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TTLT - Volume 9 - Issue 2 - Pages 33-47 Kopyası
TTLT - Volume 9 - Issue 2 - Pages 33-47 Kopyası
Abstract
Intersemiotic translation, which can happen in the process of the translation of drama for theatre, can turn
more complicated when the verbal sign system of drama has already undergone interlingual translation.
The purpose of this study is to find the intersemiotic changes of translation from page to stage and to
show the changes of indexical, iconic, and symbolic signs in the process of intersemiotic translation of the
already interlingually translated verbal signs. In this regard, Shakespeareʼs Macbeth (1606) and its theat-
rical performance directed by Reza Servati (2010) were selected as the corpus and Peirceʼs model was
chosen as the theoretical framework. The findings of this research demonstrate that all levels of iconical,
indexical, and symbolic signs are applicable to the semiotic analysis of the performance. However, there
should be a cautious generalization regarding the transfer of iconic signs. The theoretical model of this
study can be used to study verbal sign variations of other literary works and other literary genres once
they are intersemiotically translated to and adapted for other sign systems such as audio (like music),
visual (like painting), and audio-visual (like film).
Keywords: Iconical signs; Indexical signs; Intersemiotic translation; Peirceʼs model; Symbolic signs
Table 1
Examples of inappropriate transference of iconic signs from page to stage
Page Stage
The episode when Malcolm says, “The king- Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after
becoming graces / [are]justice, verity, tempʼrance, sta- Macbethʼs victory over the invaders. The iconic sign is
bleness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy,[and] low- not well transferred to the theatrical performance.
linessʼʼ (IV,iii,pp. 92–93). However, in both drama and theater text, Macbeth only
brings chaos to Scotland, an icon for Supernatural in-
terference. (Servati, 2010).
In order to test Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland, Mal- Malcolm just tells Macduff of his undesirable traits,
colm pretends that he would make an even worse king like his wish for power and his violent temperament
than Macbeth. He tells Macduff of his undesirable (Servati, 2010).
traits, among them a wish for power and a violent tem-
perament. (IV,iii, pp. 92–93).
42 The Intersemiotic Study of Translation from Page to Stage: The Farsi…
In the original text, Duncan is referred to as the The iconic sign regarding the sharp difference be-
“king,” while Macbeth is finally known as the “tyrant”. tween a tyrant and a king is not transferred to the stage,
The difference between the two is best reflected in the while in drama it is well elaborated.
original text particularly when Macduff meets Mal-
colm in England (IV, iii, pp. 92-93).
cause the sign should be determined by the ob-
The examples reveal that the translator- ject, both the sign and the object must exist as
director was not quite successful in transmitting actual events. This feature differentiates iconic
firstness aspects of the play to the stage. In other sign from indexical sign.
words, the iconicaspects of the passage were Visions and hallucinations occur throughout
partially translated to the stage. the play and serve as indexical signs of Macbeth
and his wife’s guilty consciousness. The follow-
Transferring secondness to the stage ings are examples of verbal indexical signs that
Secondness refers to the signs that refer to an were well transferred to the stage:
object due to a direct physical connection. Be-
Table 2
Indexical signs of hallucination intersemiotically translated for the stage
Page Stage
Is that a dagger which I see before me, the handle to- When Macbeth was going to kill Duncan, he saw a
ward my hand? Come, let me cluth thee. I have thee dagger floating in the air, covered with blood and
not, and yet I see these still. Are thou not, fatal vision, pointed toward the king’s chamber. Dagger is the in-
sensible to feeling as to sight? (IІ, i, pp.33-39). dexical sign of Macbeth’s future bloody action (Servati,
2010).
I still have the smell of blood on my hand. All the per- As Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she comes to this belief
fumes of Arabia couldn’t make my little hand smell that her hands are stained with blood that cannot be
better. Oh, oh, oh! (IV, i, p.3). washed up even by huge amounts of water (Servati,
2010).
However, comparing the performance with The following indexical signs are well trans-
the original text the following index was not well ferred to Servati’s stage performance:
transferred to the stage: 1- At the inception of the play, the cap-
1- In later episodes of the original tain describes Macbeth and Banquo
text, Macbeth sees Banquo’s wading in blood on the battlefield.
ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, 2- References to the bloodstained hands
perforating Macbeth's conscience of Macbeth and his wife.
by reminding him that he mur- 3- Bloody battles: first, Macbeth defeats
dered his former friend. the invaders, and second, he is killed
Another indexical sign is violence and mur- and beheaded by Macduff.
der. In the original text, most of the killings take 4- Duncan, Duncan’s chamberlains,
place off the stage. In the play, accordingly, vio- Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Mac-
lent accounts are transmitted by the characters. duff’s son all are murdered.
Journal of language and translation, Volume 9, Number 2, Summer 2019 43
Another indexical sign is prophecy which is well transferred to the stage:
recurrent in Macbeth. Signs of prophecy are all
Table 3
Indexical signs of prophecy intersemitically translated for the stage
Page Stage
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!All The witches foresee that Macbeth will become
hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! first thane of Cawdor and then king (Servati,
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!(I, iii, 2010).
p.3)
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. The witches predict Macbeth should beware of
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough (V, Macduff (Servati, 2010).
i, p.4).
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam The witches predict that Macbeth is safe till Birnam
Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him Wood comes to Dunsinane (Servati, 2010).
(V, I, p.5).
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn. The The witches predict that no man born of a woman
power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm can harm Macbeth (Servati, 2010).
Macbeth (V, i, p.4).
understood as such. Blood is one the symbols
It seems that the director and the actors were fully presented as symbolic sign both in the ver-
aware of the function of prophecies in the origi- bal system of the drama and in the non-verbal
nal drama and could intersemiotically transfer the system of the theatrical performance. Symbolic
signs related to prophecy to the stage. signs are when:
1- The wounded captain enters in Act
Transferring thirdness to the stage I, sceneii.
Thirdness refers to signs that are related to their 2- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
object through convention. A symbol becomes launch their lethal journey.
the sign of an object mainly by the fact that it is
Table 4
Symbolic signs of blood intersemiotically translated from page to stage
Page Stage
“Will all great Neptuneʼs ocean wash this blood / Macbeth cries after he killed Duncan, even as his wife
Clean from my hand?ʼ(II, ii, p. 54). scolds him and says that a little water will do the job
(Servati, 2014).
“Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have Lady Macbeth near the end of the play walks wanders
thought the old man to have had so much blood in through the corridors of the castle and asks herself if all
him?ʼʼ(V. i. p.2). world water can wash her hands (Servati, 2010).
In line with the original text, the director and Other examples of symbolic signs well trans-
the performers well managed to highlight blood ferred to the stage by the director are severe
as the symbolic sign of guilt which sits like a weather conditions, such as thunder and lightning
permanent stain on the consciences of both Mac- that accompany the witches’ appearances or the
beth and Lady Macbeth; crimes stained the Mac- terrible storms that occur on the night of Dun-
beths in a way that it can never be washed. can’s murder; all symbolic signs of corruption in
the moral and political orders.
44 The Intersemiotic Study of Translation from Page to Stage: The Farsi…
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION tant,bymeansofsigns,isdifferentineachversion.
Intersemiotic study of “theatre translation” can The interpretant (translated work) is determined
open fertile research grounds as theatre is rich in by the object, through the sign (semiotic-
signs. Dawson (1999) theorizes that every basic source).The translated work (I) is the effect pro-
unit of meaning, or sign, adds cumulatively to duced by the object (O) (the semiotic-sourceʼs
phenomena of seeing, hearing, and experiencing object) of the sign (S) (the semiotic source) in a
the reality of the stage or, for that matter, reality relation mediated by it. The findings also show
in general. Intersemiotic study of “theatre transla- that it is possible to transfer all aspects of the par-
tion” may uncover the hidden layers of meaning adigm of the Peircean model. Hence, the frame-
of multifaceted plays. work may have the potentiality to be adopted for
The present research was a corpus-based de- translation assessment of verbal literary works to
scriptive qualitative content analysis of Shake- non-verbal sign systems such as music, painting,
speare’s Macbeth, based on Peirce’s intersemiot- opera and film.
