| Contents |
Prologue : [If thou couldst please me with speaking to me...] -- 1. [this story / The world may read in me] (on translation) -- 2. [What verse for it?] (on verse) -- 3. [You kiss by th' book] (on Juliet and Romeo's sonnet) -- 4. [these two so like...] (on rhyming) -- 5. [To change true rules for odd inventions] (on irregularity) -- 6. [I will make him tell the tale anew] (on archaism) -- 7. [Let me entreat you speak the former language] (on translating into English) -- 8. [These numbers I will tear and write in prose] (on prose) -- 9. [Pause, and take thy breath] (on commas, and other things) -- 10. [Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still] (on ambiguity and wordplay) -- 11. [Danger shall seem sport] (on extreme wordplay) -- 12. [Love is not love] (on meaning/s) -- 13. [Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee] (on uncles, and boldness) -- 14. [let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me] (on pronouns) -- 15. [that is the question] (on 'To be...') -- 16. [I am amazed at your words] (on words and their effects) -- 17. [The art of our necessities is strange] (on gender and other opportunities) -- 18. [What needs more words?] (Antony and Cleopatra) -- 19. [in his simple show he harbours treason] (on deceptive simplicity) -- 20. [All his words are worthy] (on Latinate vocabulary) -- 21. [You have an exchequer of words] (on influences, kinships and etymologies) -- 22. [the cause that wit is in other men] (on humour) -- 23. [Speak scholarly and wisely] (on research) -- 24. [How order should be quelled...] (on word order) -- 25. [In sweet music is such art] (on languages of other kinds) -- 26. [by fair sequence and succession] (on bridges) -- 27. [these fellows of infinite tongue] (on Shakespeare's languages) -- 28. [accents yet unknown] (on accents, dialects and representation) -- 29. [I prithee, give no limits to my tongue] (on reasons to translate) -- 30. [a commodity of good names] (on names) -- 31. [O brave new world] (on cultural adjustment) -- 32. [Though you understand it not yourselves, no matter...] (on understanding, and multilingualism) -- 33. [To use one language in each several clime] (on multipolar languages) -- 34. [Why, now thou speak'st as I would have thee speak] (on actors) -- 35. [O, that delightful engine of her thoughts] (on thoughts) -- 36. [...a magician, most profound in his art] (on all of it at once) -- 37. [We know his handiwork] (on literary canon) -- 38. [Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural] (on translations without translators) -- 39. [our own voices with our own tongues] (on the translators) -- Epilogue : If this be magic... |
| Abstract |
"Shakespeare may have breathed the air of sixteenth-century England, but today, all the world is his stage. Every year, millions of people, from Bogotá to Borneo, read Hamlet for the first time, thanks to the tireless efforts of translators. Drawing on the work of the very best of them, Hahn dives into the brilliant and startling ways the great playwright is reinvented and yet sounds, somehow, like himself -- in Chinese, Dutch, Turkish, and nearly fifty other languages. From word order, puns, and punctuation to metaphor, accent, and song, Shakespeare's variety of genius presents an endless set of conundrums, among them: How does Romeo and Juliet's first encounter unfold if their dialogue cannot form a rhyming sonnet, as it does in the original? How can you assemble wordplay around the letter I and its sound if its meanings are not shared in other languages? These are just two out of millions of issues facing translators tasked with bringing Shakespeare to non-English languages, non-Shakespearean eras and cultures. Translators must cut and add beats, maintain rhymes, adapt names and locations, and preserve meaning while not unilaterally prioritizing it, all while knowing that for each word, line, or scene they construct, another option is yet to be discovered. Traveling the world, Hahn speaks to translators and others engaging with Shakespeare's work, sharing stories of his own. Hahn, whose great-grandfather produced one of Brazil's earliest Shakespeare translations, emerges as a wise and enthusiastic guide, teacher, and sleuth. If This Be Magic does not require knowledge of any other language or more than a passing acquaintance with the Bard's canon, but it draws out fascinating insights on both. As nerdy as they come (there is a chapter on commas), supremely readable, and funny throughout, this is a book for everyone and a fitting tribute to the Globe's Bard" -- Dust jacket. |
