I have previously blogged about names and their significance, but the play "Translations" only feeds into this topic even more!
Ireland has its own personal identity, which is based on history, background, heritage, culture, and many other affiliations such as these. A name also insinuates these same aspects of a history.
The British came in and tried to overtake every part of Ireland. They changed their education to English and changed Irish names of places to ones of English meaning.
Through translation, meanings are lost and some words must be altered. This book shows how sentences are not always translated word for word, and a lot of meaning is lost.
This got me thinking...relating back to the significance of names, what if somebody tried to translate your name and completely change the meaning and the history? Relating to Power, the question was posed about the significance of a name and if that has a direct reference to one's personality. If everything--names, streets, objects, etc.--was changed to a different language, would we completely lose all of the history and significance behind everything we know? Is a language that powerful or does this play just make it too big of a deal?
scary thought, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteoften times i've wondered where my last name comes from. i know it's polish, but i'm sure when my ancestors came over some z's and ch's were left out of my name.
I think it is a big deal and the play rightfully makes it one. Your name holds historical and familial connections as do city/town names. The Irish names tell stories of their own and translating them loses that. Awesome post!! Lots to consider...
ReplyDeleteI really like this post too...but then I wonder that maybe translating a name, street sign, or whatever gives more meaning to it. It takes some, not all, of the history it had yet has a newness waiting to be identified. So then you have old and new mixed together, and the cycle continues.
ReplyDeleteIt may give something different meaning which could be added on to the original. But how do you give it new meaning without erasing the old history behind the original?
ReplyDeleteI think it all depends on the effort put forth to remember the old names. Nothing is dead as long as someone remembers it, as shown by the story of the crossroads that only one character knew, yet it was still remembered and therefore lived on. I do not think that re-naming things is bad. People give nicknames to locations, friends, and family members all the time yet this is acceptable because the real name is not forgotten. the danger in Ireland was that people would forget or were forgetting the old stories, only hinted at by their original Gaelic names. If the original form is remembered, then then new name simply becomes another layer of a rich tradition wound up in cultural history and tradition.
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