Myles McKelvey
A Thesis
in
The Department
of
Études fiançaises
Presented in Partial Fuifilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Translation Studies at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Uarch 2001
O Myles McKelvey, 2001 National Library Bibliothèque natiode 1+1 d,, du Canada uisiions and Acquisitions et 9Bib lographk Senrices seMces bibliographiques 385 Wemngton Street 395, n~eWslfigton OteawaON KtAON4 OüawaûN KtAW Canada Canada
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The Polysystem theory caa be de- as a generai mode1 for understanding, analyzing and descniing the functioning and evolution of literary systems, of which transiation is one pan Developed by Itamar Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury, the Polysystem's most important contniiution to Translation Studies is that it bas generated a methodology. This thesis uses the Polysystem theory as an heuristic tooool to andyze and descnk the translations of Les Misrrables (the novel) and Les Mi= (the musical). Chapter 1 offen a. overview of the Polysystem theory. Chapter Two discusses the socidktorical and lit- context of the novel Les Misérables, as weU as its cntical reception Chaptcr 3 compares fie excerpts from two Engiish translations of the novel, one from the 19* century, the other from the 20' century. Chapter 4 is prima-rily concemed with the theoretical difficulties involveci in trmlating lyrics. Chapter 5 analyzes four Song translations from the rnus~*calLes Mi= by applying one of the concepts outlined in Chapter 4: rhythmic constraintsnstraintsChapter 6 first offm a brief history of the musical, and then discwes the place of Les Mi= within the "musical Polysystem." The second half of Chapter 6 reveals how and why Les Mi= was adapted to its target audience. Fioally, Chapter 7 addresses two Unportant theoreticai implications: i) the notion of adaptation; and ii) "ersal" translation noms. The thesis concludes with a critique of Toury7s tbeory, but dso outlines the positive coo~butionshe has made ?O Translation Studies.
On peut définir la theone du polysystème comme un modèle génW aidant à comprendre, anaiyser et décrire le fonctionnement et l'évolution des systèmes Littéraires, dont la traduction fait partie. Le polysystème a été conçu par Itamar Even-Zohar et Gideoa Toury et son plus grand apport à la traductologie réside dans la création d'une méthodologie. Ce mémoire utilise la théorie du polysystème comme un outil heuristique afin d'analyser et de décrire les traductions du roman et de la comédie musicale Les Misérables. Le premier chapitre présente un panorama génM de la théone du polysystèmee Le deuxième chapitre examine à la fois les contextes sociobistoriques et lintrairts du roman Les Misérabies a les critiques que ce roman a reçues. Le troisième chapitre compare cinq exüaits de deux üaductions angiaises du roman. l'une du XE? tiède, l'autre da XXO siècle. Le chapitre 4 porte principalement sur les difndés théoriques présentes dans la traduction de pIes de chansons. Le chapitre 5 analyse quatre tradrictiom de cbnsprovenant de la comédie musicale Les Miséra61es7 en memint en application l'un des concepts pkemt6 au chapitre 4, les contmbks qtbmiqnes Le chapitre 6 -, en premier lieu, mie bréve histoire de la comédie musicale a la phice des Misérables à l'iritérietr du (t polysystème mnsical~.En second lieu, le sixième chapitre révèle également comment a pourquoi Les Misérables a été adapté pour son piiblic-ciiIe. Eiinn, le chaptre 7 soulève deux cpestions théoriques importantes : i) la notion â'adaptaiion et hi les nomes &erselles de tdwtion. On trouve en conclusion non seulement une critique de la théorie de Toury, mais une synthèse de son apport i la tductologie. A special thank you to my thesis supenisor, Jean-Marc Gouaovic, for his meticulous revlrevlsionand helpful Suggestioas.
Dedication
To my mom, for the unconditional love and support you bave given me throughout the Y-, INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ...... -1
RATIONALE ...... 2-5 In Search of a TransIation Theory ...... 2 Rationale for the Polysystem ...... 3-5
CHAPTER 1 :THE POLY SY STEM: AN OVERVIEW ...... -6-12
CHAPTER 2: SOCIO-KISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT...... i3- 18
1 . Historicalcontext ...... 13-14 2. Critical Reception and Importance ofthe Novel ...... -14-18
CHAPTER 3: TWO ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE NOVEL ...... -19-34
I . A Comparison of Wilbour's and Denny's Trans1ation.s...... -19-20 2. Analysis...... 2I -28 3. Cnbque ...... -29-30 4. Reception ofthe English TransIations...... 3 1-32
CONCLUSION.,...... -33-34
CHAPTER 4: FROM NOVEL TO MUSICAL ...... 35-41 .. I . Inter~ermottcTranslation ...... 35 2. The French-language version of the musical (1980) ...... 36 3 The EngIish-language version of the musical ( 1985)...... -36 4. The Difficulty of TmsIating Lyrics ...... 31 7.4 Song # 1: Cde on a Cloud translated as Un Château dmles Nwges ...... -42-43
Song #2: On My Own translated as Mon Histoire ...... 4445
Song #3: Lyrics of La Devise du Cabaretzer...... 4546
Lyrics of Miter of the Hmse ...... -46-48
Song #4: A la volo~édu pqletranslaîed as Do Ym hear the People Sing?50-52
CONCLUSION...... 53-54
CHAITER 6:LES MIZ AND THE "MUSICAL POLYSYSTEM"...... -55-72
1. The History of the Musical Viewed as a Polysystem ...... -5564 2. The PIaœ of Les Mk Within the Musicd PS ...... 65-67 3 . Translatiod Noms ...... 68-71 4. Critical Reception and Importance of Les Mk ...... 7 1-72
CHAPTER 7: SOCIAL ASPECTS ...... -73-79
1. Adapting Les Mk to the Target Culture...... 73-74 2. A Case for Adaptation ...... 75-76 3 . Gideon. . Toury: Towards Laws of Translational Behaviour ...... 77 4. Cntique ...... 78-79
CONCLUSION ...... 80-82
REFERENCES ...... -83-91 Before comuig to the field of translation, 1 had studied music for the first two decades of my He. kgthose years, 1had always bcen fascinated by the musicali~of
languages, and especially the magic of lyrics, which combineci my tim love, music, with my se~ndone, language. 1 was especidly interested in the creative process of how composem set wor& to music.
It was in 1982 that I saw my first "mega-musicd,t, Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Evzta, and from that moment on, 1 became uiterly obsessed with musical+fiom West
Side Stoty to Starmania. in 199 l,t was blown away by Les MisérabIles, which played in
Winnipeg, Manitoba in both English and French on altemate nights-with the same cast!
Not only was this an incredrile feaf the most amazing part was that it was equally
effective in bot. languages. So it only seems fitting that 1 do this, my nrst thesis, on the
trans1ation of my favourite musid, Les Misérables. IN SEARCH OF A TRANSLATION THEORY
Befme begmning to dyzethe translation of the lyrics of Les Misérables, 1 had to decide which translation theory to use as a hnework for my analysis. I would need a fimctional, opewnded theory that wodd be general enough to apply to the manifold considerations in lyric translation, in other words, a theory thaî wouid allow an mterdisciplinary opprouch. Obviously, 1 would have to avoid traditional linguistic theories, which focus on one-twne equivalence and look at translation in a "vacuum," that is, they focus on the words and ignore the larger socio-historical-cultural cmtext of a translation. 1 was therefore looking for a descriptive theory, one which would descrii actual translation practices u postmiorz and regard the translation as an independent, autonomous text (as opposed to a presCnptive theory, which wodd propose one
@dar translation method a priori). Most importantiy, 1wodd need a target-oriented theory that would focus on the position and role of the translation within the nom of the target culture. h short, 1 required a theory that would focus on the contexttlc~li=aiionof translation, that is, the idea that translation shouid be studied in the contes of the culture receivingit. RATTONALE FOR TEE PULYSYSTEM
In 1999,I sent an E-mail to Itamar Even-Zohar, the fbst promoter of the PS, to ask hùn how the theory could apply to the tnmlation of a musical. This is his response:
"Polysystem" is about ireterqpmeity [my ernphask] aad the fkt ubat at one and the same the, conarrrent (and competing) options operate in culture This general prixtciple "appties" to any sociai situation. The question is: is there something about your translation case which REQüIRES rakirip accOuat of kerogeneity? It al1 depends on what yware intcrested in Ifyou are interesteri in Conaictmg ahermiives &ed to 'instinitional malry betwem, say, Vanous producers, then this perspective mi@ be heIpfûL If: on the other hanci, you are oaiy interested in the ptocedlues adopted whiIe malang tbe pmducts perbaps this is not the most important angle ofview.'
The key word in this passage 1 believe is Uheterogeneity." uideed, I cmot t.of a more heterogeneous translation context than the translation of the musicai Les
Miskrables. There are in fact an idhite number of extra-textual issues to consider in the production and translation ofa musical.
Since the PS focuses on descnbmg achial trans1ation pctices (or noms) rather than constructing theories that advocate one particula.translation method over another, I will be able to examine the translation of the musical Les Misérables within a much wider context than a Linguistic theory would dlow. Thus, der thm lmiituig the analysis of the translation to the oirhae of the ecpbdence that exists (or does not exist) between the source and target te-, the PS wili allow me to focris on the translated text as an autonomous wotk of art existing in the mget cul- in its own ri&
Finaliy, my main justincation for using the PS appfoach rather than more traditional closed theones is that the PS offi an heuristic and methodological tool for
miderstanding and descniing traaslatiotuii phewmena In the words of José Lambert, "the most stdchg contrr%ution of (po1y)systemic ttnnlring on tmnslational
phenornena is that is has genmted a methodologyn (Lambert 1995: 138). Meny other
transIation scholars (uot ail of whom belong to the PS "school") agree that the PS's main
stre~gthis in its application. For exampie, Edwin GentZia states: meadvantage of the
systemic approach over pianous approaches is perhaps best demonstrateci by its
app1ication" (GentIzes 1993: 135). Simüarly, Milm WCand Marwte Garstlli assert
that %y its very nature the polysystem is an open, heuristic theory, oriented towards praxis [my emphasis]" @imic and Garstin 1988: 8). The PS therefore focuses on red-
world phenornena and does not force itseif on reaiity, since, by its very nature, it is a
hypothesis and not a thesis. Other theones have attempted to define tmns1ation according
to criteria keda priori, and this has led to a rupture between research and reality (for the
debate, see Toury 1980: 35-50,63-70). The PS, on the other baici, attempts to bridge the
gap between theory and @ce by focushg on actdtranslations.
What's more, while other theones have excluded adaptations, the PS has widened
the definition of translation to indude "imitatom," 'tersious" and "adaptationsn (Baker
1998: 178). As Even-Zohar explains, "traaslation is no longer a phenornenon whose
nature and borders are given once and for di, but an actMty dependent on the relations
withm a certain culturaI systemW(Even-Zohar 1990: 51). This is especidiy relevant to
my @cuiar transiaiion case, since, as we SUsee, the translations ù1 question are
indeed "adaptations." In the same vein, the term "gemen is tmderstood in its widest
se^^, and is not restricted to %igh" or CLcan~nkd?genres; t also includes "low" or non-
canonized genres, %ose noms and texts which are rejected by these circIes as
illegitimahen (Even-Zohar 1990: 15). The Litesary PS thcrefore includes works and gemes that have been tmiitiormily excluded within the field of Iiterary studies (e.g., science fiction, popuiar fiction, deteetive novels, children's bture7translated lit-, etc.).
A work Iike Les MISérabies, though extremely popdar with the utnases," is aot comidered a classic "masterpiece" of 1gth-centmy French fiction and thus is often excluded from ütemy studies. Similady, the popular genre of"musicai* is not a revered fom and is considered by some to be opera's "poorer cousiam TIE PS, on the 0th
han& rejects such value judgements and embraces these fomis and genres with wide- open amis. This non-élitist approach is *fore apropos for my @cular translation case.
In sum, then, the main rationale for using the PS as a theoreticai framework to maIyze the translation of the musical Les Misérables is thaf as Even-Zohar points out,
the PS is a generai enough thcory to apply to any social situatioi~ Furthenn~re~in my
specific trmshtion case, the peculiar demmds and diverse challenges in translasing a
musical deMeIy require taking accomt of heterogeneity. CaAPTER 1:
THE POLYSYSTEM.: AN 0VERm
Accordhg to the theoty's first promoter, Itamar Even-Zohar, the PS is a gend mode1 for understanding, analmg and descnibing the fiinctioning and evolution of
Iiterary systems. As Evea-Zohar explains:
The idea tbat socio-semiotic phenornena [, ..] could more adequateiy be understood and studied if regtdd as systems rather tban conglomefates of disparate efemats has become one of the leadmg ideas of our twrt m most sciences of man 1.. -1. ViewMg them as systems [. ..] made it posstile to hypothesize bwthe V8fious m50-seuxiotic aggegates operate (Even-Zobar 1997: 1).
relations among phenomeoa, both concrete and abstmt The PS attempts to explain the structure, evolution and stmtification of litemture:
if the id- of stnicturedness ami systemicity neexi no longer be identified with homogmeity, a socic+sexniotic system can be conceived of as a hetemgeaeous, open structure. It iq therdore, very mky a uni-system but is, nccessarily, a polysystem-a multiple systexn, a system of m*ous systems which mtérsect with each cstkr and par@ overlap, wing mmdifférent options, yet tiinctioning as one stmctud whole, whose members are interdependent (EvenZohar 1990: 2). ui Contemporary TrmLPation Theortes, Edwin Gentzier summarizes Even-Zohar's PS in
He pven-Zohar] adopts Tynjanou's concept ofa berarchical literary system and then "uses" the data collected front bis ob~cmson how translation hctions iu doussocieties to descni the hietarchicai çultural system as a whole, He ahs the term "polysystem" to der to the emire riawork of correlateci oystem+1Ret~try and extraherq-wÏthin society, and deveiops an approach dedPoïysystem hryto attcmpt to explain the fimaion of& kinds of wcitiag within a given cube-fiom the central amosrical texts to the most marginal nmwmoaicai tex& (1993: t 14)-
The hypothesis mcieriying the PS is biwd on %e idea tbat there is a systematic distmctiodopposition ktween various theoreticavpracticai concepts of litenmue, These berarchies are heîweea the centre and the piph.y, and between the so-called
"high" or "cmonizedn2 Iiterafy foms and the "low" or "non-~8no~. foms. The conservative, canonized forms closely refiect the most aaepted institutio~ aesthetic. Oa the other hand, the innovative "non-canonized"genres attempt to usurp the dominant position of the former. Thus the various strata and subdivisions which make up a given PS vie for the dominant position: the centre versus the periphery; chzed
Conpetition is obviously an essential notion of the PS: the literary PS changes and "geneticaily" mutates as Mirent foms and genres interact with each other. For
example, a giveu national literary PS will evolve as a result of the continuous tension between various literary models gemcs and traditions: conservative, "cruionized" foms
attempt to retain theu prominent, central position, while hovative unon-can~nized."
gemes atternpt to usurp theP central position (Shuttleworth, Cowie 1997: 127). Texts of
a given literature thus enter into a permanent stniggle for domination, mutation and "Crisesn in the Iiterary PS occur when uew, innovative eiements attempt to overtake the petnsed consexvative system and are an indication of a system mdergoing ''healthy"
"[C]risesn or "catastrophes" in a polysystem (Le, ocairrences which dlhr radical change, eithu by interna1 or artdtransfér), ififtbey can be balanceci by the system, are sigas of a vital, rather than a degenerate, system (Even-Zok 1997: 9).
