Translations by Brian Friel

THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSLATING BRIAN FRIEL’S TRANSLATIONS

by
Federica Mazzara and Dimitra Philippopoulou

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________ 3

BRIAN FRIEL AND TRANSLATIONS __________________________________________________ 4

TRANSLATIONS THEMES __________________________________________________________ 6

THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSLATING TRANSLATIONS __________________________________ 9

ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF AN EXTRACT FROM BRIAN FRIEL’S TRANSLATIONS___________ 12

GREEK TRANSLATION OF AN EXTRACT FROM BRIAN FRIEL’S TRANSLATIONS ___________ 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY __________________________________________________________________ 24

INTRODUCTION

«Translations is a modern classic» (Daily Telegraph).
«[...] The most deeply involved with Ireland but also the most universal: haunting and hard, lyrical and erudite, bitter and forgiving, both praise and lament»1 (Sunday
Times).
In our essay we introduce Brian Friel’s Translations starting from some historical data and we move on to an analysis of the major themes presented in the play.
Because translation holds a special place among them, we pay specific attention to the concept of translation, as Friel sees it: as metaphor of ‘Irishness’.
Later on, we unfold our strategy in translating an extract of this work, explaining in as much detail as possible why we adopt the basic principle of Skopos theory.
Firstly, we present the unusual nature of the play, which ‘plays’ with Irish and English on stage.
Secondly, we describe our purpose, which is to maintain the original setting, in the sense that we do not ‘acculturate’ it. We feel that it is important to keep English as the theme of the play, changing of course the medium, since we translate it using the
Italian and the Greek language.
Finally, we incorporate our individual translations