To browse Academia. Translating contemporary drama is a difficult task since the translators have to be knowledgeable in the field of both translation and drama theory, f. An earlier and longer draft of a published version. Translating plays presents a number of problems quite different from those encountered in translating poetry or fiction. These problems derive from the fact that we are dealing with a specific genre.
Through Drama Translation class, I have learnt theories of drama translation proposed by actors, playwrights, translators and critics, which later served as the guideline of our collaborative translation process. Though they have different stances and therefore different criteria, by translating The Master, I could examine effects these criteria brought into the production of a drama translation and make adjustments in order to find a subtle balanced point between free and literal translation.
Apart from translating skills, I also realised that drama translators, as a key player in the translational action, have been required for certain qualities and knowledge other than those of other literary genres. Speaking of literary genres, as Jiri Veltrusky once pointed out , drama is one of literary genres, which uses language as its only material while theatre is not a literary genre but another art because it adopts various materials including language.
This creates a distinction between translations produced for a reading public or for performance on the stage, which is also an initial and fundamental question before I started translating The Master. In my opinion, the source text ST is not only a literary translation but also an integral part of a theatrical production, considering that it will be presented on stage along with lighting, sets and music, special criteria and tactics should be adopted, which will be discussed together with characteristics regarding language style of The Master.
Theatre translation is usually seen as a more elaborate dimension of literary translation because the text being translated is considered to be just one of the elements of theatre discourse. When translating a play, the translator should always adapt for performance the text he or she is recreating and be aware that a performer will deliver the lines. The translator, then, must take into account both the pragmatic and the semantic expressiveness of the word and remember that they are always at work simultaneously.
