Translation:
1 : an act, process, or instance of translating: as a : a rendering from one language into another; also : the product of such a rendering
Translations is an appropriate name for the play in that a translation of something is not merely a renaming, but it is a reinterpretation of a word or words. This is exactly what the Owen and the British soldiers are doing. They are recreating something new out of something old. In reinterpreting something, the original will be lost, but the hope is that an essence of it will still remain. The British soldiers pay no attention to this at all, except for Yolland. Their only worry is to entirely Anglicize place names. Any Gaelic essence left is irrelevant to them. The original names most likely contain natures that cannot be translated and do the originals no justice. Therefore, the reconstruction—or the translation—of something is not completely real; something has been altered and will probably never resurface.
very interesting.... i agree that nothing can be translated exactly. it will always lose something in translation. It's like going on to freetranslation.com and trying to do your spanish homework! it never is a good idea haha
ReplyDeletehaha! i can totally relate, hannah. italian doesn't translate well there either. you gotta actually 'know' the words and their context, just like the british need to know a name's backstory to translate it correctly.
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