As the following diagram illustrates, Even-Zohar conceives the PS as a Darwinian-like
"survival of the fitîdor naturai seiection mode1 for the evohîion ofliterature:
Evolution of the Literiiry PS
Iiteranire vying for the centre
Notl-cmonized Meraturefillsthe vacuum ieft behind and successfuUy overtakes the centre', it now fimctr-011s as primary liter;tture. The proccss ofevolution then hzhs anew, Aïthough it is clear fkm the above that the PS accoimts for systemic phenornena of a general nature, it was in fact specifically designed to solve certain ttunslation problems. In this the PS abandos the tmditional notions of one-twne equivalence between the source and target text Instead, it focuses on the translated texts themsetves, their position and role within the tatget cdture, and th& relations with original texts of the target culture. This non-prescriptive, target-oriented approach ailows the scholar to concentrate on the rranslated text as an entity existllig in its own right, and to focus on desctibing echial translation practices (or noms) rather than constmcting theories that actvocate one particufar translation metbod over motber.
Based upon this (hypo)thesis and inspired fiom the work of Even-Zohar, Gideon
Toiny launched "Descriptive Ttaaslahion Studies." Toury is interested in descniing what transIation behaviour consists of (rather than what it shodd consist of). Translated texts
maDifestations of grnefai translation procedures which are detennïned by the social and
historieal conditions within a given PS. Toury's most important contncbution to
translation shidies is his notion of ''noms." Borrowing a deWm fiom sociology,
Torny defines uorms as:
In other words, noms are the impticit "do's and don'tsn that apply to Vanous anas of
behaviom m society. Nomalso apply to "tramdation behaviom-" Translation nom"
are defiMd as %e factors and coristramts which shqe [and coiistrain] staudmd tmsIsttion practices in a aven culture" (Shuttieworth 1997: 179). Tolny descrrk three types of tmmIationa1 noms: "initial nom," wimiiiiary noms," and "operatiod nom-" First of dl, "initial norms,It imroIve a basic choiœ betweea adherhg to the nom realized in the source text or adhering to the nom prevalent m the target culture.
Secondly, "preliminary nom" concem the existence and nature of a tmns1ation "policy-"
In order to establish the cultural context thrd fiames the translation process, certain pteliminary questions mut be answered= Why was the work chosen to be tmtslated?
What authors, histoncal periods, genres and aesthetics are prefdby the target culture?
Lady, "operationai aorms" are the achial decisions made during the act of translation.
Toury identifies two types of operational noms: "matricial nonns" and ''textual- linguistic" nom. "Matricial nonns" have to do with %e way textual material is distriiuted, how much of the text is ûanslated, and any changes in segmentation, such as a result of large sde omissions [or additiort~]~(Baker 1998: 164). Textual-Linguistic norms" govern "the selection of specific textual material to fornulate the target text or replace particuiar segments of the source tee(ibid)?
Noms dso determine the position of translation on an imagmarY axis between two polar binaries: "adequacy" and "acceptabiiityiiitYtrl&Adequacy" meam a f'unctiond can never be achieved; the diffices between the soarce and target lmguage &y require substantal deviations fiom the source text Even-Zohar md Toury dl these deviations "non-obligatory shifts." Nearly all translations contain shih on a micr01 structuial level (words, clauses, sentences). Even-Zohar and Toury are aot or@ refening to syntactc and semantic shifts; they are also refdg to pragmatic, stylistic and paradigm sirifts in order to adjust the transiaîed text to fdarmodels from the "home repertoUetr) Fiirthermore, "shifts corne to be seen not as mistranslations or violations of des of equivaience, but as the nile itselr (Gentzier 1993: 136). The term
"8ccepfabiiity" specindy refers to this tendency to rnake non-obligatory shifts.
Lastiy, the notions ofurrpertoire"and "tnodel" are esseatial to the PS:
Sha the PS is aipposed to k a n-k of muItireIations, it is impcrative that it deal with -y texts, oRen through nmplhg metfiodsetfiodsHm it is the idea of the dei, Le. a pad combination sclected fiom a *en repertory upon which "proper textuai relationsn [...] have alrrady beea imposed which mm replace that of the individual ta The latter wodd consequently be discwsed as a nianifdon of a certain modei, whether condeor inaovatory (and thus uupiccedented) The importance of a tat for the PS is co~l~equcntty deermined by the position it bave occupied in the poass of mode1 donandlor pteservatioa headofdealhg wtth tads as ciosed systems, we are directeci towards developing concepts ofthe Iiterary repertory and mode1 (EvebZohar 1979: 304).
The ST rnay be based on an existing modeUgenre in the repertoire of the source cultrne,
or, occasionaily, it may challenge the noms The TT, however, is often adjusted ?O a
comrentional mode1 that exists in the cepertoire of the tmger culture. in short, %e
stronger the demand for accepbiim,, the greater the chance that the translatai text will
be adj& to a mode1 which aIready errists in the regmoire of the mget system and
[which] is fdarto both the transIator and target audiencen (WeissW 1998: 4).
5uhadeqmte~oaisa~nw6ichrralizesia~targa~etbetnmitreiati~sda source tact with no hhofb own WC]hgrnsb'c system'' ~~1975; cited in T~litpr1995).
't 1 The notions discussed above combine to form a gend theory of translation thst can apply to ony social situation and can serve as a fhmework to analyze and desmibe al1 types of transiations Moreover, the PS has many advanfages over previous approaches, and these acivantages are best demoiistrated by its application, in the following chapters,
I will do just that I will use the PS as a framework to dyze and descn'be the translations of Les Misérables (the novel) and Les Mk (the musical). CEAPTER 2:
SOCIO-HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT OF THE NOV&
WCTOREUGO'
Victor Hugo (18024885) was France's most fmus 19th-ceatilry poet, playwrïght and novelid He was dso a politician, a "prophet," and above d,a Christian moralist who inspired genexations of fimne reformers and socid acfiyists. Hugo lived, wrote and died by his fiercely populist beliefs, a derwhose passionate idealism and decp hdtarim*smcreafed wvels like Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris.
SOCIAL CONDïïIONS IN I~%ENTI~RYFRANCE
In 1851, Charles Louis Napoléon EI sekd power in a classic coup d'&ai and prodamied himself President Hugo, an achowledged radical and promineut htellectual leader of the French Republican Left, was forced into exile. His exile lasted 20 yean, during which thne Hugo wrote some of his best works, hcluding Les Misérables (1862). in 1870, the disastrous Franco-Russian War forced Napoléon III in ~n hoexile. Tbat same year, Hugo made a trhmphant rchan to his beloved Paris, which was still besieged by Prussian troops, and was el& to the National Assembiy of the new RcpubLic. Then in March 1871, the Paris Commune was decld ûnce Hugo was fmdto flee the country. Afk the turmoil caused by the Commune and its brutal afiermafh had concluded several years later, he mumphantly returned to Paris as a national hcro.
Hugo's noveI Les Misérables, dîhough osîensiibiy about the 1830% is a work of the 1848 rwolutiou. The images of misery, decay, destmmon and desperation, symbolized in the classic images of the sewers, mflect the socid problems of the the.
The eqdy extensive depiction of secret societies, sociabiiiry and solidarity are a testimony to the hopthe 1848 revoluîioa had also brought
2. Critical Reception and Importance of the Novel
Hugo's Les Misérables was ceceived very poorly by critics in 19'-century France.
According to Catherine Grossman, most dcsfeu into two major poMcal camps:
Generally speakingg, politicai, social, and religious conservatives, repmedng the intetests of the Seumd Empire and the Rom Catbolic Chuch, dedthe author's intend integrity, bis motives, and his ambitions, as wetl as the perceived central message of the tain the more vitriolic attacks, aitics claimeci that the passionate arguments coatamed in the merous digressions mereiy enabled a derpaid by the page to double his eamhgs, The tears he shed ovw the wretched of this ddwere, they said, sold most dearfy. Moreover, his ethical views wete defective: to biame a society fot human sufféring was, according to the te8Ctionary press, to deny hdividual reqxmsi'bility and to undemine existiag mstitUtious (Gram 19%: 15).
The other major camp consisted of the more prome, tepublican cntics, who
"defendexi the novel as profotmdiy moral" (ibid). However, the IWO camps agreed on a
few things. They both desrrithe novel as %II rnoastretlStfenRight-wing critics dedthe
book udouiger~usnsince it seemed to be inçiting a spHit of revolt-if not civil war_dnd
they suggested that the novel shouid be bamd8 Liberal democfaf~~on the other tiand,
objecteci to the novel's lack of concrete suggestions to improve society (ibid). In short, in &lition to the sociqmlitid objections to the novel were the scathuig litemy criticisms. The consensus among &CS was that the novel was certainly not a
"masterpiece." As Grossman exphtins:
WRh the exception of lavert, critics said the pmtagomsts lackeci either originality or psychologid verisiditude, Fanîhe was cnodelled on Esnaeralda's motber ia The Humhback of Nok Dame (1831). Jean Valjm was but a pale version of Balzac's villain Vautràl, and his transfo~on hmfirgitive to respecte& inmistrialist aimd -or aad back again was completely irnpl~lus~'blein his personal mnespondeace, Gustave Haubert seconded these opimons when he declared Hugo's cbaracters to k "straight as a stick as ia tragedies [. ..] mannequins Memen made out ofsugarn (Grossman 1996: 16).
The novel was especiaüy criticd for its "chaoticmstructure, an eclectic ' with mmanticisxn, observation with prophetic vision" (Grossman 1996: 12). And sincc Les Misirables did not codorm to any couventi~as'~or nom" of it defied any attempt at classification (Vernier 1985: 69). It was a sui generis composition correspondmg to ao kwm genres or niles of rhetorïcal organization (ibid). This unprecedented heterogeneity perhaps explains why the novel elicited such neetive nattions Born critics, whose (impiicit) job is to preseme the statu quo and uphold the institutionalized (consemative) aesthetic. The rritics' opinions, however, had no &ect whatsoever on the geuerd public: -- -- - 9 Ttùs comb~onof literary style was characterisa'cof French Ro~~ta~lticisrnsince the 182@ Hugo behg its graücst champion (Grosman 19%: 1 1)- 'O Chn'stMa ScWher points oathst mmy scholars pfèrto spcalr ofcollyeations instead of nom since n~,~II=tismny ~~~qtrrteyl with niles, auci ao- to them reEuEto m sudoas "Corn- bowftrer- are not bïmdmg but only eaibody preferec~ces"(1998: 4)- An* Chestaman argues tbat "[chisthe1 Nord's comrenti09~are actaslly nonas, na amaths- Thqf are noms preciseSr because th& violation rise to ~~mecriticai cornmenthci- own" (1993: 6), "~nr~adlar$c~jlcyciopertr,~~~~~tS~esays.~difPere~~~ektwecDn~d ~011~istbratbelatterarenat~gando~arpressprcfefeDceSn~~199%:1M)- "~hsancti~n~~o~atmgthislit~mnmwasthatthemvtlwasostracizcd~m~~nch~high cuhureTtfOr a century thereafter (Grossnian 1996: 16). Accordïng to reports at the tirne, no oae bad ever seea a book devdwith such finy-. public reading mms rented it by the hoUr* the price skytocketed by as much as 33 percent on the very first w,by 6 April, nat a single co~couId be fdin al1 ofParis (Grossmao: 1996: 14). Sales were enonnous, and the initial French-language pubiishing success was duplicated dl over the world as soon as the book became available in translationL3Accorâing to Piene Malandain in Iiis article entitled "La réception des M'blesou Un lieu oh des couvictious sont en train de se former," the instant and overwhelmuig success of Les Misérables in France and around the world was unique in the history of printing (Malandain 1986: 1,065). Malandah concludes his article by saying: [Phisieurs auteurs d'articles] ont montri a la fois pourquoi ce roman ne pouvait être reçu en son temps que de la fin qu'on vient de décfire, et comment !es leçons combinées de cette dpudiatioa mstitutiome11e et de la faveur populaire jamais démentie en font un grand 1Me de notre temps (Malandain 1986: 1,079). Mer Hugo's death in 1885, France began to move increasingly towards the Right, aod Hugo's social and politicai views fell into disfavour (Grossman 1996: 18). By the tmie World War I broke out in 1914, a decidediy anti-Romantic movement bepto rmge et le noir (1830), Flaubert's Madwne Boway (1 857) and Baudelaire's Les Flws du md (1857) (ibid). And while 16 editions of Les Misérables appeared in Fmce between 1862 and 1885, not one edition was published bctwcen 1914 and 1933 (ibid). For decades thdmit was faShionable to look dom upon Hugo's works." Under Nazi ocaqmûon (1940-44), Hugo was ideologically appropriatedby both the Right and the Lek Ri@ used his vision of a united Europe to support the histocïcai necessity of the Franco- Gaman aUiance; the underground Resistance, which inchded some of the major writers of the day, used htS feSiStance to the tyrarmy of Napoléon DI as a shining exampte hr their own stniggles (ibid). The tuming point, however, did not corne Mtil the 1950s." Hugo began to amact the attention of French literary scholrns, and there was a renewed interest in Romanticism in gened and Hugo in partf*cular (ibid). In 1962, the centennid of Les MisérabIes, rems of amcles and books on the novel appeared, and Hugo was finally reùistated in French "high culture." ih 1985.16 the centenary of the author's death, %e shower of publications on Hugo [.. . ] completed his transfiguration from cuiturai outcast to litemy and poütical exemplar" (Grossman 1996: 2 1). Wle the literary SiBnifi~anceof Les Misérables is debata~e,'~its social significance is not "Perhaps more than any other work of Merature, Victor Hugo's novel has flourished as pert of our international consciousness" (Grossman 1994: 2). Hugo's purpose in writing Les Misérables, to mate social change, is clearly articuiated in his preface to the novel: Tant qu''il existera, par le fait des lois et des aaeurs, une Rlimnfftion sociale créant artinciellement, en pleine civi7isatî0n, des enfers et compliquant chme fhiitè bumaine, la destinée qui est divine [-..] tant qu'il y aura sur ia terre ignorance ct miSae, des iims comme ediri-45 pourront ne pas être Wes (Hugo 1862). '' In Hugo's the, the novel challengecl readers to examitle the social and poIitical ~jPsticescesIt tacitly subverted NapoIéon III's Second Empire, and the result contricbuted to a bldessrevokution that Ied to the Third Republic (IWO-1970)and social refona ln the 21' ceetliry, the novel's humnitarian concems are equaIly relevant: no Society on this planet has yet succeeded in eradicating poverty and social injustice. Grossman concludes her cbapter on the recepûon of Les Misérables by saying: In a wodd stiI1 plagued by poverty, des@, comrption, and indiffaence, scholars have at fast joined with gend &ers in apprtciating mt ody the bcauty anti power but also the ptofound pertinence of tlu's book to our own phce and time (1996: 22). CELUTER3: WOENGLWE TRANSLATIONS OF THE NOVEL 1. A Cornparison of Wübour9sTriiwlition (1862) and Denay's Translation (1976) In this chapter, 1 will only discuss the translations of Charles WiIbour (1862) and Nomum De~y(1976), as this thesis is aot prunarily conœrned with the translations of the novel. The Oxford Weto Literatwe m English Trmrrlation mentions two othen tninsiaîiotl~~those of ECL. Wraxall (1862) and Isabel F. Hapgood (1887). Both Wraxall's and Hapgood's translation are out of et. I decided to compare WiTbour7s translation with Dermy's version since the only other modern version haî exists, by Lee Fahnestock (Signet, 1987), can hardiy be considered a complete re-translation; it is merely an edited and modeminxi version of Wilbour's translation. Fitrtherm~re~ Wilbom's aod Denny's translations are the only versions readily available at rnost book stores and libraries, Wilbour's I862 translation of Les MiséreabIes contained no editoriai remarks, introduction nor translater's note (Lebreton-Savigny 1971: 31). Everyman's Library's 1997 reprint has a lengthy introduction, an annotateci bibiiography and a chrowlogy-but only one sentence on the translation. 