October 2013

Examine the relationship between language and

identity as it is presented in Translations
Translations (1981) is a retrospective play set in 1833 which uses language as a reflection of identity
in order to put forward an examination of the human effects of cultural erosion.
The play opens as Sarah is struggling to pronounce her name, in other words, to express her identity
through language. This initial symbol informs the rest of the play, wherein the difficulties characters
are confronted with in finding and defending their identity are often presented through their use of
language. The physical juxtaposition of Sarah, who communicates almost exclusively with
unintelligible nasal sounds, Manus, who speaks only Irish, and Jimmy, a Prodigy speaking three
languages, attunes the audience to the significance of language while establishing it as a motif
reflecting identity. Jimmys clothes, which he wears summer and winter, day and night exemplify
his distance with daily reality, which perfectly coincides with his self-absorbed reading of Homer in
Greek. Analogously, Sarahs indeterminate age, between seventeen and thirty-five, indicates a
nondescript identity that mirrors her linguistic amorphism.
But identity is not unchanging, nor monolithic, and so we must draw distinctions between characters
identities. Language, as what unites and defines a people, must above all be representative of
cultural identity. This is assuredly true in Translations, and, as Hugh acknowledges, especially so of
Irish, a culture which expend[s] its energies on vocabular[y] and syntax rather than on material
life. Even Jimmys remarkably non-social use of language serves to underscore the cultural
irrelevance of ancient Greek and Latin to 19th century Donegal. When accusing Yolland of being
overly romantic, Owen points out that no-one else knows the story of Brian, in an attempt to
minimize the cultural relevance of the place-names. Ironically, his tirade actually reveals the rich
history behind Tobair Vree, one which could not possibly be captured in an English name such as the
Cross. As Yolland recognizes, the Irish-Language place names do carry some cultural significance, at
least as long as the Irish are willing to keep their culture alive. Language then becomes a central
manifestation of a cultural antagonism that unfolds in the play, between an Irish identity turned
towards the past, and the English modernity trying to supplant it. The map of the country is not being
drawn for purely military purposes, as it is hinted when Owen indicates he intends to translate Irish
place names into the Kings good English. Language itself, by association with the sovereign,
becomes the extension of the empires power. Therefore, the transliterations carried out by the
Royal Engineers are part of a project to erode the Irish language, both because it is considered
inferior, and because it cements the Irish identity that has united them against the English once
before in 1798. Owen, who by act three seems to have sided against the English, is using the Irish
place names Bun na hAbhann and Tulach Alainn when talking to Lancey, provocatively using
language as an affirmation of his Irish identity. Language thus comes to crystallize the fight for Irish
cultural identity.
But this battle has been unequivocally lost, the audiences awareness of which contributes to a sense
of fatality. The very fact that we enjoy this play in English, hearing implied translations from Irish, is

testament to the deadness of the Irish language. By the mere act of watching Translations, the
audience must adopt the language of the oppressor, effectively becoming the very force which
imposes upon the characters the act of having their words translated. The theatrical medium
therefore makes uniquely tangible the suppression of Irish identity.
Brian Friel does not propose an answer as to whether the decay of Gaelic is due to the Irishs
passivity in response to a force perceived as unstoppable, but the play does highlight the ultimate
powerlessness of language against physical force. By the end of the play, the confrontation has
become physically violent, as the army prepares to level every abode and Doalty, Owen and the
Donnely twins intend to resist them. The social power Owen used to enjoy by his status as a
translator has become meaningless in the face of organized, systematic destruction by the army.
When Jimmy shouts curses at the army, whether in Irish, calling them Visigoths! Huns! Vandals! or
in Latin , screaming Ignari! Stulti! Rustici!, his languages may still represent an Irish Identity, but it is
a defeated one. This defeat is mirrored in the evolution of Sarah, who ultimately reverts to grunting
noises, extinguishing the possibility that she may come to express her identity.
Brian Friels Translations proposes a stark portrait of the choices people have to make when their
culture and language become disconnected from reality and are being supplanted by another.
Although the theme of language is strongly linked to group identity, the play also poses question of
the freedom of the individual to transcend his culture, as one character attempts to move to the
United States and another to Baile Beag.