ic model. The drama was translated interlingually Finally, focusing on the second research ques-
from English to Farsi and intersemiotically by tion (Based on Peircean model, which intersemi-
Servati for stage performance. Regarding the first otic changes did occur while translating Shake-
research question (Which signs (iconical, indexi- speare’s Macbeth once as a drama from English
cal or symbolic)are more applicable to semiotic to Farsi and the other time as a dramatic text for
analysis of Macbeth performance?), the results of theatrical performance?), it should be noted that
the analysis show that the intersemiotic transla- the adapted stage performance of a translated
tion of drama was not successful in transferring a drama text is the outcome of a dynamic collabo-
number of iconic signs from page to stage. Iconic rative process between the dramatist, translator,
signs are more susceptible to inappropriate in- director and stage performers. In this process,
tersemiotic translation than indexical signs and theatre translators are co-authors, autonomous
symbolic signs. Considering Servati’s adaptation, readers and creators of the stage adaptation of the
it can be judged that other aspects, namely, text. This is the reason Sir John Denham sees the
secondness and thirdness, are more manageable translator and the original writer as "equals but
when translating drama into stage performance. operating in clearly differentiated social and tem-
This finding, in this case study, contradicts the poral contexts" (S. J. T. t. Bassnett, terminologie,
findings of some previous studies (D. L. Gorlée, rédaction, 1991, p. 59). On the other hand, the
1994; D. L. J. S. Gorlée, Virtues, & translation, director transforms the signs so that the other’s
2005; Plaza, 2010) regarding the point that- language fits into the linguistic structures of the
intersemiotic translation is a deeply iconic- target culture. Drawing on Lefevere’s(Lefevere,
dependent process. The contradictory results may 1992, pp. 14-15) concepts of “rewriting” and
be related to cultural differences and different “patronage”, it can be claimed that the theatrical
cultural signs of the two involved languages. event is created by rewriting the play text and
Regarding the next finding, it can be claimed suiting it to the target context. One of the pitfalls
that all levels of firstness (Icon), secondness (In- is that play texts when rewritten are manipulated.
dex), and thirdness (Symbol), are applicable to The notion of “patronage” has to do with the way
semiotic analysis of the performance. Consider- the texts are carefully chosen to be produced. The
ing Servatiʼs play, despite more inappropriate choice and the very manipulation depend on
intersemiotic renditions of iconic signs, it can be dominant ideology, cultural constraints and social
claimed that, almost all three levels of signs were context among many other parameters.
successfully transferred. The findings show that However, overall, literary works are judged
the form communicated from the objecttothe- based on aesthetic and contextual aspects far be-
interpre- yond the level of verbal signs. Thetransla-
Journal of language and translation, Volume 9, Number 2, Summer 2019 45
torshavetobeawareoftheseaspectsandbeableto- De Tienne, A. J. S. J. S., Evolution, Energy,, &
translatebetweenthe lines to transmit the semiotic Development. (2003). Learning qua
aspects of the original literary work. This would semiosis. 3, 37-53.
increase the overall semantic correspondence of El-Hani, C. N., Queiroz, J., & Emmeche, C.
the original text with the target text produced ex- (2009). Genes, Information, and
clusively for the stage. In other words, the pro- Semiosis: Tartu University Press.
spect theatre translators should be able to distin- Elam, K. (1980). The Semiotics of Theatre and
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scripts in terms of the semiotic elements. Espasa, E. (2000). Performability in translation:
Speakability? Playability? Or just
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Journal of language and translation, Volume 9, Number 2, Summer 2019 47
Biodata
Dr Razieh Eslamieh is an assistant professor of
English Literature and Translation Studies at the
Islamic Azad University Parand Branch. She re-
ceived her PhD in English Language and Litera-
ture in 2011. Since then she has been teaching
MA and PhD courses to students of English Lit-
erature and English Translation Studies. She has
translated a few books including, but not limited
to, Girls at War and Other Stories from English
to Farsi (Iran, Tehran: Dabizesh Publication,
2017), Advertisement also translated from Eng-
lish to Farsi, (Iran, Tehran: Karevan Publication,
2005). Her recent books are Jeremy Munday’s
Introducing Translation Studies: Theory and
Practice Reader (Iran, Tehran: Dabizesh Publica-
tion, 2017) and A Handbook of Advanced Thesis
Writing in English Translation (Iran, Tehran:
Jungle Publication, 2018). She has published pa-
pers in National and International journals and
has participated in International Conferences. Her
main research interests include literary transla-
tion, postcolonial translation, post colonialism,
eco-criticism, eco-feminism, cultural studies,
minimalism, flash fiction and translation theories.
Email: rz.eslamieh@piau.ac.ir