Leseprobe_Holm_Holberg Plays Volume I

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innocence. But the metaphor is corporeal, and therefore resonates in the body and imagination of the audience. Here, too – in connection with the imagery of the text – musicality enters the picture: which word falls on which beat is vital to the audience experience of a play. Where is the main stress placed in the phrasing of the lines spoken? In the original Danish, Jeppe’s insistence on his innocence is evident in the rhythm of the line: “Jeg er så uskyldig som et barn i moders liv.” All these nuances cannot possibly be transferred one-to-one from the one language to the other. But the translator of drama must have a both reflective and intuitive understanding of the work, which is thus not only about reproducing the semantic meaning of the original text, but also in the widest sense about transferring its musicality to its new language. Policy and objective when approaching these translations have thus been loyalty to the original text combined with consideration of a particular scenic language – the text as one component in an overall artistic totality in three dimensions, which must enter into direct dialogue with the audience. The translation has therefore been back and forth between us numerous times as we weighed out how closely a ‘new’ linguistic outfit could be tailored vis-à-vis the original model, and sought inventive solutions to situations in which meaning was not the only consideration – where, in a nutshell, it was only possible/necessary to be loyal by being uninhibited. In other words, the concept of loyalty to the original text has also been a matter of the performative registers. By thus being forced to delve under the layer of somewhat antiquated Danish – and in so doing also work through and go beyond the intimacy with the original text as accrued by our Danish half – we have gained new insight into the psychological sensitivity expressed via orchestration, the construing of which has been a key ambition in the translation. In this process, we received expert input from four English-language actors, who in November 2019 with delight and energy undertook readings of the two plays in this volume: two translated texts with which they were utterly unfamiliar and could therefore approach as they would any ‘new’ material, on purely professional stage terms. Language, history, dramaturgy The project is the result of two pairs of hands. Circumstances of language and history – with regard to introductions, notes and choices in the translation – have been the subject of ongoing dialogue, and thus the boundaries between who contributed exactly what are fluid. All aspects of the language, the history and the stage have been put to the test in constructive practices. Our endeavour has been to bestow upon the Danish originals an English that is neither nostalgically ‘old-fashioned’ nor demonstratively ‘modern’ – an attempt 9
to respect the originals in the triangulation between semantic, factual and stage considerations in such a way that the language is only ‘odd’ when it is meant to be so, when the characters find themselves in circumstances where words, sentences, meanings break down. In our understandings of language, history and dramaturgy, we come from two different European backgrounds. The differences, similarities, discords and harmonies inherent in these traditions have been the backdrop to the translation process, and have thus directed the dynamics and led to the result. Copenhagen, Denmark, 24.3.2020 Bent <strong>Holm</strong> and Gaye Kynoch 10
Page 1 and 2: LUDVIG HOLBERG PLAYS Volume I Just
Page 4 and 5: LUDVIG HOLBERG PLAYS VOLUME I Just
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS 7 PREFACE 11 INTRODUCTION
Page 8 and 9: PREFACE Four factors led to the lau
Page 12 and 13: INTRODUCTION Just JUSTESEN’S Refl
Page 14 and 15: In several respects, the new theatr
Page 16 and 17: Further reading: Carlson, Marvin A.
Page 18 and 19: Just Justesen’s Reflections on Th
Page 20 and 21: and incredible exploits and knights

Leseprobe_Holm_Holberg Plays Volume I

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