ACCURACY VS. PERFORMABILITY Translating French words for which there's no equivalent meaning in modern English poses a particular accuracy vs. performability problem for the translator. One good example is a passage of dialogue in Act II, scene 2, where Dorine, the maidservant, keeps interrupting Orgon as he's telling his daughter, Mariane, that she must marry Tartuffe. In the original version, Dorine uses the French word sot to describe what Tartuffe will become if Dorine is forced to marry him. In the boxes below, you'll see a literal translation of Dorine's words (except for the word sot which is left untranslated) as well as three translators' versions of what this word means. I've highlighted the words to which you'll want to pay particular attention.
The word sot in French refers to a ridiculously foolish person. Moliere's audience would have realized that Dorine was referring to a particular kind of fool, a man whose wife has been unfaithful. But for a modern translator, it's very hard to find an equivalent word in modern English to convey this meaning. (The word sot is sometimes used, but its meaning has changed to refer to someone who drinks excessively.) As you can see above, the translation by Frame simply uses the word fool, a literal translation of sot. Wilbur's and Bishop's translations, on the other hand, use words that directly convey unfaithfulness. Wilbur's choice is cuckold, a word commonly used in British English to refer to a man whose wife has been unfaithful. (The word derives from an old belief that female cuckoos laid their eggs in other birds' nests.) Bishop uses the phrase horned monster, another way of describing a cuckold by referring to the horns on a cuckoo's head. To reinforce this meaning, Wilbur also uses the horns reference in the second part of Dorine's dialogue. There are disadvantages to both these choices. In modern English the word fool, Frame's choice, is used so widely and vaguely that it doesn't convey what Dorine means by sot: a man whose wife is unfaithful. Wilbur's and Bishop's choices -- cuckold and horned monster -- do convey this meaning, but these words are much more explicit than the word Moliere used. An added problem is that references to cuckolds and horns aren't commonly used in modern American English, so some audiences might still not get the point. Another problem occurs later in the same scene when Orgon completely loses his temper and explodes at Dorine. This is what the passage looks like in French and in a literal translation:
In the original version, Orgon's use of the phrase te tairas-tu is significant because the pronoun you has two different forms in French. The tu form is considered familiar and is normally used in conversations with friends and family. Vous, however, is a more formal usage and would normally be used when a master -- in this case, Orgon -- is addressing his servant. And in fact, up to this point in the play, Orgon has always used the vous form in addressing Dorine. But now he suddenly uses tu. So, when Dorine sarcastically says she's amazed at his outburst, it's not only what he's said, it's how he's said it that leads to her response. In an English translation it's impossible to capture this distinction because in modern English the only available pronoun is you. Older forms of English made this distinction by using thee and thou, instead of you, in formal conversation, but these pronouns have become obsolete. So the translator and, of course, the actor playing Orgon, have to find other ways to convey the extent of Orgon's outrage. The next page will continue this discussion of accuracy and performability. But before going on, please do the following exercise. EXERCISE B.
When you've finished the exercise, go to Page 3. comments to: vpoulakis@nvcc.edu 03/28/05
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