Brian friel translations pdf

Is it astute not to be able to adjust for survival? Enduring around truths immemorially posited — hah! Is there something ' sinister in that? Are the people confused? Come here and look at it,. Look at it! And we call that crossroads Tobair Vree. And why do we. Tobair means a well. But what. Brian — an erosion of Tobair Bhriain. Because hundred-and-fifty a years ago there used be well to a not there, the crossroads, mind at you — would be too simple — but that in a field close to the crossroads.

And an old man called Brian, whose face was disfigured by an enormous growth, got it into his head that the water in that well was blessed; and every day for seven months he went there and bathed his face in it.

I know the story because my grandfather told it to. So the question I put to you. Lieutenant, is this: What do we do with a name like that? Do we scrap Tobair Vree altogether and call it— what? My name is not Roland! Then of the situation the absurdity. They explode with laughter, owen pours drinks.

As they roll about their lines overlap. MANUS enters. He is very elated. Welcome to Eden! We name a thing and— bang! Steady steady sober up — — sober up. Come on, man — speak in English. They want me to go there and start a hedge-school. And they came looking for you?

This calls for a real celebration. How long will it be before we reach Inis Meadhon? MANUs: Thank you. They shake warmly. Where are you rushing to? I need the can back. So we do. Maybe at Tobair Vree. Tobair Vree! May I come? Would anybody object if I came? You take on this job, Manus. Is your mother at home? I want to talk to her. He leaps up on a stool, raises his glass and shouts. Baile Beag! Inis Meadhon! And poteen — correct, Owen? I love it! Bloody, bloody, bloody marvellous!

Then immediately go to black. The musk rises to a crescendo. They run on, hand-in-hand. They have just left the dance. Fade the musk to distant background. Then after a time it is lost and replaced by guitar musk. The hands disengage. They begin to drift apart. Slightly further apart. My feet are soaking. The grass is soaking. Another few paces apart. They are now a long distance from one another. Then I never think of myself as Lieutenant. Then points to herself. Now he has a thought: he tries raising his voice and articulating in a staccato style and with equal and absurd emphasis on each word.

She moves towards him. She will try to communicate in Latin. Go on— go on — say anything at all — I love the sound of your speech. He moves towards her. Now for her English words. George— water. Oh yes water water very — — good— water— good — good. Go on. MAiRE stoops down and picks up a handful of clay.

Of course— earth! Good Lord, Maire, your English is perfect! English perfect. She holds her hand up for silence— she is trying to her one line of English. Now she remembers it and she delivers the line as — were her language easily, fluidly, conversationally. Norwich actually. Not exactly Norwich town but a small village called LittleWalsingham close beside it.

But in our own village of Winfarthing we have a maypole too and every year on the. He stares at her. She in turn misunderstands his excitement. She turns away from him and moves slowly across the stage.

She still moves away. He says the softly,. He tries again. Druim Dubh? She is listening, yolland is encouraged. Poll na gCaorach. Lis Maol. Lis na nGall. They are now facing each other and begin moving — almost imperceptibly — towards one another.

Loch na nEan. Machaire Buidhe. Cnoc na Mona. He takes them. Each now speaks almost to himself! I m trembling, too. I want to live with you anywhere anywhere — — at all — always— always. Suddenly they kiss. Her mouth works. Then almost to herself. SARAH runs off. Music to crescendo. Act Three I. The following evening. It is raining. She is pretending to 1 read but her eyes keep going up to the room upstairs, owen is working on the j floor as before, surrounded by his reference books, map, Name-Book etc.

But he has neither concentration nor interest; and like sarah he glances up at the ;. His movements are determined and urgent. He moves around the classroom, picking up books, examining each title carefully, and choosing about six of them which he puts into his bag.

It seems Saint Muranus had a monastery somewhere about ' tliere at the beginning of the seventh century. And over the years the name J became shortened to the Murren. He finds a piece. He begins to tie the mouth of the flimsy, overloaded bag— and it bursts, the contents spilling out on the floor.

OWEN leaps to his feet. H e runs upstairs, sarah waits until owen is off. Manus, I. MANUS hears sarah but makes no acknowledgement. He gathers up his be brings. OWEN reappears with the bag he had on his arrival. MANUS transfers his few belongings, owen drifts back to his task. The packing is now complete. For a week or two anyhow? MANUs: Will you do that for me?

