Found in translation
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A poster promoting God of Carnage. |
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Two actors performing Doubt. |
Similar phrasing
Hu explained that he translated some of the lines in Doubt into well-structured ancient Chinese-styled dialogue with similar phrasing. "Because I thought this would make it sound more philosophical. If I used modern, or oral Chinese style, it would be tasteless," Hu said.
Hu added that it is more difficult to translate comedies. "In God of Carnage, there is a line: 'We call each other 'darjeeling,' like the tea. Far more ridiculous, if you ask me!' How could we translate 'darjeeling' into Chinese? Finally, I rendered it '我们彼此叫 '亲极爱的' (the dearest)，像种茶叶。更可笑，你还说呢！ The characters in Proof are mathematicians and college professors, so I use a kind of more academic language style, as in also the case in Copenhagen. With regards to the cultural differences, I try to balance the two sides. In Doubt, for example, the priest Father Flynn says: 'You try to talk to a girl with those filthy paws, Mr Conroy and she's gonna take off like she's being chased by the Red Chinese!' When He Yu, a Chinese performer from the NTC saw an English production of Doubt in New York, he felt uncomfortable about the use of this phrase in such a context, so I removed it."
Hu said that at present, a lot of translated plays published in China are very academic and aren't really suitable for the stage. Conversely, some are translated for performance, but lack the literary qualities of the original.
"We need to pay close attention to the dual nature of drama: the linguistic features of a dramatic text and the unique features of its performability. If we can master both of these, the problems of drama translation will be solved," Hu said.
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