1 mi not &scw W~~UT'Sapproach at tbis point Suffice it to say for now that Wilbutn's translation sticks to the original very closely on both the micro- and macro-struu leve~s.'~ introduction to the work followed by a reveaLing discussion of bis translation appfoach, in lis islator's note, Denny begins by first criticizing previous transhtious: There are theearlier English renderings of)IugoTsnovei, of which 1have seen ody one. 1 &ail not disclose which one, or make any comment except to say thaî 1 found it very heavy gohg It was made at the tum of tbe centltry and the translater, conscientiously obsentmg the principles of translation at ttiat the, bas mnde a brave attempt to kllow Hugo m the smaüest detail, almm literailywordfOrd The~is~~metbiagtbatisnotEn~sh,notHugo~itseemstome, scarcely hble It rca& in short, like a tcanslation and it does no service to Hugo. 1 am toid that the derEnglish -O= wkch 1 have aot seen, are not very différent (Demy 1982: 11). Demy then discusses the principles of translation during the 1960s and 1970s: The @ciples of translation bave grratly changed in the past twenty or thirty years. It is now gendly -sed that the traaslator's first oonmmwt be with his author's intentim, riot with the words he uses or witb the way he uses them [...] but with what he is seeking to convey to the reader [.. -1. Tbe author-esich and eveq author-writes because he waats to be rad. Readability must be the translater's first concem Sometmies he is set an imposslcbIe task, There are writers who may fairly be termeci urneadable, But Victc~Hugo is not one of hem. He is in many ways the most acasperatùig of wnt-long winded, mtravagant m his use ofwords [. ..] sprawling and seIgin&Igent. At thes [...] he was, with ail his higbminded eaniestness, extra-ordinarily lacking in seIf'cism There are passages of rnediocrity and banality in Les Misérobfes, as in al1 his work [.. .]. The ûmslator cari [.. -1, I maktah, do something to remedy these defécts dout fdsZj6ng the book if he wili nerve biimself to treat Hugo aot as a museam piece or a sacred cow but as the author ofa very gieat novel which is di living, stiU rd- to lÏfii and wtiich deserves to be read. He can 'edit' -thaî is to say abridge, tone down the rhetoric men delete whete the passage in question is mereiy an elaboration of what has aiready ken said, 1 bave edited in this sense throughout the book, as a deody to a minor degree, and never, I hope, so drasticdly as to be tldM&I to Efugo's irrtemim [. * .] (I 2). He then concludes by tehgthe derwhat to expect to see in his translation: This fôreword is urravoidable ifthe reader is to know exactly what he is gettinvot a photograph but a siightiy modifiai version of Hugo's novel desi@ to bring its great @es into clearer teiiefby thhhgou& but never completcly eliminfttinP its lapses. It must stand or làil not by its beral acczp~tc~?although 1profody hope that I have been guihy of no major solecismq but by its faMhtss to the spirit of Victor Hugo. He was above ail things, and at ait times, a poet. if the fact is not apparent to the English reader then this rende* of this wark must be said to havt faired (13). In am, Demy's nran~Iationplan is to abridge the texf tone dom the rhetoric, and transfêr the book-1ength digressions to appendices. 2. Aiulysis of Wdbnr's ind Demy's Versions The £htpart of my adysis discirsses excerpts fiom Part IV of Les Misérabes, which is ded"L'idyIle rue Plumet et I'epopée rue St-Denis-" 1 decided to look at the chapter entitled "Les bouillonnements d'autrefois" fhm Part IV for severai reasons. First of aU, this chapter is typid of the book-1- digressions for which the work has been so severely Miticize&and which have been cut hm most abridged additions. Secondly, this chapter also represents Hugo the poet at his best: there are places in this chapter where "bis sharp, short resonant sentences follow one another with the rapidity and precision of blows süuck upon the mith's envil [sic]" (Lebretou-Savigny 197 1: 16). Lastly, and most Unportant, 1 chose this chapter for its historical significauce, as well as its relevaucy to the uovel as a who1e. The second part of my anaiysis is &om the penultimate chapter of Les Misérables entitied "Nuit derrière laquelle il y a le jour." 1 chose this chaper for its obvious climatic position in the work: the dénmemeni of the plot The 0th reason why I decided to anaiyze this cha- is because it contains examples of how Wilbour and Demy (mis)treat the original. CES BOUTtLONNEMENTS D'AUTREFOIS Rien n'est phrs exttaotdmant que le premier founnilemmt d'me Cmane. Tout Cdate partout a la bis. Était-ce prévu? oui. ~tait-cepréparé? non. D'ou dasurta? des pavés. D'ou cdr tombe-t-il? da mra. Ici i'hmectïon a le caractère d'un eomplq là d'une improvisation Le premier venu s'empare d'on courant de la hiea le mène où il veut. Dibm plein d'épominte ou se deune sorte de @etc formidable Ce sont d'abord des clameurs, les magashs se files étalages da marchands chph- puis da coups de feu id& des gens s'enfment; des coup de crosse haaemtesportcscochèns;oneiltendtessenramt~riredanslescoursdesaiaisoaset~:il~y ~ronr!(~htgo 88).= TKE EBULLlTIONS OF FORMER TIMES Natbing is more extraordkaq tban the first swarmiag of an heute. Evtaythhg bursts out everywhere at once, Was it fôteseea? yes. Was it prepared? no. Wüence does it spring? ttom the pavements. Wbence daes it al?hm the douds. Hae the insumction has the character ofa plat; there ofan improvisation The ktmmer takes possession of a curent of the m&itude and leads it whither he wiiL A begiming firll of temr with which is mhgled a sort cf fi@fid gaiety. At first there are clam- the sbps close, the displays of the merchants disappear; tben some isolated sbots; people flee; butts of guns strike agabit porte-cochères; you hear the servant girls laughing in the yards of the howes and sayingr There is go* to be a row! (Wirlbour. tt,045). Eariier occasions Notbing is more rematkable than the first stir of a popular upnsiag. Evqtbg, everywhere happens at once. It was foreseen but is unprepared for, it Springs up hmpavements, Mshm the clouds, lwks in one place Iüre an ordered campaiop and in another like a spontaneow out- A chanwmer may place hirnseE at the head of a section of the crowd and lead Ït where he chooses. This bt phase is filleci with terror mSn@ed with a sort of tem'ble gaïety. There is mwdiness and the sbops put up th& -ers; people take to their htels; blows thunder on bard doors, end within enclosed cou~tyatdscan be heard gfeefUy excxclaimmg, 'Tbere's going to be a bug-up!' @enny: 8%). First of dl, it is interesthg to notice how the transiatm rmder the tities. Wilbour renders the original "bouiiloxmementsn as "ebullition," which, accordhg to the Collins dictionary, means "a sudden outbunt of intease emotion" (1991: 492). Demy's titie, "Earlier occcisions," somds mther bland and does not convey the Wity of the original. In the first sentence7 Wilbour replaces "founniiiement" with its biiingual dictionary SUrtogate: "swarming." Demiy mstead chooses a communicative equivalent besed on the context "stïr." Next, Wübour uses the same word as the original: "émeute." However, Denny chooses the modern usage of the wod which means a riot or popuiar uprising. WiIbour fetlders the second sentence with an equdy powerful one: "Everything bursts out everywhere at once." Deimy's venion, on the other hand, lacks eiectncal charge: "everythmg everywhere hanieiis at once? In the next fisentences, it is interesting to see how the two translators treat Hugo's tab: Wilbom close1y foilows the same syntax, von,pmictuation and question and answer stnrcbne of the orÏginrir: "Was it f-? yes. Was Ït peprd?no. Whence does it spring? hmthe pavements Whence does it fd? from the CIO& Here the insurrection hss the character of a ploc there of an miprovisation,+) But De~ytmts this passage @e fkely: Tt was for- but is rmprepared for, it springs up hmpavements, faEom the clouds, looks in one place like an ordered campaign and in motber Iike a spontaneous outbufst," In the next sentence*Wilbour's rendition sounds very awkward: The nrSt corner takes wssession of a current of the multitude and leads it whither he will." Demy, however, chooses not to translate the individuai words; rather* he chooses to Uiterpret their cokctive meaning: "A chance-corner may place himseifat the head of a section of the crowd and lead it whem he chaosts." The translation of the final sentence ofthis paragaph clearly illustrates the general trend seen H, far. W&UT renden tkis sentence as "At f5st fhere are clamours, the shops close, the displays of the merchants disappear, then some isolated shots; people flee; butts of gms strike porte-cochères [sic];you hea.the servant girls laughing in the yards of the houses mci saying: There is gohg IO be a rowr" His version foUows the seme syntax as the original, contallis neither additions nor omissions and employs a form of exoticism deâ emprunt, that k, uskg the word "port~cochéres"in English. Denny's version, however, is the adhesis of Wilboirr's: There is rowdmess and the shops put up their shimers; people take to their heek; blows thunder on bddoors, and semants within enclosed courtyards can be heard gleefidly exclaimhg, 'There's going to be a bust-up!'" Denny's version of thîs passage contains a gaping omission: "les étalages des marchands disparaissent; puis des coups de fa isolés" is comp1eteIy deleteci. The ne* passage fkom ùùs chapter 1 will aaalyze is an exceRent example of Hugo's "extmmpf use of words. His style is often criticized as longwinded, heavy and verbose-f' it is not musual to find eight or nine adjectives appendeâ to a single nom In the fouowing sentence, Hugo descnis a man in vivid deuusing not less than seven (!) adjectives. Rue Nonaindiéres, rm bourgeo'i bien vêtu, qyi avait du veritre, la voix sonore, le crâne chauve, le fi.ont élevé, la barbe noire et une de ces moutaches rudes qui ne peuvent se rabattre, offiait publiquement des CaftOUChes aux pasauts @IL89). Wilbour pndictably renders evey word m the same order as the original: In the Rue des Noaaidères, a wd-dressed bourgeois, who was pursy, had a sonorow voice, a bald head, a high for&& a black beard, and one of those mugh mOUSt8Ches which carmot be smoathed dowu, offdcar&idges publicly to the p8sem-b~- Demy, however7 reorders the adjectives7 fesbapes the sentence, deletes one item ("le fiont élevé"), aad makes the sentence £iow more easily: In the Rue des NormaiOSa'Hyircs a welLdresed citizen, bald and round-beilied, with a black bard, a bnstling moustache and a toud voice, was opmly off'cartridges to the pwiemby. The next excerpt has been subjected to a thorough analysis by Sandy Petrey in bis article entitled Wust History Be Lost in Translation?" (1984 86-93). Rue St-Pidontmartre, des hommes aux bras nus promenaient un drapeau noir ou on lisait ces mots en lettres blanches: Rdgmbfique cm ta mort. Rue des Jeûneurs, rue du Cadran, rue Montorgue& rue Ma-, apparaissaient des groupes agitant des drapeaux sur lesquels on dbhgmit des lettres d'or, Ie mot semen avec un numéro. Un de ces drapeaux était rouge et bleu avec un Mpercephile entipdeux bhc (Ut 89)- tu the Rue Saiat Pierre Mommamq some men with bare arms paraded a biack flag on which these words ddbc read in whitt latas: Repubfic w &diDeolhIn the Rue des Jeùaeurs, the Rue du Csdran, the Rue Momrgueii aad the Rue Mrwlar, appeared groups waving flags on which were visiile in letters ofgold, the wod=ciion with a rnmrber. One of these fiags was red and bIue with an impercepti'ble white stripe (wimour 1,046). Baremned men werc parading the Rue Saint-Pietto-Moaîmamewhh a black barmer on wùich wss iascrii in white Ietters the legend, 'Repubiïc or Deatb', and m the Rue des Jellneurs, the Rue de CaQag the Rue Moompeü. adthe Rue Mandgi; tkewere groups w8.aags bearing the word 'sedon' and a number in letters ofgold One ofthese aags was red and bhe, separatecl byafàiawhitestripe 897). Petrey ody discusses Wilbour's translation, but his comments are eqdy applicable to Demy's version as well. Before he analyzes Wibour's translation of this pgraph, Almost every word Tm this paragraph] makes precise diceto the definite historical siniation cfeated diaaig the early years of the Iuly Monarchy, the regime kaded by a king who acquired power over Fmœthanks to a revahnion mtended to teminate kings' power over Fmce [...]. The Bag with an impeneptiile white stripe between red and blue fietds has an egually conmete poHcd ideatificatiou [...]. A rebel flag on which mi and bhe are squeezhg royal white into irnpemg&i%Ie t- is a emblem for the fhgkmrs' mmmitment to abolish the moaarchy and iDstitute a regmie fiom which al1 kings, men citizen kiags, are irrwocably expened (87-88). Petrey then Criticizes Wimour for tmslatuig "section" as "section": The word with an exact English cognate [. ..] is the word writtem on sevaal flags, sectr'on, which Wilbour with every justification translated as section" But here the graphic identity and semantic near-ide of the two cognates are inmutcrial, for the meanhg of =&on in Hugo's text is cuiturally specinc in a way that "section" is wt [.. . 1. But historical electncity is in "le mot section avec un aurnéro," O* topogtapbcd bhdness is m "the word section with a number" [...]