Had he drink on him last night at the dance? MANUs: 1 had a stone in my hand when I went out looking for him — was going to fell him.

The lame scholar turned violent. If I d even said it in English. I remember Mother saying she had cousins :. Tell father took only the Virgil and the Caesar and the Aeschylus I. Even less than half— he usually takes his tea black. Those stairs are dangerous without a banister. Do you know what they pay me? Two shillings a day for this this this — — manus rejects the offer by holding out his hand.

Goodbye, Manus. Then manus picks up his bag briskly and goes towards the door. He stops a few paces beyond sarah, turns, comes back to her. He addresses One but now without warmth or concern for her. Pause Come on.

What is your name? Sarah what? Pause Well? She is now crying quietly. Very good, Sarah Johnny Sally. He looks down at her. Then briskly to the door and off. He begins folding up the map. As he does. SARAH nods: yes. I suppose Father knows. Where is he anyhow? SARAH points. SARAH repeats the mime and wipes away tears, owen is still puzzled. They are self-consciously noisier, more ebullient, more garrulous than ever — brimming over with excitement and gossip and brio.

Fifty more soldiers arrived an hour ago! Get out of my corn, you hoors you! SARAH begins putting out the seats. Rusticir 'Ignari! Is Manus about? Mayo, maybe. What are you asking us for? By the back road? I know nothing about Yolland. If you want to know about Yolland, ask the Donnelly twins. Pause Were they about last. Begins whistling through his teeth. Pause Doalty! All I — know is this: on my way to the dance I saw their boat beached at Port.

With sudden excessive interest. MAiRE enters. She is bareheaded and wet from the raini her hair in. She attempts to appear normal but she is in acute distress, on the She is carrying the milk-can. She looks around. Have you heard anything? He was here for only a few seconds. And off he went, laughing— laughing, Owen!

Come here till you see. Sure they make no sense to me at all. And Norwich is in a county called Norfolk. And Norfolk is in the east of England. He drew a map for me on the wet strand and wrote the names on it. But nice sounds; like Jimmy Jack reciting his Homer. You were looking lovely last night, Sarah. Is that the dress you got from Boston?

Green suits you. I know. Where is he, Owen? I do my geography last night. I think 1 11 go home now. The wee ones have to be washed and put to bed and that black calf has to be fed. Did you hear? I must go up to the wake.

Maybe you should owen begins picking up his texts, doalty goes to him. Bloody, bloody fool,. Any word? Where are the others? I will address them and it will be their responsibility to pass on what I have to say to every family in this section.

We are searching for him. If we. At once. I know you. I know where you live. Pointing to sarah Who are you? Her face becomes contorted. Again sarah tries frantically. You can tell him. And she knows she cannot. She closes her mouth. Her head goes doum. To owen. He says your whole camp is on fire. You carry a big responsibility in all this. Maybe at the back of Lis na nGradh or in the caves at the far end of the Tra Bhan. Come on, Doalty! Come on! Bridget runs to the door and stops suddenly.

She sniffs the air. The sweet smell! Smell it! Are you sure? Is that what it is? God, I thought we were destroyed altogether. Are you alright? It will come back to you again. He frightened you. Then she leaves. OWEN busies himself gathering his belongings, doalty leaves the. And after all the trouble you went to, mapping the place and thinking up new names for it. If we knew how to defend ourselves. I might know something then. He looks at it momentarily , then puts it.

It falls to the floor. He stoops to pick it up — hesitates — leaves it. He goes upstairs. As OWEN ascends, hugh and jimmy jack enter. Both wet and drunk. JIMMY is very unsteady. HUGH is equally drunk but more experienced in drunkenness: there is a portion of his mind which retains its clarity. HUGH: Unhappy indeed. Who is Timlin?

The Cork bacon-curer! Barbaras hie ego sum quia non intelligor ulli —James? I will compose a satire on Master Bartley Timlin, schoolmaster and. Shouts And a slice of soda bread. HUGH: Well! HUGH: Who? He attempts the gesture he has made before: standing to attention, the momentary spasm, the salute, the face raised in pained ecstasy — but the body does not respond efficiently this time.

