Chronology Entry
Year
1977
Text
Ooi, Vicki Cheng Har. Pinter in Cantonese [ID D32024].
In my production of The caretaker by Harold Pinter I did use different varieties of Cantonese to simulate the different registers and idioms used in the original. Many of the technical terms for tools and furnishing materials have no exact equivalent in the Chinese vocabulary. In some cases a verbal translation can be achieved, but to little purpose as the whole significance is lost in translation.
The treatment of Davies shocked the Chinese audience when I produced the play in Hong Kong. It set up a very strong conflict of sympathies and one which I feel is probably more intense than was originally intended. Many of the obscenities and expletives have, to remain effective, to be changed to contexts of sex, or of incest, and even into such wholesale curses as would involve the total extinction of a family of clan before they can achieve the intended effect of shock.
Pinter is especially difficult to translate not only because he uses words meticulously and with amazing virtuosity, but because he uses words as a dramatic strategy, constantly reminding his audience of the presence of sub-textual meaning, by weaving an intricate arabesque with what would seem to be otherwise unremarkable words.
Pinter's plays take on the quality of the surreal. Fully to appreciate this surrealistic quality one has to be willing to acknowledge the parts that are overt, and to accept the tentative. And it is this demand on the audience which makes Pinter particularly difficult to put across to a Chinese audience. Even in a western context, Pinter isn't an easy playwright to accept. But a Chinese audience is probably more stubbornly insistent on fact and rationality, and is less prepared to play a teasing game with the merely possible and the tentative. This was a problem I faced when I first suggested producing The caretaker in Cantonese. The way I chose to do it was faithfully to reproduce the rhythm of the speeches : I found that when the tones, rhythm, and pauses of the original were reproduced faithfully, much of the pressure, tactics and moments of tension and decision could be communicated.
In my production of The caretaker by Harold Pinter I did use different varieties of Cantonese to simulate the different registers and idioms used in the original. Many of the technical terms for tools and furnishing materials have no exact equivalent in the Chinese vocabulary. In some cases a verbal translation can be achieved, but to little purpose as the whole significance is lost in translation.
The treatment of Davies shocked the Chinese audience when I produced the play in Hong Kong. It set up a very strong conflict of sympathies and one which I feel is probably more intense than was originally intended. Many of the obscenities and expletives have, to remain effective, to be changed to contexts of sex, or of incest, and even into such wholesale curses as would involve the total extinction of a family of clan before they can achieve the intended effect of shock.
Pinter is especially difficult to translate not only because he uses words meticulously and with amazing virtuosity, but because he uses words as a dramatic strategy, constantly reminding his audience of the presence of sub-textual meaning, by weaving an intricate arabesque with what would seem to be otherwise unremarkable words.
Pinter's plays take on the quality of the surreal. Fully to appreciate this surrealistic quality one has to be willing to acknowledge the parts that are overt, and to accept the tentative. And it is this demand on the audience which makes Pinter particularly difficult to put across to a Chinese audience. Even in a western context, Pinter isn't an easy playwright to accept. But a Chinese audience is probably more stubbornly insistent on fact and rationality, and is less prepared to play a teasing game with the merely possible and the tentative. This was a problem I faced when I first suggested producing The caretaker in Cantonese. The way I chose to do it was faithfully to reproduce the rhythm of the speeches : I found that when the tones, rhythm, and pauses of the original were reproduced faithfully, much of the pressure, tactics and moments of tension and decision could be communicated.
Mentioned People (2)
Ooi, Vicki Cheng-har
(um 1997) : Dozentin Department of English, Hong Kong University
Pinter, Harold
(London 1930-2008 London) : Dramatiker, Regisseur, Nobelpreisträger
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Great Britain
Documents (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1977 | Ooi, Vicki Cheng Har. Pinter in Cantonese : language, stage and meaning. In : Sydney studies in English, vol. 2 (1976-1977). | Publication / Pint1 |