. in order to preserve the key eiement of Hugo's orighi, the Ex@sh version mat go beyond the French words' Iescical equivalents and fiad ways to suggest their historiccù power. if this requires includhg in the translation wwds or phmses that have no correspondems in the on'suiat, so be k The pmgqh in question insistentiy evokes the events m which îts words have figured, and it is a paidid misrepresentation to matthose words as if* ,existeci oniy in &cncn~ksSA version üke "the words RewhrtimSection with a mmiber" is a more accurate translation of "le mot sedm avec un ~éroWtban the version produccd by reverwit abstention hmadding anythmg to the text. That proposeci revision dldoes not capture Hugo's precise historical allusion, bur it at least indicates that the sections which Bags emtmerate are poiitical troops organized in defiance oftbe ment @me (8û-89). Fidy, Peyoffers an alternate version ofthis historid paragraph (Ihave underhed the words that Petrey ad&.) in the Rue Saint Pierre Mowtsome bart-armed workeq paraded a 0% similar to those seen n the Lvms weanrs' rcbtiiion, a black Jmmcron which these words could be rerid m white letters: Repubfic or ckuth. In the Rue des lwthe Rue Q Cadnm, the Rue Montorgueil and the Rue Nkndar sppcared groups aiavmg fiags cm wbich were visible m Ietten of gold the words Revohrt-m a munbei-. One of these hgswas red and btue with art impetcepaile In sum, Pettey believes that the only way to mvey the blstorical charge of Hugo's originai is by adding expIitmtmy words and phnws Quandunêfteqrrinowestchavamourir,onbregarde~unrcgardqWstcramp~~~eàhriet qui voudrait le retextir. Tous deux muets d'angoisse, ne sacbaat que dire à la mort, dkspérés e$ tremblants,étaient debout de- lui, Cosette clorniant la main à Marius. D'instant ea mstatrt, Jean Valjean décliriait, II baissait; il se rapprochait de L'horizon sombre Son =Urne était devenu intermittent; un peu de deI'errtrecoupait. ii avait de la peine à déplacer sou avant-bras, ses pieds avaient perdu tout w,wem- e$ en même temps qye la misére des membres et I'acdIement du corps croissait, toute h majesté de l'âme montait et se déployait sur son front. La himièrG du monde inconnu était dq&visible dans la prunelle, Sa figure blêmissait, et en même temps Sound La vie n'était phrs \à, il y avait autre chose Son haleine tombai& son regard grandissaitc C'était un cadavre auquel on seatait des ailes (m: 487). When a king who is dear to us is ahto die, we look at him \ivitb a look which cliigs to him, and which would hold him back. Bath, dumb with anguish, knowing not what to say to deah, despairing and trembiig, they std&ce hi4Marius holding Cosette's band From moment to moment, Jean Valjean grew weaker. He was sinkMg; he was approachiag the dark horizon His breath had become intermittent; it was intermpted by a di@ rattle He had dinicuhy in movuig bis wris his feet had lost di motio- and, at the same tirne that the distress of the bbsand the extiaustion of the body incteased, al1 the majesty of the sou1 rose and displayed hl€upon bis forehed The light of the rmkaown world was already visible in bis =Y=- Efisfaccgrewpale,andatthesametimesmiled Lifewasnoloagcrpresag therewas something else. His breatb cüed myvhis look grew grand lt was a cotpse on which you fek wings (Wb'1,429). Ni@ with day to foliow When a person dear to us is about to die we 6x him with an intent gaze thaî seeks to hold him back They stood beside him m silent mguis4 having no words to speak, Cosette cIaspmg Marius by the hand Jean Valjean was vistity declining, sinking dom towards that dark homon. HIS breath was coming in gaspq punctumi by slight groans. He had ctifficdty in movbg his arms, and bs fiwere now qde motioniess But as the weahess of his body inaeased so his spirit grew In spiCadom, aad the light ofthe unIniowm world was aEresdy visiile in his eyes. Es face became pakr as he sutiicd. There was SOU&@ otha thgn lift in h Fris bteatb fkiied but his gaze grcw deeper. He was a dead body which seemed to possess WMgs (Denny? t ,198). This ex- is from the paltirnate chapter of Les Misérables in wbch Jean VaIjean is remited with Cosette and Mariris, who soon leam that Jean Valjean is dymg Hugo's wt wbat concenis me here; what mterests me is the fâct that Hiigo chose "Nuit demère laquelle il y a le joidg rather than smiply "Nuit suivie chc jour." Denny's translation of the title as "Ni@ wiîh day to fdow" misses the nuance of Hugo's poetic languagee" But Wilbour's Li&& translation, Wight behind which is damt) conveys the same sense of poetcy as the original. Nevertheless, Denny's pian, simpIific8tion in the meof readabiiay, is sometimes justifiable. in the above exceqt, for example, he tightens up and condenses Hugo's text He reduces "Quand un êm qui nous est cher va mourir, on le regarde avec un regard qai se cramponne a lui et qui voudrait le retenir" to %en a person dear to us is about to die we fix him with an intent that seeks to hold him back" Here, Denny does not delete any essential idormation; he simply conveys the global meaning. However, in the second sentence, he dms omit essential infodoa Hugo's Tous deux muets d'angoisse, ne sachant que dire a la mort. désesdrés et tremblants, etaient debout devant lui, Cosette doanaat la maui a Manus" is abridged to "Ttiey stood &de hùn in silent anguish, having no words to speak, Cosette clasping Marius by the hand" The words "B la mort, désespérés et tnmblants" are nowhere to be found in Demry's version Denny's second pgraph, however, is wonderMy translated with fireedom and flornish-wirhout chopping out any essential information (see excerpt above). FWy, 1wodd iike to briefly discuss the closing passage of this chaptcr. EXcERPT#S= le vais donc m'en alla, mes enfàm. Aimez-vous bien toujours. ïi n'y a guèn autre chose que cela dans le monde : s'aber. Vous penserez que~quefoisau pauvre vieux qui est mort ici-..Mes edhsvoici que je ne vois plus tnk cfaP, j'avais encore des choses a dae, mais c'est égai Peasez M peu B moi, Vous ètes des ias bénis Je ne sais pas ce qoe j'ai, je vois de 18 Mère, Approchez encore. Je metirs heureux Dormez-tnoi vos chères &es bi- que je mette mes mains dessTs* Cosette et Mariw tombèrent à genoux, éperdu, étouffzs de larmes, chacun sur une des mains de Jean Valjean. Ces mRins ûugwtes ne remuaient ph U &ait renversé en arrière, [a heur des deux chandeliers l'éclairait; sa heblanche regardait le ciel, ii laissait Cosette et Marius couvrir ses mains de bai'sers: il était mort. sans étoiles et ~fodéumtobum Saris doute dans I'ombre uueiaue meimmense etart- debout, les ailes dé~lovéesatteadaat I'be (m: 489)- So I am going away, my children, Love each other deariy hys.There is dyanything eise in the world but that: to love one another. You will thi& sometimes ofthe prold man who di& here.. .My CH- 1do not see very cleariy mw, 1 had some more thhgs to Say, but it makes no diffie.Think of me a litîle. You are blessed ueatures. I do not know what is the matter witb me, I see a Li& Come mirer. 1die happyhappVLet me put my hads upon your dtar beloved heads." Cosette and Marius fell on thek knees, overwbelmed, choked with tears, each grasping one of Jean Vaijtan's han&. Those eugust hands moved no more He bad Men backwards, the light hmthe @esticks fell upon bim; his white face Iwked up towards heaven, he Iet Cosette and Marius cover bis hdswith kisses., he was dead The mght was siarless and very dark. Whhout doubt, in the @mm some mi- angel wasstandiag,witho~chedwlligs,awaituigthesod(Wilbo~~:1,431). And now I mwt leave you, my childreu. Love one another hys.There is nothing eise that m8tters in this wodd except love. You wiil thiak sornetimes of the old mm wbdied in this place. ,,CElQen, my sight is Srmg. I had more to say, but no matter. ThMk of me sometmies. You are fortuaate, I dont know wbat is happening to rnc 1 can see a iight. Come closer. 1 die happy. Bow your dear heads so tbat 1 may lay my han& on them,' Cosette and Marius fetl on tiieir knees on either side ofbim, stifliag th& tears, His hands resteci on tbeir he&, and did not move again. He iay back with his head tmed to the &y, and the ligfa hmthe two desticksfell upon hk fkce (lDemry: 1,200). I do aot propose to 8flSilyze this passage. However, the reason why I chose it as one of the charactenstic passages is because it fepfesents an apprmh that Demy uses throughout his translation. H~E,he chooses to delete the entire lest two and a half lines of Hugo's text This is one of the most beautifid passages and dgimages in Les Msékables, and a translation that would delete such a passage is a bowdlerizato- which brings me to the amsection ofthis chapter. criticritique ofthe transIations In Graham Robb's biography on Victor Hugo, he cdls Demy's translation of Les Misérables a "Swiss cheese of imavowed omissions [...] [which] bears out Hugo's comments on translation as a fom of censofshipn (Robb 1998 382).= Robb asserts that translators and editors ohuse the novel's nrpposed "fauts'' as an excuse to doctor the text (382). htdeed, most abndged versions of the novel crïticize Hugo's style in their introductions. As we saw earlieq Denny criticizes the novel's supposed "lapses" in his introchrction: %bolly umstmhed,*) %O regard for the discipline of novel-Wntingm Umoralizing rhetoric," "exasperatkg.," "self-hdulgenf" "passages of mediocnty and badity," and so forth (Demy 1984: 1 1). Similarly, in James Robinson's introduction to his abndged version of the novel (which reduces the 1,500-page tome to oniy 334 pages), he accuses the novel of king diffuse and wordy: [... ] too mch philosophizing slowed down the movement ofthe narratnie and htdigressions of various sorts were often so Ie- thoit the nerrative thread was sonxtimes 10s Digressions on the @ass Uictustry, on the Picpus Cornent, on money, on Paris slang, on revoiutiony thought, on the use of sewage as filizer have liale to do with the central action Accormts of the Bdeof Waterloo and the Insurrtction of 1832 are mtefesting, evcn bnlli- but they are oniy remotely reievant (Robinson t 989: 9). Graham Robb, however, strongly disagrees: These interpoIati011~were invitations to grasp the whole piccure, to see tbat the Battle of Waterloo, for instance [...] çan be subsumeci m the great strange asaactor of destiny, the inductable equili'brïum ofeverything (Robb 1998: 383). What7s more, Hugo's digression on sewage is "or@cally attached to the rest of the novel and can be read on its own as an degory of the whole work: Jean Valjean pdhg himself out of the slime of moral bhctness howhich Society hes plunged him" (ibid). Dexmy's version, which deletes these digressions7 therefore comthks an objectionable violation of the author's original intention. Demy's translation violates Hugo's text on the micro-stnictural kvet as weU. Omissions of a word or phrase here and the= may seem uisipnincant, but they end up painting a completely differemt picture for the reader over the long ML In sho~falthOugh De~y'sversion does what Antoine Berman calls "faire œwre," it does not adhere to Berman's ethic; it facks respect for the original and does not attain the highest ideal in translation, what Bernian calls "faire.seuvre-en-correspondmcen(&mian 1995: 94). Wilbour's version, on the other hanci, has "corresp~ndance,~but does not Yniit am." We can assume that Wilboints intention was to -te art extremely faitMd translation on both the micro- and macres-structural levek, conscientiously following the principles of translation at the the? But Petrey would pmbably say that Wilbour's version is just as disloyal to the original as hy7scapriciously fke and abridged translation. However7Petrey's aiternate venion of Hugo's historical passage, which ad& entire sentences, might also be seen as a violation of an important translation ethic descniby Berman: "le contrai fondrimental qui lie une traduction à son onginal [.. . ] interdit tord dépairsement de la texture de i 'origW (1984: 118). 4. Reœption of the EnglgL Translations In the United States, îhe pub1idon of Les Misérables coincided with the second year of the Amencan Civil War, where it was a favourite of Civil War soldiers, %ho perhaps fomd dace in the resolution of Jean Vailjean's moral &lemmas and France's cid confliicr (Grossman 1996: 17). There were very few 19h-centiny critiques in the Amehn press that talked about the ~ransIationsof Les Misérables; perhaps people viewed the English version simply as a "blueqrint" of the original and not a translation perse. Among the few comments that the press made, most praised Wiibour's: It is worth whiie noticing that by faii the best E@sh version is the American tradation of Mr. Charles E. Wilbara, pubiished by Carieton and now out of prim, but sime "pirated" in England. The sale was enormow. (The Cntic, vol. 3, no. 74, May 30, 1885; citeci in Mreton-Savigny 1971: 30). One of the few criticisms of Wilbour's translation was in a reprint in ~863:~ The translation which bas been adopted as the bases of the presetn reprint, although in the main faithfiil and spirited, is disfigured by ~ullerowerrm and misapprehensious of peculiar French idioms, some of them men of a hidicrow nature (Les lMiishbIes [The WreïchedJ,1863: iv; citeci in Lebreton-Savigny 1971: 32.). In the 20~~-cen~rry~critiques of Wilbout's translation were aiso a ranty. More ohthan no& comments on his translation are confineci to a mere sentence or two, oh in footn~tes~For example, in her amotated bîbliography, Kathryn Grossman writes: "Very accurate, üterd, complete rendition that does not quite capture the poetic power of the origid* (Grossman 19%: 133)? Norman Demy's 1976 tnmslati~~~on the other han4 has elicited numerous cornmats ranghg fiom acclamation to contempt. First of ail, hm are a couple of balmced (scholarly) critiques: #1: The one modern version is descfibed by Ïts ûanstor Norman Demy as 'm a photogqh but a siightiy modifieci version of Ihigo's novei, designed to bring its great puatities into refief by thinning out, but mer completeiy diminlrtinp its lapses'. So Denny abndges the text, 'tones dom* the rhetoric, and transférs digressions to appendices The prose is simplifieci, and the syntax ohremodelied in the name of readabiIity (France 2000: ILg.9). #2: Carries much of the beauty and force of Hugo's 1mpage but abrid~essome iotaewlg longer passages (Grossm 1996: 133). And now a very opinionated feview #3: A Swiss cheese ofunavowed omissions 1.. -1 [which] kero out Hugo's commems on Ianslation as a form ofceasorship (Robb 1997: 382). Finally, here are three feviews Wt'itten by the general public at www.amazoncom?o: #4 A Iitesary masterpiece and ongoing classic The NomDemy is by fbr the best translation. The wording is Like poq, or music, instead of prose ûther translations are word-fm-WoTd, and whiie that is commemdable, French sometimes is awlramd wa~lsadinto EngiÏsh NomDauiy translates the spirit of Hugo's original worlr (3- Romraire, May 24, 1999). #5 hcfedl'ble translation Norman Denny's traaJlation hesup to its promise. If you are a pukt you will read this mioq dl 2200 pages of it (Anouymouq March 22,1999). The next rewiew argues that DeMy's translatio~~is an abridged version: Most people cornider Norman Denny's translation (Peqph Cl855ics) to k Md@ This is NOT THE CASE Red the introduction mi yoa wül sk tbat Demry rdmas to editmg cornent for la& Tais is the denoition of abridgkg I coqami Denny's mmskioa to the ~anslpioa1 read ht,the Lee Fahnestock (Signet Ciassies) aaaslation [based ou Wim0u.r~~and some of my kvode pans are tub&. Denay mves a coupk chapms to the back of the book as appendixes. Sorry. but I want to read the me1 in the orda the author intended. Denay's is her than mon abndged vezsioas,but it is still an abridged version ("Gavroche,,, Aug. 1 1.1999). .