The gesture is grotesque. HUGH: The lady has assented? When was this? HUGH: What does her mother say? Decent people — good stock. HUGH: And her father? Hugh, will you be my best man? Compamonship — correct,. HUGH: Correct. HUGH: Indeed.

The whole story. You know it all now, Hugh. You know it all. Now he staggers away, tries to sit on a stool, misses. Almost at once he is asleep. HUGH watches all of this. Then he produces his flask and is about to pour a drink when he sees the Name-Book on the floor.

He picks it up and leafs through pronouncing the strange names as he does. Just as he it,. HUGH: Ballybeg. Kings Head. Fair Hill. Green Bank. In apology. HUGH: I know what it is. Tea He throws the book on the table and crosses over to jimmy. Wake up, Jimmy. Wake up, man. Drink this. Then go on away home. There may be trouble. Do you hear me, Jimmy? HUGH: We must learn where we live. We must learn to make them our own. We must make them our new home.

HUGH: James thinks he knows, too. James has ceased to make that discrimination. Is there no soda bread? Lancey has issued the order. Edictum imperatoris. As OWEN exits. To remember everything is a form of madness. He looks around the roomy carefully as if he were about to leave it y. Then he looks at Jimmy y asleep again.

The road A spring morning. Going into battle. Do to Sligo. Two young gallants with pikes across their shoulders and the Aeneid in their pockets. Everything seemed to find definition that spring — a congruence, a miraculous matching of hope and past and present and possibility. Striding across the fresh, green land. The rhythms of perception heightened. The whole enterprise of consciousness accelerated. We were gods that morning, James; and I had recently married my goddess, Caitlin Dubh Nic Reactainn, may she rest in peace.

And to leave her and my infant son in his cradle — that was heroic, too. By God, sir, we were magnificent. We marched as far as — where was it?

All of — twenty-three miles in one day. The desiderium nostrorum — the need own. Our pietas, James, was for older, for our quieter things. And that was the longest twenty-three miles back I ever made. Toasts jimmy. My friend, confusion is not an ignoble condition.

So I came back here. I need to learn it. HUGH: Indeed you may well be my only pupil. He goes towards the steps and begins to ascend. HUGH: Not today.

Tomorrow, perhaps. After the funeral. But will that help you to interpret between privacies? I have no idea at all. He is now at the top. He sits. He gets to his feet. He told me this iswhere he was happiest. It means to marry within the tribe. And the word exogamein means to marry outside the tribe. Now, the problem is this: Is Athene sufficiently mortal or am I sufficiently godlike for the marriage to be acceptable to her people and to my people?

You think about that. Sure I know it backways. Greek and Latin Used in the Text. Sum fatigatissima: I am very tired. Optimel: Good! PAGE 17 Ignari, stulti, rustici! Land that is black and rich beneath the pressure of the plough, cui putre: crumbly soil. No matter how long the sun delays on his long weary course At length evening comes with its sacred song, expeditio: an expedition PAGE 50 Tu es centurio in exercitu Britannico.

You are a centurion in the British Army. Et es in castris quae sunt in agro. Always — for all time. There was an ancient city, late regem belloque superbum: kings of broad realms and proud in war. It engages the intel-. The action takes place in late August at a hedge- school in the townland of Baile Beag, an Irish-speaking community in County Donegal.

In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the Royal Engineers, making the first Ordnance Survey. Fur the purposes of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be recorded and rendered into English. In examining the effects of this operation on the lives of a small group, Brian Friel skilfully reveals the far- reaching personal and cultural effects of an action which is at first sight purely administrative.

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Bestsellers Editors' Picks All audiobooks. Explore Magazines. Editors' Picks All magazines. Explore Podcasts All podcasts. Difficulty Beginner Intermediate Advanced. Explore Documents. Brian Friel - Translations. Uploaded by Fernanda Mugica.

Document Information click to expand document information Description: kk. Did you find this document useful? Is this content inappropriate? Report this Document. Description: kk. Flag for inappropriate content. Download now. Related titles. Carousel Previous Carousel Next. Howards End by Forster, E. Edward Morgan , Jump to Page. Search inside document. Michael Etherton, in Contemporary Irish Dramatists Macmillan , writes: Brian Friel isone of the most accomplished playwrights working in English today.

