"Are you her husband, boy?"; or, Shakespeare fail
FAIL, I say.
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_220.html
Today I had my tutorial on Twelfth Night (we wound up having to move it back a day, which did not actually help on the ridiculousness front). At one point, I lapsed into Orsino Defense Mode (I'd been doing pretty well, actually; when I admitted that I liked him, my student was surprised--not just that anyone could like him, but that I hadn't shown evidence of it before then. I am sneaky. Up to a point). And one of the pieces of evidence in that defense (as I've written about before) is his sudden use of the word "sirrah"--"Her husband, sirrah?"--when he's previously referred to Cesario by using "Dear lad" and "my boy," etc. (We will pass over, as quickly as possible, the part where I buried my face in the book at that point and exclaimed, "Oh, it always makes me so sad!" That is a separate instance of fail.)
So of course SparkNotes, managing to disregard context as always, renders the line as "Are you her husband, boy?" Which...so doesn't work, in this play. It's not that "boy" can't be an insult, of course--but it isn't here, not from Orsino to Cesario.
Also, *weeps*
VIOLA
And all those sayings will I overswear;
And those swearings keep as true in soul
As doth that orbèd continent the fire
That severs day from night.
becomes
VIOLA
Everything I said before I’ll say again. I swear I meant every word.
WHY DO THEY HATE ME SO MUCH?
Reading the "translation" side by side with the original text really emphasizes how little most of it actually needs translating, though. I've ranted about this before, the way these translations make the whole enterprise of reading Shakespeare look harder than it is, so I won't do it now--though there is, perhaps, a little willful obtuseness on my part in saying that, only a few days after my Milton section ground to a halt because of basic reading comprehension. Still, Milton =/= Shakespeare, and...really. Just look at that passage above.
What I want to do, at some point, is to use a SparkNotes "translated" passage to demonstrate everything one misses out on when one reads a translation--to point out that all those annoying words and stuff are there for a reason. Someone I know did that once, and it sounded like a good idea.
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_220.html
Today I had my tutorial on Twelfth Night (we wound up having to move it back a day, which did not actually help on the ridiculousness front). At one point, I lapsed into Orsino Defense Mode (I'd been doing pretty well, actually; when I admitted that I liked him, my student was surprised--not just that anyone could like him, but that I hadn't shown evidence of it before then. I am sneaky. Up to a point). And one of the pieces of evidence in that defense (as I've written about before) is his sudden use of the word "sirrah"--"Her husband, sirrah?"--when he's previously referred to Cesario by using "Dear lad" and "my boy," etc. (We will pass over, as quickly as possible, the part where I buried my face in the book at that point and exclaimed, "Oh, it always makes me so sad!" That is a separate instance of fail.)
So of course SparkNotes, managing to disregard context as always, renders the line as "Are you her husband, boy?" Which...so doesn't work, in this play. It's not that "boy" can't be an insult, of course--but it isn't here, not from Orsino to Cesario.
Also, *weeps*
VIOLA
And all those sayings will I overswear;
And those swearings keep as true in soul
As doth that orbèd continent the fire
That severs day from night.
becomes
VIOLA
Everything I said before I’ll say again. I swear I meant every word.
WHY DO THEY HATE ME SO MUCH?
Reading the "translation" side by side with the original text really emphasizes how little most of it actually needs translating, though. I've ranted about this before, the way these translations make the whole enterprise of reading Shakespeare look harder than it is, so I won't do it now--though there is, perhaps, a little willful obtuseness on my part in saying that, only a few days after my Milton section ground to a halt because of basic reading comprehension. Still, Milton =/= Shakespeare, and...really. Just look at that passage above.
What I want to do, at some point, is to use a SparkNotes "translated" passage to demonstrate everything one misses out on when one reads a translation--to point out that all those annoying words and stuff are there for a reason. Someone I know did that once, and it sounded like a good idea.