Tomorrow night, on Shakespeare's 448th birthday, I will see the first of 37 plays produced at The Globe in a variety of languages. The Globe to Globe series kicks off with Troilus and Cressida in Maori.
I had an idea to see all 37 plays, since you get a discount for buying tickets to all of them. But then it occurred to me that maybe that 's a little ambitious. After all, the series is only 6 weeks, so you'd see a play every other day more or less and only two are in English. Some I think I could figure out, such as Julius Cesar in Italian, but Henry VI pt 1 in Serbian is sure to be a challenge.
The Globe season opened today with Sonnet Sunday, in which all 154 sonnets were read in different languages. I thought it would be a good testing ground for my tolerance and as it happens it was perfect, not only to see how I do with hours of foreign language but also hours of standing in the cold rain. I have Groundling tickets since I enjoy being close to the stage and seeing the actors close up. But the forecast tomorrow is for rain, as it was today. But having a dress rehearsal of sorts, I now know how many layers it will take to be comfortable.
One of the biggest questions I had in considering Shakespeare in other languages, is if the translations are focused on rhyme and meter, or more about exact words translations. As far as I could tell today, the sonnets were more about keeping somewhat of a meter going and leaving a rhyme intact. I can't really say that they were all still technically sonnets, having the "abab" scheme, and some lasted far longer than what it would normally take to read the 14 lines. One sonneteer explained to us that the iambic pentameter was just not going to work for his language, Cree, as one single word had as many syllables as an entire line. The sonnets he read were quite long but beautiful and in keeping sound of Native American languages.
Some languages were a bit spikier than others, German being the most. It was quite staccato sounding while Twi and Kuwati Arabic were more flowing. Catalan had the best rhymes. Scots and Cornish sounded the most like the original. Finnish sounded more Spanish than I expected. Latin was really cool. There was meant to be Klingon, but he was a no show.
Of course, the reception of the sonnet also depended upon the speaker. Some were performers, other less so. Some clearly communicated the meaning of the speech while others stuck to more reading of the page. There were great moments of humor, such as when the Latin speaker asked us to identify this famous speech: "Equus! Equus! Equus meus regnum!"
At the very end, after almost 5 hours of sonneting, all performers came on stage at once and spoke the final sonnet simultaneously, creating one big cacophony. What was most amazing was the collections of cultures and languages and the excitement people would feel when they heard their native language. But sonnets are different than the plays. They are essentially soliloquies and far more about word play than the interaction of dialogue. So when 116 rolled around, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments..." I didn't recognize it in its Amharic version. It had mostly slipped by before I was able notice. And that made me wonder how much indeed will I be able to recognize or enjoy in the sense of wrapping myself in the delicious sound of Shakespeare when it is presented by a set of sounds so unfamiliar.
Still a tremendous event and one I will treasure for the rest of my days.