Act One The hedge-school is held in a disused bam or hay-shed or byre. He is a bachelor in his sixties, lives alone, and comes to these evening classes partly for the company and partly for the intellectual stimulation.

MANUs: Yes? By God, sir, them flashing eyes would fair keep a man jigged up constant! During this. Question B — Am I I sober? I S lowly y reluctantly they begin to move to their seats and specific tasks. X alty: Someone told him. Thaf s what you should have in that upper field of yours corn, not spuds.

She moves away again. Iwas thinking that maybe I could. I maire looks at him for a second. I saw your Seamus heading off to the Port fair early this morning. First the smell; and then one morning the stalks are all black and limp. In his haste to get to the back seat doalty bumps into Bridget who is kneeling on the floor and writing laboriously on a slate resting on top of a bench-seat. Now the quiet hum of work: jimmy reading Homer in a low voice; BRiixiET copying her headline; maire studying the atlas; doalty, his eyes shut tight, mouthing his tables; sarah doing sums.

Perhaps not in sobrietate perfecta but adequately sobrius to overhear your quip. He removes his hat and coat and hands them and his stick to manus, as if to a footman. HUGH: Indeed — he voiced some surprise we did net speak that his language.

And i y again to his credit he acquiesced to my logic. He said the sooner we all learn to speak English the better. And you and I are going to get drunk.

They meet at the bottom. What is it anyway? Is it the straw? Somebody take these dishes away. So survey cannot but be received as proof of the this disposition of this government to advance the interests of Ireland. HU iH: Our pleasure, Captain. They both call you Roland! Owen Roland — —what the hell. It s only a name. This was ten, eleven months ago. He I met every group of sappers as they reported in.

Today he is consciously jaunty physically and mentally jaunty and alert — almost self- and alert. Holds out his glass for a refill. Come here and look at it, Look at it!

And why do we call it Tobair Vree? I know the story because my grandfather told it to — — — me. Then of the situation the absurdity strikes them suddenly. Retain the musk throughout the very brkf interval.

I maire: Wait till I get my breath back. But in our own village of Winfarthing we have a maypole too and every year on the first of May — He stops abruptly, only now realising. He says the softly, tentatively, as if he were searching for a sound she might respond to. Act Three I The following evening. But he has neither concentration nor interest; and like sarah he glances up at the ; upstairs room. I — i think we should go back to the original Saint Muranus.

I remember Mother saying she had cousins : somewhere away out in the Erris Peninsula. Pause Were they about last night? With sudden excessive interest in the scene outside. She is bareheaded and wet from the raini her hair in disarray.

Bloody, bloody fool, limping along the coast. OWEN busies himself gathering his belongings, doalty leaves the window and goes to him. He looks at it momentarily , then puts it on top of the pile he is carrying.

I will compose a satire on Master Bartley Timlin, schoolmaster and bacon-curer. Compamonship — correct, Hugh? Now he staggers away, tries to sit on a stool, misses it, slides to the floor, his feet in front of him, his back against the broken cart.

Just as he it, begins, owen emerges and descends with two bowls of tea. He looks around the roomy carefully as if he were about to leave it y forever. Black PAGE 15 Esne fatigata? It engages the intel- lect as well as the heart, and achieves a profound political and philosophical resonance through the detailed examination of individual lives, of particular people in a particular place and time.

Gabriel Lozada. Aly Taha. Cecilia Porfirio. Dayana C. Andreea Dana. Alina Gabriela. The Guardian. Salwah Chowdhury. Domino D'Lorion. Carey Camel. Mark Fiorentino. A house not meant to stand, de Tennessee Williams. Kwat Deck. Jimmy: At Christmas. Hugh: Splendid. Jimmy: To Athene. Hugh: Who? Jimmy: Pallas Athene. Hugh: Glaukopis Athene?

He attempts the gesture he has made before: standing to attention, the momentary spasm, the salute, the face raised in pained ecstasy — but the body does not respond efficiently this time. Hugh: the lady has assented? Jimmy: She asked me — I assented. Hugh: Ah. When was this? Jimmy: Last night. Hugh: What does her mother say? Jimmy: Metis from Hellespont? Decent people — good stock. Hugh: And her father? Hugh, will you be my best man? This exaggerated picture shows the extreme extent of being drowned in a remote, illusionary and mystic world which is far from the real world of practical, everyday life.