- From 1982 to 1993, Pe4guQi SOM 255,895 wis ddwide of iis oxxw'ofmne editi011 af ?il~- Dermy'otrrtnsfauw & bythe end of 1994 the baok bad been qxh& 20 (!) thes fGmsmm 1996: 22). nKsc statjstics aiggcd. a!i the sunc thDnray'strarislation was vny F.ewiveQ. m~y,ofthe~75m~d~~iesat~web~oniythrrt(!)mentimtkfirttha wfiattheyaretaikjngaborrtis aîrumbï-0non CONCLUSION in view ofcollins' definition of "abridge," % ducethe le@ ofa mitten work by condensing or rewriting," the last reviewer is nght Denny's îmm1ation is indeed an abndged version urtereSfinglyy Collins also &ives an older meaning of abridge: b deprive ofn This archaic meanhg of "ahidge" is especially relevant for the translation of Les MisérabIes since abridged versions of the work deprive the novel of its full force. As Ka- Grossman aptly puts it: As the nucleus of LaiF MiGrabIes, the story of Jean Valjean bas dominateci many abtidged versions of the novd as weil as most film renditions. This is a great misfortune. To exchde the hinorical commentaries, or the digrasions on argot, teiigious fi& and the mers [...fiis to rip the hem's moral stniggles out of the contact that &es them meanhg It is to transfbnn Les Misérables into sometiriag like Le Mtséruble, to reciuce a vast fiesco of individual and coiiective destinies imo the refatively trite tale of an ex-convict on the NR Hugo's imaginaîion ceadessiy weaves analogies between Jean Valjean's spiritual progress and humamty's strMng toward Wom, barmooy, anci social justice. What we lose, then, tbrough exîernai abridgement or our OWQ impatience to get on with "the story" is the highiy unconinnon interconnectedness of the whole (Grossman 1996: 45). On the mmo-structural Ievel, then, Denny's translation denmtey deprives the origuial of its CCinterco~ecfedIless"within a larger CO- on the micro-stnrM level, it effaces hundreds of mestmg images and bean out Hugo's comments on tmns1ation as a form of cetlsorship (Robb 1997: 3112). The omission of the haitwo senteuces of the novel, for example, is similar to the kind of censorship that Les Mis6rable.s SUffered when Wiborn's transiation was reprinted in 1863 in the Soirthem Codederate statestatesn Not only does Demy substantialiy abridge the original, he also over-simpiifies Hugo's style: he Iightens the prose and remodels the qmtax in the name of readabiirn,, evacuating Hugo's characteristically heavy, long-winded sentences. Moreover, Denny's metamorphosis of Hugo's style is like re-composing an opera by Wagaer so that it soimds Lice it had btcn written by Mozart, in the end, unilingual Engiish readers get a false impression of what Hugo 3s like." Furthermore, Demy's version strikes me as the "dumbing dom" and over-simp~~onof an extremely cornplex work Inde& some would say the same thmg about the musical Les Mi.,which 1 suspect was based on Denny's translation. This briags us to the next chapter from uovel to musical. 1. Intersemiotic Translation In Wn Linguistic Aspects of Tnuislati~n,~Roman Jakobson introduced his weil- known distinction of three kinds of "interpreting a verbai sign": 1) IntraIingual trausiation or reworrimg is an interpretation of verbal si- by meam of other signs of the same language. 2) [rderhgud translation or fr~plplirtionpropet is an imerpreîation of verbal signs by means of some other language. 3) IntefSemiotic translation or &mmmuMon is an mtqmmion of verbal signs by means of signs ofnonverbai sign systems (Jakobson 1959 233). Jakobson's third distinction is particuiarly relevant for this thesis: htersemiotictranslation was mderstood by Jakobson to tefkr to the oneway metabagua1 operation in whicfi liaguistic signs are recdified into non-IinguiCstic codes. TypicaI exampIes of this type of recuding are the translation hmverbal lmguage into visual laquages (for instance, in the p1astic arts, painang, sculpture, arcbitcchirt, and photography); ho kinesic Ianguags (fiir instance, baIIet and pantomime); into wrditive Iaguages (for instance, music and son@; and hto immedid languages (for instance, cinema and, iast but not Ieasf opera) (Gocide 1997: 241). In "Intercode Translation: Words and Music in Opera," DUida GorIée discusses at Iength the theoretical considerations involved in intersemiotic translation as they pertain to opera trans~atioa~~Iri a nutstieu. what distinguîshes opera and musical translation from 0thkinds of intersemiotic transtatiotl is the fact thai they are hybrid arts involving the synchronization of several different media of artistic expression. What's more, in opera and musicals, words and music fom a coilaborative union: 2. The French-hngiuge version of the musical (1980) It was not until 120 years later that Hugo's novel was adapted mto musical theatre. ui 1979, the French lyrickt, Main Boubil, began to transform the 1500-page tome into a iiiretto of tbree acts and seven scenes French composer Claude-Michel Sch6aberg then set Boubil's Iibretto to music. The nrSt French recordiug of Les Misérables was rtleesed in 1980. Then in September of the same year, the first version of Les MisétabIes appeared as a "stage spectacle" (in Freach) at the Palais des Spors de Paris. 3. The Eogbh-languw version of the masical (1985) In 1982, the English transiator-lyricist Herbert Kretpner was asked to create an English version of the musical. nine Yeats later, in ûctober 1985, the Engiish version appeared on the stage at London's Barbican Theatre. It was nearIy an hour longer than the original French version, and included many new songs. There were fundamental difficulties invoIved in adapting the French-language version. The libretto in French was ditncult for English audiences to understaud it was fidl of French colloquialisms and lidcrary allusions. What's more, it was fjramed in a way that was comprehm%le only to the French audience who was intimateiy aware of the story. In order to adapt the original to the tatget audience, it was clear that major changes were ne& 1 will discuss these "maCron consideraîions (e.g. adapting the genre) in Chapter 7. In the foilowing section and sukquent chapter' however, 1 wiil address the most miportant "micron consideratim translatmg the lyrics. 4. The Mficuity of Trusiahing Lyria TEE COMPOSïTiONAL PROCESS OF SEmGWORDS TO MUSIC in nearly ail musical compositions tbat have words, the text is composed bejbre the music. Composers fhst ~8~efbUyexamine the text, paying close attention to its stress and buden? Ne* the words are set to music: important words are placed on strong beats of music whiie unirnportant words are placed in between the beats. In short, composers aim to mate music that riahnally reinforces the text's rhythm and féehg in what is, ideally, an intimate marriage of words and music. PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN TRANSLATING LYRES The translation of lyrics is a complex enterprise subject to multiple collStCaiLlts. Th- problerns arise because the creative process is turned @de dom: [L]a diff?cufte vient du fait que la traduction va à I'inverse du processu normal de création [. .-1. Le compositeur s7~id'un livret d'ou il tire sa musique. Le traducteur est au ddpt limité par la musique sur laquelle il cherche fixer des mots. L'inversion de l'ordre premier est une source d'embûches perpétuelies pour le traducteur (Bernier and Rosseet 1967: 102). A given of lyric translation is thaf except in some nire cîrcum~ces,the music must not be changeci to accommodate the translatai text In other words, the music cannot adapt to the rhythm of the words; the words have to adjust to the rhythm of the music. The fact thaî the onginal text is embedded in the musical score poses a range of problems for the tmmlator-problems that are not encountered m any other kind of translation. certain circumstances greatly limit the translaîion of the soince te* When translation is required not only ofwntten texts alone, but aiso of texts in aSSOCigtion with otha communication media (image, music, oral sources, etc.), the transl81or's task is complicated and at the same thecoastramed by the latter (Mayor& Kelly and Wardo 1988: 357). Thus, when the text is influenced by the conamence of irrtersemiotic communication systems, such as music, the trauslaîor w longer has the Mornto create the grwibest degree of dynamic equivalence in the translated text. According to Mayorai, Kelly and GaUardo in their article "Concepts of CoLISfTained Translation: Non-Linguistic Perspectives of Tnmslation," the translation of song has one of the highest degrees of coiishaint among the Werent types of communication acts. What's more, in a musical, songs are dramattéed. This adds a firrther complication to the translation process (ibid). TECENICAL PROBLEMS TBAT ARISE WEEN MUSIC IS ADDED TO THE TRANSLATION EQUATION ln bis seminal work Towmd a Science af Transiating, Eugene Nida cleariy descrïï the problcms involved in translating song: The translater of poetry without musical accompanirnent is reIativly ihe in comparison with one who must translate a songypoetry set to music- Under such cimtmstmces the ûanslator must concm himself witb a derof severe restrictions: (1) a fated lengîh fDr each phrase, with pddythe @t mber of sythbles, (2) tbe observance of syflabic procriinence (the 8ccented vowe1s or long syllabtes must match corresporidinp1y emphasized notes in the (3) chyme, where reqriired, and (4) voweis with appropriate quality for certain emphatic or gmîiy Iengthed ~mtes(Nida 1964: t 7ï). This research, of course, is ww dated, but Nida's ranarks are stül pertinent t&yY More recent articles and theses by Honolka (1978), Rodda (1981), Apter (1985; 1989; 1995), Graham (1989), Rudder (LW& Gork(1997) and Apter and Herman (1999) descnk the same problems inv01ved in the translation of vocai music and illustrate these challenges with copious examples fiom achial translations. In The Impossible Takes a Little Longer Translaîhg ûpera for Perfofmatlœ in EngIisk* Ronnie Apter summarizcs the [. .-1 opera transiatm xnust be concemeci witIi ovdstyte, Qamatic pacùig, and cbaracteruaùoa hughdiction. Buî opera translators mut also opetate unda another stringent set of cunsttaints: the physical Iimitatons of the vocal apparatus, the metrical patterns of a preset prosody? and the need to match verbal sense to musical color (Apter 1989 27). 1 wüi discuss three of these probl-vocai, prosodic and rhythmic collstram-in more detail in the following pgraphs. The physical limimtiom of the human voice, which are due to the anatorny of the oral cavity, severely resttict the translater's word choice. As a gend de, high notes should be assigrteci to wor& thai have the vowels /a/ and /if, while low notes sho& be assigned to words containmg the vowels Io/ and lui. As Gorlée explains: The site and sh8pe of the ncouth as weU as the position and movements of the tips, tongue, pdate, jaw and teeth, botb enable and Sithe production of souad by the human voice. Tramking for high pitches is thus different hmtranslating ter tow pitches. To gr- simpw @erhaps overSimpSi) a comptex situation, high pitches are best sung on stresseci synables and combmed best witb the vowds Id and (to a degree) /il(as in English "Father"?"nmt"? Teew, %sh," and phonetic variants in English, as welt as their cousterparts in other lmguages), whiie low pitches are idealiy hdon unstrrssed syilabies and with the vowels /O/ and tu/ (as in English %oss,'' "boost", Uw"bought?, and phomic vanants in English, as well as their cornerparts in der languages). Consonants can ofhm be sung both hi& and Iow, and hddbe chosen for how wedi they shape the od~8vity for the foîiowhg vowd aad @ch (Godée 1997:246). -- iuthough Apter k rcfémng to opaq hermmmemr are q&y appüdte to tktraristation ~€&cals. 39 As I mentioned mfier, when coqsers set a text to music, they aim to resiforce the rhythm of the l*cs in other words, musical mdncs must match verbai metncsn The problem for traaslator-lyricists, then, is that they are stuck with a predetermined prosody that may prove to be very awkward in the target langage. As Gorlée explains: The prosoàic patterns [...] are fateci by the linguistic structures in tandem with the musical riiythms. This &es them partiCulady hard to qroduœ in a foreign tongue without upsetîing the meenhg ofthe words (Godée 1997: 246). In addition to meticai coastraints, the tnmslator-lyricist has to deai with the problem of rhyme. In their article on translating Verdi's II Trwatore, Ronnie Apter and Mark Hemutn argue tk,because English is a relativeiy rhyme-poor lariguage, rhymes carmot be used in the same way that they are used in other languages (Apter and Hman 1999: 2). [n f&, a hallmark of bad Iyric translations is their attempt to ce-create exactly the same rhyme scheme ofthe mi@. Too much rhyme in English can acturilly have a comic efléct, à la Gilbert aiid SiiLlivan, thus imparting completely the wrong tone to a sexious opera (ibid.). They suggest two ways to avoid the pHdls of Unng standard rhyme: 1) rhyming but according to a different scheme than in the original, and 2) using "rhyme's cousim-off-rhyme (Iimtime), weak rhyme (major-sqwrlor), W-rhiyme (kitty-pitted), and consonant rhyme (slit-slajalone or in cornb~onwith otber devices Wre assonance and alljteration'' (tbtd.). * mepo~y, -ch hss pottans of sgUabtes (eg. iambi~,trocbic, -c kt), music is a.orpkû hto pqhgsdaaxatedimiad beats (eg.314 m!re 618 mttte)- 40 By Gu, the greatest technid poblem fdby the translater-iyricist is how to match foreip rhythdg This is one of the most difficult problems for the transIator of lwcs. As Apter explaias: The translater's most &fEd problem ri] matching foreign rbythms. In language!, rhythm is made up of stress and burden [..,]. Whüe music sometimes deforms laquage rhythms, it offen foUows them A translater deaIing wi'a rhythm iiighly mirent thni that of his own laquage presarts the translator witb a diaereat set of dificuitits (Apter 1985: 316). Herbert KretPner, the tninslator-lyricist of Les Misérabfes, alsa says tbat matching foreign rhythms is the perennial problem for lyrk tramlators: Music may well be an internatioiial laquage, but fâshioned to accommodate the cadences of a particufar tongue, it cornes to possess its own codes, which are not easily broken. The French Iangusge is fùii of emphatic consonants, staccato tricks of rhythm and hihg syllables at the end of sentences which have no mdy equivdents in the Ewsh ianguage. Schsnberg's [the composer of tesMMdIa]score was decidedly Gallic (Bebr 1989: 