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Translation and Metamorphosis in A Midsummer Night's Dream

2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/escrit/cgr002

1471-6852

David Lucking,

Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

IN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM the weaver Bottom, his head transformed into that of an ass through the mischievous ministrations of Robin Goodfellow, is greeted in his new guise by one of his fellow artisans with the astonished exclamation ‘Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated’ (III. i. 112-13).1 The expression has provided scholars of translation studies with an irresistible catch-phrase that has found its way into the titles of countless publications; and indeed, although the translation to which Quince is referring is of a kind quite different to that which such scholars most often have in mind, in the larger context in which it is uttered the exclamation does seem to hint provocatively at problems inherent in the process of translating. While Shakespeare's play is clearly not about interlingual translation in any overt sense, there nevertheless is a respect in which it reflects the issue of what is involved in the translation from one language and cultural tradition to another, and most particularly the fact that such an activity inevitably entails a displacement and transformation as well as a potential deformation of its object.