We should keep in mind that Latin is now but a dead language which is not used in daily communications. Perhaps it is time the colonized learned the dominant, widely-spoken language of their colonizers, to get involved with them, to communicate with them, to make them known to them with their medium of communication instead of locking themselves in their own memories of the past, real or imaginary.

This is what Maire and Hugh notice, of course, with different degrees. At the end of the play Hugh promises Maire to teach her English. He realizes that it is no use to stick to the past. We must learn to make them our own. We should also look at the title of the play: Translations, not translation. This may refer to different factors.

As mentioned earlier, translation and colonization went almost hand in hand. In this side of translation we may see the act of translation as the colonizing act of ruling out a language and culture. Of all the characters, Owen is mostly involved in this act.

He takes part in the process of re-mapping his land and re-naming his native place-names. Friel makes his role in cultural colonization and his carelessness towards it clearer to us with his metaphoric ignorance to the mispronouncing his name by the British soldiers. They call him Rolland, instead of Owen, but he does not care, not at least until Manus warns him of the situation: Manus: And they call you Roland!

They both call you Roland! Owen: Shhhh. I was afraid some of you bastards would laugh. Owen: Yes — yes — soon — soon. Manus: But they … Owen: Easy, man, easy.

Owen — Roland — what the hell. I, Owen may not be aware at this time that with this carelessness in pronouncing his name, the British are unwillingly showing their contempt toward his identity, reducing him to his job, an interpreter, or an interpreting machine.

We should note the significant role of translation in communication. Without translation, there would be no communication, no interaction, not any movement forward, just staying fixed and locking oneself in a linguistic framework. In post-colonial writing translation is seen as an important tool.

Today the previously detached cultures are coming together and establishing close relations. In this view of culture translation becomes specifically important as a means through which cultural communication becomes possible. In this way we may realize that, contrary to the idea of those who accuse Friel of supporting political nationalism, Friel has not presented a one-sided picture of a colonized nation.

There is no doubt that the shift of language in Ireland has been a colonizing act with an imperialistic nature. But is closing the door and locking oneself in a linguistic and historical framework the best solution to the problem?

Friel poses this question in his play. In a later play entitled The Communication Cord Friel more directly satirizes the nationalistic and cultural prejudice.

Where Translations deals with pre-famine Ireland bracing itself for the final transplantation of Gaelic into English, The Communication Cord takes up the story more than a century later. Its central character, Donovan, is the caricature of the exaggerated romanticism of Irish cultural nationalism. Translations seems a serious, if not a bit tragic, play, while The Communication Cord is apparently a farce. Conclusion The Irish experienced the linguistic colonization. From one point of view, the language of the colonizer has won over the language of the colonized, and this may be seen as a cultural loss for the Irish.

The Celtic Revival or The Irish Literary Renaissance, which was the dominant cultural movement in the period — , is one attempt to reclaim Irish cultural identity, with the very means with which it was apparently humiliated. Today nobody can claim that the literature produced by Irish has the same language as the English literature has.

It is the Irish version of English that distinguishes its literature, just as the American version of English by which its literature is identified, or just as the language of the Spanish-speaking colonies is distinguished from that of their colonizers through the mastery of form.

This is what Friel hails in Translations. References Abrams, M. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Amuta, Chindi.

The Post- Colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge, Arkins, Brian. Bassnett, Susan and Harish Trivedi. Postcolonial Translation. Bertha, Csilla. The Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel. Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Charles Lam Markmann Trans. London: Pluto Press. Friel, Brian. London: Faber and Faber. Gonzalez Arias, Luz Mar. The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies.

Kearney, Richard. Lee, Su Kim. Loomba, Ania. London: Routledge. Meissner, Collin. Smith, Anthony D. Asian Nationalism. Tymoczko, Maria. Yigit, Ali. Adineh Khojastehpour is highly experienced in film studies, with considerable expertise in Persian language, literature and culture.

Her works have been widely published. His works have been widely published and he has recently received a scholarship by the German Humboldt Foundation to conduct postdoctoral research.