29). In am, lyric translation is one of the most difficult kinds of translation because therefore not only bave an understanding of the mceand target languages, they rnust dso have knowledge of music, vocal technique, musical composition, translatiog prosOs,, rhyme, play wnting and stagd-not to mention an awareness of the partidar tastes of their target audience. CHAPTER* CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS Before begianing aa anaiysis of the song translations, 1 need to fmt explain the confusing translation bistory of Les Mk As 1 mentioned in the previous chapter, the nnt French version of Les MirPrabtes appeared as a "stage spectacler) at the Palab des Sports de Park in September 1980; then in October 1985, the Enplish version appeared on the stage at London's Barbican Theatre. in 1991, Alain Boubil took it upon himself to &te a comptete& new French version of the musical. He recast the lyrics of the onginal 1980 French version and translateci all the new songs from the 1985 English version into ~rench"Les Misémbles thus underwent a comp1icated three-way translation process: 1980 onmnsll French version: three acts and seven scenes 1985 lm& Enelish adaptation: French-to-hgiish tnmslation plus new English songs 199 1 new French version: English-to-French translation of the 1985 Engiish adaptation, SONG #1: Cade on a Cloud (198syVn Chiirc?mr dans tes Nwges (1991) The song Un Château &RS les Nuages (1991) is a semantidy distant intmhginstic adaptation of Mon prince est en chemin (1980). In fa& the only thing these two songs have in common is the same music- Ch the other hand, Iln Château dmis les Nuages fepfe~ezltsa fallly literal translation of Cdeon a Cid(1985). Here is the nrst line of Lyics hmCde on a CM(1985). (Syliables that fU on accented -ThereiPoco-de~adod The rhythm of the words and music fit properly together. The syUabtes that are remforcecl by the music, %ere," "ca,= uon" and "cloud," are all s-ablesthat would receive emphasis in normal speech Compare this with the tust line of lyrics from Un Chûtemi ahm les Nuages (199 1): The syllables that are musically accented are: Tai," "teais" "les" and "ages." The placement of the word "Ies"-an unimportant article-on the strong beat is a serious compositional enor. One should never place an article on an accented beaî of music; it should always be placed in between the beats. Thus, the fint Iine of \*CS here already illustrates the problem of near-literal translaiion of lyrics: while the English text respects the naturd flow of the musical rhythm, the French text violates this principle. Here is the second lk oflyrïcs in Engfish and French: Kq -pu - raît qdje le WKX. Unlüre the 6rst line of French lyrics, the second line is perfectly in "syncn with the musical rhythm. Why? Because it is not a kd, word-for-word tmdation of the EugIish text Ovdl, [In Chôteuu cians les Nwges vacillates between these two extrema: merenderings are overly literal while others are quite good adaptation^.^' Other wnters have dso aoted this obsematiotl: il y a quelques occasions, tout de mhe, où le texte fiançais passe moms bien La phis voyante eatrt elles arche à la pièce Clir CW&ms les Nucllges [-..] qui est d'aiüeurs la phrs « ALZIseeirh andme for-g-ver andfor-g-ver. There is not one instance where the rhythm of the words is in codict with the musical rhythm here. Compare this with the first two verses of Mon Hisiotre (199 1): -Mon his - toire c'est rêve guJ corn - men - ce -X X Comme les mntes de @es de mon en - b-ce Les yetuk-més mon princeen--m'en-ceet et 7 X -Je prie pour que&- mais son 6- heiite nesedde-&- se. œA-veciuije-suisphda&-me X J'aime ia pluie et ouand on gg pro - &- ne X -Je I'em - bras - se pour gard - der wr mes IhesIe -Coût de l'eau da sur h peau & ce - lui que j'ai - me. X The French version is not a bad adeptatiotl of its EngIish colmterpart if one lwks on& at the two texts ontside the muSIcal context However, when the music is taken ho accomt, the French version has some very awkward moments indeed. As pointed out by the Tsunder the words, there are ma.instances where the lyrk are fighting against the rhythm of the music. Moreover, Mon Histoire, fkk far short of the aesfhetic beauty ofthe English version Why? Perhaps because the translation comtrads were too gratt Boubil and Schonberg shouid have instead kept their beautifiil1980 version c&ed L 'Air de la Misère. 1 wiU aow dyzea song that is, in my opinion, a bri1Iiant adaptarion. SONG #3: La Devise du Cabaretiér (1980~Masterof the Hie(1985) La Devise du Cabaretier Thkudier Bon aubergiste (a) -usses ou petites des tMajStes en route cabmetier honnêtement sait monnayer la sogdu passant et faire tout payer par ie voyageur jwqurma mouches qae son chien gobe dmle sectetu tefiain: Mabe Théwdiet, dri@ie sagesse docteur 8s-ivresse, et conseii en mic-mac nme~filot(ssphe,fma apthicaire fata témom expert prés la Cmdes Miracles qu'une &mée contraire a fait mitre loin de la Suisse chambre forte de ia terre duntje m'sens le fils Baron de Thénard petit en noblesse grand pm ses bassesses et noble en petitesse despore idéal, seigneur co@gd, prince des valets* pan du tiroir-caisse qu'me destmée contraire a plmilé dace canton +il me foudrit ilu plmète pour assouyit mes antbitiom Bon aubergiste doit (b)tder fenêtre owerte fenéfe fde 1YhteuiI lu chaise le tabowet le lit de pltune et la butte de paiIIe et (c) savoir combien l'ombre me le rniroïrpolü.salet la facture avant le dépar Tous Bmon de IWrmmdpetit en noblesse gmndpm ses bassesses et mole en petitesse despoe idéal, seigneur conjugal. prince des volets, tytm du tiroir-caisse qurloieciestide conttaike a plmiré dms ce canton &il me fdait la planète parr assot(vtb mes ambitions Madame Thénardier Ses mnbitions au sergent plotzs-en il les a toutes laissées au berceau en naissant Maîre Thénardier dri@nieparesse avme en prouesse et mari de juslesse Bmde tdconjugale abe, étroit de lmgesse et lmge sans espèces qu'une destinée trai'tresse a placé w mon chemin et qui promet ouj jours que la richesse est pour dentuin Master of the Honse Thénardier Welcome. M?szetu sit yourselfdown And meet the best ideeper in town As for the rest. al1 ofthctooh Rwking the guesfsond cooking the books. seldom do you see honest mm like me A gent of good inteni whok content to be Master of the Home dolling out the chumt Re4Wh a hmrdrhake anà an open palm Tells a saucy tale makes a little stir Cwtomers appreciute a bon-viveur! Glad to do me fiid a fmw doesn P cost me to be nice But nothing gets you nothhg everything has got a 1Me przce! Mclster of the Hme keeper of the zoo reae to reliwe 'enr of a sou or two. Waterjng the wine making zp the weighi Pich' tp the* knick-knacks when they cm4 see straight Everybody Ioves a Idord everybo@'s bosom frd I do whutever pleoses Jesur! Dont 1 bfeed 'enz in the end! refiain: Thénardier and Chonis Mmet of the hmequick to catch yer eye Nèver wants a passer-@ ta pris hmt by Senato the por bzûler to the greut Conrfrter, philaopher adlifeiong me! Eve~ybodyy'sboon co-ion ey~body'schopetone. Bzû ldupyour valises Jesus! WonP I skot yer to the bone! Thénardier Enter, Msiaa. lay dmyer load Unlace yer boots and restpom the rd Thu weighs a ton truvel's a curse Bur hete (a) we shive tu lighten your mase. Here the goose is cooked here the fd LFfned Ami nothing's owr[wked till Ih, satufied.. Food beyond compmefood beyond belief Mu tt in a mincer dpretend it's beef: Kidirey of a home liver of a cat FiIIhg up the satlrages with thk and th! Residms me more than welcome bridol suite is ocetpied! Reasonarble churges pltu some little extras on the side! Chmge 'em for the lice extrafor the mice @) Two wr cent for looRini0 in the mhor nvice! Here a little slice there rl little cut (c) Zbee wrcent for sleeoinp with the window SM! When it comes tojùtngpces tkeare lots of trcks he knows How it al[ increases ail them bits mrdpteces Jesu! It 's tnnciing hmit grows! Madame Thénarilier I useci to think thut I wmld meet a prince But God Almighty, have ymseen what 's happened since? 'Marter of the House? IsnP wu& me spii! 'Coq40rter. phihopher' - and life[ongshit! Ctmning litde broin regdm Voltaire Thauts he's quite a lover btrt therek nothing thete. WWa ctueI lrick of nutwv tdednae with such a linme Living wilh this bastard m the home! Tbénardier and Chom Comjiotter,philosopher Madame lhhrdier Don'? mate me lmrgh! Tbénardier and Chorus Servant to the poor butler to the greut Madame Théoardier Hypocrite and toady mid mebricle! Théaardier and Chow Everybody bless the landord! Evqbody bless his spouse. Madame Thénardier Roise it up the master's mse! Au Everybody mise a ghs to the master of the Howe! The iistener wiU immediaîely notice that the verbal rhythms are in harmony with the musical rhythms in both reditions Furthmore, Kretmer was able to create an eqrially winy, slapstick-like text tha& m some ways, silfp~tsses the onguial. IntereSfingly, some aitics thmk the opposie PIwieuss scènes som phis efficaces dans cette version [1980] que dans la version aaglaise [1985]; celles, notrunma où on mélange l'argot et une hgue plus classique dans le bouge des Théaardia, dans les diset les rpes de Pmis (Roy 1991: Dl). Yet, no aitics mention how the 1985 Engiish version appropriately tmqx~~Paris7 street Iaagaage into London's cockney, the inban socioIezt of London's working class. Just as the adaptation of Michel Trembiay's plays bmthe jddiaiect into urben Scots is a briIEiantiy k@ed adaptation (Simon 1995: 149-62), I think that the tramposition of French mgor iuto cockney in Les Mk is a stmke ofgeniusUSWs more, Mater of the Hme succeeds at bringing over the irony, safcasm and comedy of the original- &@y, all within the confines of rhymed verse! Wtiat about meaning? For that matter, is it wen possiïIe to bring over both the meaning and the aesthetic beauty in such a co&ed transiation? Louis Untermeyer, in The Translation of Poetry, poses the 1s it Unpossible to brkg ova botb the dgand the music pe, aesthetic beauty] from one language to another? And if it is iqosshle, should music be sacrificd for the deof the meaaing? Or shodd meaning be emphaski at the expense of the music? (1 970: 13) In order to answer this question, 1will have to take a closer look at the two texts. Fint ofall, there are only three instances where isolaîed meaning has been loosely transferred fiom the ST to the P. They are as follows: i) bon aubergiste allège les bourses 0 we sCrive to lighien your purse ii) tarifer fenêtte ouvertefenêtte fennée ii) three percent for sleeping with the wmdav shul iii) savoir comb im I 'ombre use le miroir iig two percent for lookmg ï~ the mirror twice These three senteuces are examples of whGeorges Bastin disuadaptation ponctuelle" (Basth 1993: 477). However, the Ti' as a whole is an example of what he cds "adaptation globale,* that is, the compIete re-working of a text in order to re-establish a commOnica.ti01i81 eqrrilirium that would have otherwise been impossiiIe to achieve if the tad were usimply üamlated" (tbtd). GloM meSnmg has indeed been Wd tiom the origmal to the target tmt The EngIish adaptation contams the same themes as the original: a jester-Iîke innkeeper who &es pride in his skül of swindling money from his guests; the imikeeper's Mewho titillates the andience with sardonic Ütsdts about her husband; and the giiests who have a riot wafcbing the artifice of these two whimsicai chaniçters, In sum, Mater of the Holne is a brüliant adaptation of La Devise du Cabaretier because it tmmfks both the "music" and the global rneaning of the original. The adaptation is a succes because ketzmer obviously focused on transfening mmo- meankg and macre-structure rather than on micro-meaning and micro-structure. I will now briefly disc:uss one last sotg, the fmiliar refrain that closes Act One and Act Two of the Engiish version of Les Mis&ables. soNG W. d la wionté & peuple (1980)/Do You hrthe People Sb?(1985) rem À la volonté du peupie et à la santé du progrés rm>pls ton cmdtm vm rebelle et à demaitr, amifidée naus vmIomfuite la lmièrc malgré le masque de la nuit potcr iIItaninet rwtte terre et chgerla vie IC fat gognerpm la guerre notre sillon à labouter déblayet la misère pou* les blonds épis de Iu paix qui ahseront de joie au gr& vent de la libetté À la vuIont6 du peuple je fais don de nia volonté sTiIfa rnoiairpnur elle moije veux être le premier Ie premiet nom gmvé rm marbre di moment d'espoir Do Yoa Hesr the Peo~ieSine? Rem: Do you hem the people shg? Singmg the song of mgst men? It is the micof a people who will not be slaves again! When the beuting ofymheart echoes the beating of the dm Thrre is a Ife about to sturt rhm tomorrow cornes! Willyoujom in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand wüh me? Beyond the b-de ivthere a worldyou long to see? ThenJO& in thefigh that will give you the right to be fiee! Will you give all ymcm give so that ota bmmer ntay advance? Some will fol, and some will [Ne. Will you corne up rmd take your chce? The blood of the martyts will water the meadows of France! Both texts convey the same overall message. It is more than mere patriotism; it is about the desire to defend fireedom and democracy even if one bas to die for this "just" cause. Both refrains speak of a positive future af'ter the dtirnate saaifice has ken made. But then is one obvious difference betweem the two texts: the French tcxt employs ten abstract metaphon while its English comrterpart uses six concrete metaphon: I. remplis ton cœur d'm vin rebelle 2. faire la lumière 3. [e mpede la mcil 4 iIIzmtmet notre terre 5, notte siilun ci hbwet 6. déblayer la misère 7. les blondp épis de la paix 8. mr grand vent de la liberté 9. s'il firui rn~~~~~pourelle IO. monument d'espoir. 2. Do you hem the &e m? 2. sm@g the sonp ofangy mm? 3. It is the muric ofapeople wbwiN mt be slaves again! 4. When the beataig ofyow hemechoes the beating of the cinmrs 5. So kta0 bmms may advance? 6, The bIood ofthe nmtws win water the meadaus of France! in the article Wn Tnuislating Metaphors," -nia Aivara o&es a scheme of procedures for the translation of metaphon:" reproducing the same image in the TL; The metaphon in the present example Ml into the second and last categories: the re- creaîïon of a dgerent metaphor in the TL; and the translation of a metaphor by its senseP3 ui the former prOCeCIU1G, a metaphor in the ST is replaced by a different metaphor in the TT. For example, the metaphor "au grand vent de la hi'' is replaces with "so that our bmer may achrmce." Both examples are referring to the same cause: the fight for fieedom and hi.ui the latter technique, a metaphor in the ST is changed into its litend memg. For example, the metaphors "nous vouions faire la lumière'' and Wuminer notre terre" are approximately paraphrssed with "there is a life about to stazt when tomomw cornes" aad "is there a world you long to see?" Finatiy, it is interesting to note that the French tcxt is overflowing with earthy, agricuItwaI metaphors: "Wi rebeile," "sillon à labourer," "les blonds épis de la paix qui danseront de joie au grand vent de la hi,'' and so forth. The Engiish tex& on the other hanci, abomds with mt~~icpImetaphors: "Do you hear the people smg? Smghg the song of angry men", etc. We can conclude &om the analyses that fulI udynamic equivalencet, (Nida) in this sptcinc translation case was iitedly impossiile to achieve. But the impossibility of exact recreation does not preckude the possibiIity of appranintafiovaud it is precisely on approximation that good lMc tramdation is built This is not only a genefaiktion about the tmslatabiiity of lyrics; it is also a judgement that the PS makes about The impossi'biiïi of transation is in a sense not debatable, Ifevery human language is distinct (as iî is) in stm- sound, aad vocabdary, and if evesy language contains unique fattaes, then cledy it is Iitdyhpom'ble to fuily mmk anything written in one language into [...]