"Take no heed of her...She reads a lot of books."
~Jasper Fforde


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Snarky Translator?

We had to read The Oresteia by Aeschylus for one of my classes, and I have to say, I think that the translator must have had a sense of humor (or perhaps he was just being snarky). I mean, when Aegisthus first comes on stage after killing Agamemnon (sorry for the spoiler D:), he begins with a quote something like this:

:: What a glorious day of retribution!::

or

::O glad dawn of the day that brings redress!::

My translator offers this interpretation instead...

"O what a brilliant day it is for vengeance!" O.o

Umm....looks like Aegisthus remembered to have his morning coffee...

(And I can totally imagine him coming out of the palace, a huge smile on his face, planting his hands on his hips, taking a huge breath of fresh air, and looking as perky as can be! I definetly don't get this impression from other translations. It automatically makes Aegisthus that much cooler in my book! :D (You know, even though he killed the king and whatnot...)

1 comment:

  1. well sometimes a little regicide is needed, might as well be cheerful about it :P

    ReplyDelete

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