Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto

Patrick Corness

Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto

Patrick Corness

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

The article investigates two translations into English of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto, set to music by Antonín Dvořák: the singing translation in verse by Daphne Rusbridge (1954) and Paula Kennedy’s (1998) prose translation. It mentions the sources in mythologies and folk tales, and outlines notable characteristics of the language and composition of the Czech libretto. The central purpose of the present study, identifying translation shifts with a focus on mythological and folkloric dimensions, is to describe the impact of the respective constraints under which the translators had to work, rather than of criticising the discovered shifts as avoidable errors. However, a summary of the semantic and stylistic shifts identified in the respective translations and their implications for the reception in English of Kvapil’s libretto reaches critical as well as favourable conclusions

Original language	English
Title of host publication	OPERA AND TRANSLATION: EASTERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVES
Editors	ŞERBAN Adriana, Kar Yue CHAN Kelly
Place of Publication	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Publisher	John Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages	In press
Publication status	Published - 2016

Bibliographical note

This book chapter has been accepted for publication in OPERA AND TRANSLATION: EASTERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVES Edited by Adriana ŞERBAN and Kelly Kar Yue CHAN by John Benjamins Publishing Company

Cite this

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AB - The article investigates two translations into English of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto, set to music by Antonín Dvořák: the singing translation in verse by Daphne Rusbridge (1954) and Paula Kennedy’s (1998) prose translation. It mentions the sources in mythologies and folk tales, and outlines notable characteristics of the language and composition of the Czech libretto. The central purpose of the present study, identifying translation shifts with a focus on mythological and folkloric dimensions, is to describe the impact of the respective constraints under which the translators had to work, rather than of criticising the discovered shifts as avoidable errors. However, a summary of the semantic and stylistic shifts identified in the respective translations and their implications for the reception in English of Kvapil’s libretto reaches critical as well as favourable conclusions

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Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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