. The catch, of course, is the wd"firtS." if Ît is not possiile to fil& rendw mythiag wrinen in one laaguage into mother tongue, it is certainly possf'ble to scats/8ctWiy nanslate [...]. The ody valid standard mnaias: how successftl is the translation as an approximation of that original? @urton WtI 1988: 29) Are the translations of Les Misémbles succcessful as approximations of the original? The 1991 Fmch versions are not successfùl translations because they are overly literal. On the 0thhan& the 1985 English versions are excellent adaptations because they are wt slaves to the details of the onginai; they tmder macro-meanhg and macro-structure without compromising the overalI spirit of the source text Given the peculiar constraints, it is clear thai the ody possible solutio~+at Ieast in this spedic translation context-is global tmbptation; Iiteral or even nem-Iitd translation will hevitab1y upset the delicate balance between the rhythm ofthe music and the rhythm ofthe text While the demands on Iyic transistors are grtat, udortunateiy, the work is worse, sometimes the trans1aton are not @en medit or even copyright for their traaslati~as~~~coasequently, they receive no royaitiesf Perhaps this is why one derdesmi the lyric translater's task as "monk's work" (de Grandmont 1978: 98), an esoteric prirsirit that reqiiires much patience, darotion, artd se~~ce,but offi vq little extrmsic rewards in retu~~~Then why translate lyrics? For the intrinsic feward: the satkfktion one feels when the West cornes bitsfit, a good musical tmsIation 1. The Hàtory of the usi id Viewed as a ~ol~stern~' Contrary to what most people thinlr, the musical as we know it today is not a descendent of opera; it in fact has its mots in the French and Viennese operettasJS (PS)~' of the mid-18003, the two most important composers of which were Jacques Onenbach (1819-80) and Richard Strauss II (1825-99). Onenbach's Chfiée aux Enjfiers (1858) and Strauss's Die Fledennaus (1 874) were their classic ope- (Ps)." in the United States, two fomis of musical revue were developing in the mid- 1800s: Ameriam variety and minstrel shows (PS)?' the precursors (PS)'' of American musical the8tCe. Variety consisted of deshows faturing cucu acts, singers, dancers and vuigar humour. in Innstrel shows, white men blackened their faces mth bumt cork and Iampooned Negoes. in short, minstrel shows were "dmas singing and dancing entertainment" (Kenrick 2001) (ps).S3 Vaxïety and minstrel shows evenaialy ga-ve way (ES)%to the more sophisticated style ofvaudevine (PS)'~and the rowdy character of barlesqae (PS).~ The highlight of vaudeville shows were the speciaLity acts: mind readers, escape artists, divers, strong men, contortionists, bdmcing acts, and so forth? Burlesque7 on the other band, was a more duit fona of entertsiiament that challengeci the pnidish Victorias standards of acceptable behaviour for womeilSg Meanwhile, the American musical was in its infi(PS)? Most sources say that the fkt fiiu-fledged musicai was The Black Crook (1866) (Morley 1987: 15). WhiIe not dl scholars qyee7most concede thaî The Black Crook was a iandmark: it was the Erst musical to prove how immensely profitable a hit musical could be (Ps):' During the Iate 1800s, O- were British audiences' choice entertainment (PS)." By fm, the most succdcreators ofopexttas were composer Arthur Sullivan and lyrïcist W.S. ilb ben" KMS Pinrrfore (1878) succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. and The Mikado (1885) secureci their place in history as the graitest and most prolific creators of Engiish operettas. Compared beside Gübert and Sullivan's ~perettas~Arne* musical entertainment in the late 1800s looked second rate (Kenrick 2001). So European miports (PSI? eSpecially The MmWidow (1907). by Hmgariaucomposer Fnuiz Le&, mostly domhateci Broadway. Uiilike Europeans, Americaos viewed theatre as a business and not an art ("Ps).~' a The Amerim-style musical nPially began to take root when two outstanding Americaa composers aune along: George Cohan and Victor Herbert Herbert and Cohan established an important nom (PS)~' in musicai composition: the AABA mgf~rxn.~~ Durhg the late 1920s, the sentimental operetta began to change into what is now deda "musical" (Ps)~' (Appel 1973: 601). Jerome Kem and Oscar Hammerstein II's Showboat (1927) represented a break fiom conventional precedents (PS)": whereas most Gershwin and Porter shows were built around songs and performers, Showboat had a cohesive story, with songs that coimibuted to the action by creating mcxxi, reveahg character and advmcing the plot (Sadie 1980: 819). Diiring the 19309, Rodgffs & Hart continued to develop the more creative appach modeiled (PS)~' &er Km and Hammerstein's Showboat. While Porter wntinued the song-anddance tradibion (Ps)~of the 1920s musical with Anything Goes (1934), Rodgen & Hart created speaanilar comic musicals that had integrated plots. Then came Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic ORIahom! (1943), which inaugurateci a new cni for the Amencan musical. Oklahoma! was the fint fully integrated musicai play, it used evqSong and dance to develop the characters and the Rodgers & Hammerstein's shows dominated and transformeci musical theatre over the next two decades. Their influence was so proformd7J that composm of the more traditional musicals, such as Cole Porter and IMng Berlin, were forced to begin composbg întegrarated musicais (PS). 75 76 Duruig the 1950s, the Broadway musical piayed a central role in pop culture (p~)~and the music of Broadway was the popdar music of the western world (PS)? Rodgers and Hammerstein's shows contlliued to dominate Broadway, but there were three other prominent composen: Frank Loesser, Frederick Loewe and Leoaard Bemtein Accordmg to Kenrick, L0esser7sGys und ~oiis'~(1950) and Loewe's My ~4a (1956) were two of the finest works of musical theatre every pmduced And Bentein's West Side Story (1957) nptesented the zenith of the fom hown as "musicai play" (PS),~'a work with a more substantial plot and musical score (Sadie 1980: 819." This nrSt British kt of the post-Gilbert and SuiIivan era was Oliver (1960). Then between 1964 to 1966, six (!) Amencan musicals tan for over 1,000 perfommces: Heilo Do[&! (1964), Fumry Girl (1964)- FiaWer on the Roof (KM), Man of La Mancha (1965), Mme (1966), and Caburet (1966) (PS)? During the late 1960s, popular musical tastes changed in favour of mck, and the traditional musical was Ieft behind (PS)? Hair (1968) compIete1y tunieci musical theatre upside dom (Ps):~critics were appailed by its lack of plot, nudity, hippie sensibiiity, and especially its rock style of music. But the songs "AmfZand =Let the Sunshine In" went to the top of the charts, and Hair packed in audiences for several years thereafterrsb " Guys dDoI/Sma the Tory &r Besi Musical and keame a naple in the musid rrpatory (Keurick 2001). PS&d aspect repemire, &O "A@ FeLa& won every major award, becme Brdway's longest nmning dcai(a record thaî stood for over a decade)*and phyed to acclaim in mimwus bguages dl mund the world" (ibid). PS-nlated aspec<: fom fo thk day, WCS~Si& Smis aiil one of th most fkpentiy produceci musids worldwide (ibid). * Todrry, th- six shows are stüi aamg tk moa ~~ perfbfmed musicais (ibfd). PSrdated aspect: modeVrepertoire, "unie world ofpopuhr cufture had tirmed @de dom A chasm opaied between the mddyouih culture (of 'dnigs, sex and rock and mil') and the once daminant Uestabüshment"cultun. it became increasin@y rare for a showme to land an the mck-domMotted pop cbarts. When the hame hmrecord and sheet music des dried up, the most that composers and Iyricists couid hope fOr was the two percem ofa show's gross dotted to them M a staudard contrad The resuit? New tatent went hothe more pmfhble fields of pop music, television and film Several vetmiïke Ltving Berlm retired in cikgwt, adthose who iabored cm hmdth styles mi fiaswhich had worked for d#.ades wae suddedy unacceptable" (ibid),PS- relateci aspect Tht mushl PS is ci- m a hft-fledgd U~ now. 'IPSdatedaspect~enewfbrm 86 Akbugh a l- Hiushered in a period ofunazhty fôr must*cal the- Some people even chedthat the ruasicai was dead. However, iî tlpoed out that "the Broadway musical wasn't dead-it was just prcpernig to morphw(W). In the beginning of the 1970s, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jes~ Christ Sqerstm (1971) (PS)'~ became an intemationai sensation and represented the highpoint of the rock musicai (ES).= By the mid-1970s, however, audiences grew tir& of rock musicals. Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim trkd to refocus the genre by ktroducing a aew fom: coacept musicais (PS),~~shows that were bdt arormd an idea mther than a traditional plot The concept musical peaked with A Chorus Lme (1974). However, the dominant trend in the mid-1970s was clearly the revivaI (PS)? Seizing rrpon this nostalgie trend, ~mrie~'(1976) proved tbat the traditional musical codd still win over audiences? By the end of the 1970~~British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and American composer Stephen Sondheim were battling it out for number one spot (Ps)." Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (1979) was an unprecedented dstic achievernemt but a financiial disasfer (PS)? However, Webber and Rice's Evita (1979), the fint mega- musical (PS);' made a fortune and qmsenkd "a flashy victory of mattex over mind" (Kemick 2001).% Dtïring the "greedy 80s" aad early 90s, "Bnt hits" were the order of the day on Broadway, incInding Cas (19821, Les Misérables (1985)- Phantom of the Opeta (1988), and M& Saigon (1991). The revolutionary thing about Cufs was its marketing? Les Misérables, directeci by Cats' director Trevor Nnnn, coatinued the trend towards the mega-marketing of mega-rnusicallsg8 AU four of these mega-musicais bad one other thmg m common: dazzling special effects. According to Kenrick, Broadway audiences did not mind paying a small fortune for a ticket when they could see the rnoney on the stage (PS)'~ (ibid). Duhg the 1990s. the Americans beat the Brits at their own game (PS)."' Beaufy und the Beast (1994), by Walt Disney Productions, ushereà in the era of the corporate musial (PS)."' Disney's multi-million dollar marketing campaigri "quickly showed the old pros a new way to do business" (ibid).'O2 'B&re this, most ddstirnitcd theà souvernis to photo ~~ so~ks.nd T-shirts. Cm splashed its distinctfve logo [.. . ] oa CO& mugs, music boxes, figurines, books on 'the making of the show, grceting baseball capq sstin jackets, Christmas ornaments, sîackable tms, stufkî toys, maichboxes, key chahanci pîns, to name just a W (tbtd). " "The logo, wîth hieCor~ae ra sgsmst the Fm& üizolor, bkame familùr on evay imaginabie sort of souvenir inchidhg over-priced re-prints ofHugo's novel" (ibid). PSnked aspect The dcaiof the 80s clcarly wdrepfesented "the demie of greed-" IP PSrdated BFpeQ mmpnidon 'O' PSrclateù aspect: new hm "The Corporaa Musical is bu& pmduced and msmiged by muhi- fiinctioaal entertahem corporations ISke Disney or Gent. Et begh as the idea of a composer or der, but maofthe project's development is corporate spomreci Iastead of the ctistmctive stamp of #estiue indkidualq corporare musicais have the anonymow ficiency of a department store [. .-1. What's missMg is the joyous vit.that a corparate conscioumess cannot provide. In such an enWonment. pentwas akmst impauibI~eaden the bwma~pueraded as somahmg nd(ibid). ' &ranyandrlit~wsrnplicateb~dozeasofcities~tbepI~md~beamieanevm biggex moaeyniaker tban ever- Keririck coacludes: "if the British wmte the book on atoaliary marketing, Disney bPiIt the hi(ibid). Beast was foflowecl up by another CQfPoratebesst: Ek Lion King (1997)- Now that the "McMusi& was tboroughty a part of pop the Tony Awards kow-towed to the new fOrm and gave The LionKnigthe award ofBest hausicai (ÏbÎd). By the end of the 90s. aimost every show on Broadway was a corporate product Even Rmt (1996) was spomred by a Broadway-based corporation.'o3 The best musicals of the Iate 1990~~however, came hncorporations that aimed for artistic htegrity as well as profit. ~iranic'~(1997), for example, was "the best new Amencan musical in over a decade" (Kemick 2001). And Ragtime (1998) was "another example of the corporate musical at its best" (ibid). What's more, both Titanic and mimehad ~perb musical scores, which iecorporated musical styles hmthe eariy 1900s (PS).'" At the begmning of the new millemiium, howwer, the musical was in a sony tat te.'