerry: And the Zoo is around Sixty-fifth Street; so, I've been walking north.

223

Практикум по художественному переводу_____

Peter{anxious to get back to his reading): Yes; it would seem so.

Jerry:Good old north.

Peter{lightly; by reflex): Ha, ha!

Jerry{after a slight pause): But not due north.

Peter:I — well, no, not due north; but we — call it north. It's northerly.

{Jerry watches as Peter, anxious to dismiss him, prepares his pipe.)

Jerry:Well, boy; you're not going to get lung cancer, are

you?

Peter:No, sir. Not from this.

Jerry:No, sir. What you'll probably get is cancer of the mouth, and then you'll have to wear one of those things Freud wore after they took one whole side of his jaw away. What do they call those things?

Peter{uncomfortably): A prosthesis? {He lights his pipe.)

Jerry:The very thing! A prosthesis. You're an educated man, aren't you? Are you a doctor?

Peter:Oh, no; no. I read about it somewhere; Time magazine, I think. {He turns to his book).

Jerry:Well, Time magazine isn't for blockheads. Peter{looking up): No, 1 suppose not.

Jerry{after a pause): Boy, I'm glad that's Fifth Avenue there.

224

Переглядів: 234

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.006 сек.