^ Some are even saying once again that the musical is an aoachronistic fom Ke~ckconc1udes his extensive history of the musicd by posing the question: "1s the musical dead?" HiS meris: Dead? Absoluteiy aot! Chan&? (Ps)" Alwaysl The musicai bas been chaDgiag mer niia Onenbach did his ktrewrite. And the fact that it keeps changing is the best sign that the musical is alin and still growing (Ps)" [.. -5 ïhere MU be new musicais-of sow kind or another. In the 21. cerrtrrry, th- tdevision aucl film will take the musicai to places we codd no more imagine that the people of 1900 codd have imagine& the tecbaology of The Jm= Si- or the by]subject mattu ofFaws. That means that the musical will go places some of us may not care to foiiow, but so long as a song Mps to tell a story, the musicd wiIl heon (ibid). Wéernrr Wers -precursor of the musicai Die nedennaus -precursor of the musid -two fomof musicai revue in US. -new fom of variety in US. The BIack Cd ampletely revohitionized musical th- in Britain and W.S. -established important mm: AABA song fom; American- styfe flair, styiistic versatility -European import to the U.S -establisM important nom: romantic content of musical musical Cole musical -&onal mg-and-dance musical Porter Rodgersk -first firlly hegrated musical play Hammerstem Berh Porter musical dd musical play -zenïth of the "musicai play" musid Bart Olkr 1960 book -cal &est British book musicai since Gilbert & Sullivan Herman -descendent of Oklahoma! Bock& desceradent ofOAlahovnaI HanIick MacDermot -hsuccessfûi rock musical various -%ccuum" in PS is filled with worfrs hmthe past Webber Jesus Chrisi Supemiar1971 rock musicai -zenith ofthe rock micd & Rice Sondheirn A Chorus Line 1974 concept musid -thsuccessfiil concept musical John Huston Amie 1976 musicai -las old-titshioned musical Webber Evira 1979 mega-muid - 1 st British rnega-musid & Rice Webb -2nd Britsh mega-musical & Rice Boubil & Les Misérabies 1985 mega-musical -3rd British rnega-musical Schanberg -fht hit musical by a French composer since Offenbach Webber & Rice BOUM& Sch6nberg Wak Bcrou~yand î7k Be@ 1994 corporate Disney Larson W& Disney & Ehon John Yeston & Stone Ahrens& Flaherty 2. The Phce of Les Mir Witbin the Musical PS No dtural product exi-and therefore no musical exi-in a vacuum. Nearly di draw on the nomand conventions cstablished by their pndecessors. Les ML' is clearly rnodeLled on the Lloyd-Webber-Rce mega-musical, an al[-mg musical with an historical theme, mkhg the tradibion of IMan opem with contemporary musical and Literary styles. No surprise then that the director and producer of Webber's Cats, Trevor Nunn and Cameron Mackintosh, ais0 directeci and produced Les MC. Both shows dm had at leest one other thing in cornmon: massive marketing campaigns. But dike Cats, Les Mk has a strong ii'breto and does not rely on scenic or specid effect gimmicks to wow its audiences. Les Mi- also has something in cornmon with another Webber classic: Je- Claist Superstar (1971), which was the first full-fledged rock opera During the 1980~~pop music replaceci rock as the rnainstmm style of music, so Les Mk instead sormds Iike popopera Going fùrbr back in the, the subject matter and setting of Les Mi- codd easily be compared to Oliver (1960)- which was based on Chades Dicken's Oliver Twist (1839). Both Les Mi: and Oliver are "book i.e., adaptations of a novel, and both criticize social injustices and expose the plight of the poor. On the micmlevel, too, they have strüong similarities-right dom tu the charsicters.'Og Sorne critics have even suggested that Les Mk "maires it look Iüre Dickens rather than Hugo wrote Ït" (Anonymous 1987: 72). While the substance of Les Mk has mwh in cornmon with OINer, its form is cleariy bastd on Rodgen & Hammerstein's rnusical~,~'~ especially Ortlah~m~l!(1943). Like Oklaholll~~!,Les Mk has a cohesive story, with songs that conhiiute to the action by creating mood, reveahg character and advancing the plot Finally, Les M& also fouows the conventions and nom established by Cohq Herbert and Lekat the begiiming of the 2oh century: it has the Arnerican-styIe flair and stylistic versatiiity estabtished by Cohan and Herbert, in addition to the romantic content of LeWs shows; and on the micro-ievei, most of the sougs in Les Mk use the AABA song form established by Coban and ~erbert"' But Les MT does not simply bow to the convmtions of the pae t aiso challenges theasdo most great works withiri a given PS. On the liner notes of the British recording of Les Mi-, theatre historian Sheridan Morley writes: Like Britten's Peter Grimes and Sondheim's Sweeney Tdand for that matter Verdi's Rigofetto, it sets out to define the Iimits of music theatre [. ..]. Les McsérabIes does more than draw on its own thtatrjcal and policd ongins: like the best of Bernstein and Sondheim it aiso pushes the barriers of music theatre forward (Mo- 1985: 2). Morley, however, does not spell out exactiy how Les Mk redefines the limits of music theatre* so 1 will attempt to answer this question myseif. Les Mi= was the first musical in history to bring a pop style of ''grand opera" to the masses. As ma,have pointed out, Hugo's novel in fact lends itseif to operatic treatrnent "Its successfid transposition into a musicai prwentation derives [... ] from the operatic quality of the text itself, which intertwines lyricai, dramatic, and narrative elementsn (Grossman 1994: 323). Several 19%xmmy compom, Puccini among them, toyed with the idea of tuming Hugo's Les Miséabks into an opera, but Hugo wodd have probably rond over m his grave had they done su, as it wodd bave gone his wish to dethe novel ~cesslcbIeto everyone (PS).''~ The transposition of Hugo's novel into the genre of musical therefore seems most appropriate since it is consistent witii the author's popuiist intentioa FinflUy, 1 would like to make one last point regardiag the genres of opera and musical. Generally spealang, reIentIessIy tragic tales Wre Les Misérables wodd normally be better suited to grand (tragic) opera In facf one critic noted that "Victor Hugo's sprawling canvas of social degradation in 19~-centuryFrance doesn't exacfly spring to mind as material for a popuiar musical" (Anonymous 1985: 446). And this is precisely how Les Mk deviates from the nom: whereas a large percentage of operas are tragedies, and most musicals are cornedies with happy endiags, Les ML: is an unpedented ~~l ~a~edy."~In short, using a musical to tell a tragic tale is the most hovative aspect of Les MMapproach that wodd influence fuane musicals such as Rent (1996) and Titanic (1997), shows in which most ofthe main characters are destineci to a fatai end As outiined in Chapter 1, Towy's preIimir\aiy nom attempt to merthe following questions: Why was the work chosen to be translatecl? What models, aesthetics, autb0rs7 bistoricd periods, genres- and themes are prefecced by the target cu~ture?"~Why were the Americans and the British attracted to Hugo's work? Like most matters of a cdtrrral nature, it is impossible to give definitive mers to these questions, but 1 will put forwsud a hypothesis. First of ail, 1 beliwe that Americans during the 19~cetltury were first attracted to the novel because of what was happening in their omcountry at the the. The publication of Les Misérables cohcickd with the second year of the American Civü War (186145). The CM1 War, fought between the North and the South, was sparked offby Abraham Lincoln's election as president but, most importantly, the war had deeprwted political and economic causes, exacerbated by the SI- issue. A 19%entury American newspaper, The Ev&g BuIIetin, desthe following comment about the popularity of the novel with CM1 War soldiers: V. Hugo's Les MrsémbIes was the ody book of aay importance published within the Iiiof the Southern Confederacy during the wrr and almost the ody fksh liienry food of those engaged in the hc slrniehk rearllon [my anphans] was this long and elquent tirade agaiUn the tyramiy of dety (7k E* Bulferin [Pn,videna RI.], May 25, 1885, p. 4 COL 1; cited m Lebreton- Savigny 1971: 31). Catherine Grossman also says that the novel was a favourite of Civil War soldiers, who "perhaps found solace in the resolution of Jean Valjean's moral dilemmas and France's civil conaict" (Grosmm 1997: 17). 1 agree, and wouid add that the Americm Civil War soldiers were perhaps Speciscally attracted to the novel's revohtiona~theme: ïhe glory to die for one's country" or, at least, for a "just" cause. Moreovery the novel's revolutionary, humanitarim and populist themes-not to mention flag-waviag patrie-no doubt stnick a chord with the soldiers. In short, the political and economic causes of the Civil War, and especidy the issue of slavery, were themes that most Ameriains could relate to during the 1860s. Les Misérables was also extraor~iypopdar in England during the 19' century (Grossman 1996: 17). Perhaps British readers saw shades of Charles Dickeris' Oliver Twist in Hugo's novel. Some of the reasons why the Americans and the British were fint atttacted to the novel in the 1860s probably still hold mie today for the musicai: its social and politicai themes, dernomtic idealism, huruanitaranism, etc. 1 would also add to this list a modem fbcbtion with the Romdc era in gend, and Hugo and Dickens in @cuiar. OPERATIONAL NORMS AND NON-OBHGATORY SEIB?TS The trans1rrtion of the French-language version of Les MC into English cleady illustrates two important PS notions: "operational norms" (whose subcategork are "matricial nom" and "textual-Ihguisticn noms), and "non-obügatory shifts." Boubil and Shi5nberg7s original French version of Les Misérables was conceived as a stage spectacle in an annz+basidy, a series of ~Ie8ux''in the French tradition. This very French form of music theatre needed to be transposed into an Engiish fom that was popular driring the 1980s: the Lloyd-Webber-Kce mega-musical. Since French audiences were intimately amof the storyYthe 1980 Frencblanguage version left out major ch& of the book According to Boubil, the French version was adapted this way because French audiences were so famibar with the book that they would grow impatient if they were taken through the enfire story (Behr 1989: 74). English audiencesy on the other hanci, were not as familiar with the story, so the English-language version had to fiIl in the "misshg pieces" that were left out in the French onginal (matricial noms). Non-obligatory sbwere dso us& to adapt the musical for Engiish audiences. The original used French literary allusions and coUOqmalisms that English audiences wodd not understand, so the English version had to trzuispose then'" However, the English translations do not mort to wholesale %uitural transp18nt8tion.""~ As m ofher sonm'" there is just enough "ex~ticism""~tu remind the audience that the story takes place in ~nince.''~As far as the adaptation of coEoquïalimis, the translation of the song "La devise du cabareter*" "Master of the House,= is a good case in point the French slang expesions in the original are tnmsposed into Cockney coUoquialisms such as "liftlong mate," "bcm companion," "What a sony Little lot," "Isn't worth me spi&" WypoCnte and toady and inebriate," and so forth (textual-Linguistic noms). 4. Critical Reception and Importance of Les Mir The original 1980 French-language spectacle, which was staged as an epic arena show by French theatre director Robert Hossein, received scathing critical reviews: The show's problems begia eatly. The libretto, by Alain Boubii and ClaudeMichel Schonberg, sbridcs the novei's huge embract to a piddliag lin= melodtatna with oniy brie€ flashes of the surging social themes that preoccupied Hugo. Ciearly it's impossible to do on stage what the Ma. did on paper, but the aytbors have attacked their task with little inspiration. Schonberg's mwic is intlattd and unmernorable and the lyrics are Aat and repctitnre [...'j Even in bis worst wo* Hossein has aIways managed to provide some moments of genuine theatncal motion Wfi "Les Misérables" the &hm is coqlete. (Anonymous 1980: 106). Despite such contempt for the work. the rewiewer aùmÏts that "Every night the 4,500-seat Palais des Sports hangs up its 'Sold Out' sign" (ibid). Five years later, Les Mi= was received in London with a polonged and emotional standing ovation on opening night AU those inv01ved with Les MC thought they had a hit on their hands. The "buzz" among those emerging from the theatre, maqof them in tears, was unmistakabte. Howwer,judged by the initial press reviews, it was a fîop: A quality score, impmshe sina suprb staghg, but lacktwtre job of cornpressing a vast, diffuse ciassic of a novel add up in -Les Misérablesn to a wortity but ultmiisely under-ssa'ufying specben of therttre 1. - -1 (Anonymous 1985: 446). 117 For example, the use of the expresGon "bo~vived[sicl and the mention of Voltaire m "Master of the House." "'"Exoticism is "the lowesî degm of arhurai trarisposition of a Sï fmwhereby tbat leshm @avmg its mots exchisiva m the SL and source cuitme) is taken over verbasmi hothe Tï;th is, the tmmpod tenn is a fecopkable and dehiely 'fOreign' eiemeut in the TT" (Eenrey and Hi& 1994: 250). '" For iiilitance. m the song *Little Peopls" the city &Versdies is meationed. Atter seeing the killer rwiews, Les Mi-' producer Cameron Macnltosh Sefiously considered calling off the ta-week schedule. It is a good thing he did not withlli three &YS, the show was sold-out until the end of its Bdican nm. Public opinion clearly diffefed hmthe cnbi~s.'~* So much for the critics! From that point on ia its history, Les M'took the world by Storm, playhg simdtaneousiy in Sydney, Tokyo, Budapest, Tel-Aviv, Oslo and Stockholm, dl in the mother toque of each of these countries By the tune it came to Broadway in 1987, actvanced ticket sales surpassed ten million doll-a new record12' What's more, this thethe critics gave it gushing reviews: It's a smash aii right. Magnificeat stagd is joineà to an upiiig theme of heroic human cornmitment and to &ring music [.. J. As tbe most exciting musical drama to hit Broadway in mme years, as a visually and musicaily stimng spectacle, as a stellar instance of highiy refined staging ski15 "Les Misérables" will be the hit it deserves to be 1.. -1. (Anonymous 1987: 82-83). In 1987, Les Mi= won eight Tony Awds, includmg Best Score and Best Book (libretto), and in 1988 it won a Gr 40 million people wortdwide in 27 countries and in 16 languages, Les MC is now widely regarded as the world's most popular musid. The reception of Les Mi= clearly illustrates an miportant notion of the PS: the evolutioa of nomis via cornpetition. Public opinion was the antithesis of the critics; evenhially, though, the critics began to agree with the massedu And now on to the CaAPTER 7= ASPECTS 1. Adapthg Les MZz to the target culture Exactiy why was Les Mi= was so inccedliiIy succd? I wodd argue that one of the reasons for its success is because it adopted the g&c and culnnal idiom of its English-speaking audiences The orimFrench version was completely transfomeci iato a genre that English audiences could relate to. The result? More than one dchas noted that Les ML' %ems more English than ~rench"'~(Anonymous 1985: 446) and "maices it look as though Dickens &er than Hugo wrote it" (Anonymous 1987: 72). This seem to =est that a foreign work must adopt the target culture's nonas and genres ifit wants to be accepted by it But what happens when a work does not adopt the target culture's msand gm?The 1991 French version of Les Mi- is a good case in point As the reader will recall, the 1991 Fmch version was based on the 1985 English adaptatio~t-notthe 1980 French version. This completely new French version was mted for perfonnancw in Mo- Winnipeg and Ottawa, and thea Paris in 1991, The French version was a smash hit in Canada; additional perfomiances were added at wery stop dong the tom. But what would happen when Les Mk returned home to Paris after 11 years? In an article fÎom 1991 entitled "Will 'Les Miz' Make Fmch Misde?", the author predicts that the French will not go for the shoK Parisians wüi have to swaliow an indigrrity even greater than seeing an u~lsuccesdblFm& show repacIcaged as a Bnt musical bit= the cast wüi sMg not the original French Iyrics, but a French -on ofthe Ennfish tmslah'on of the ~gÏdlyrïcs (Anonymow t 991 :96)- Yet, the initial pubric donwas achially @te impnssive: in November 1991, for example, one author writes "Paris Loves 'Les Miz' Second The Around* (Anonymous 1991: 65). However, a few montb a later* t was clear that the French public had siubbed the show. In April1992, the same author of the above amcle writes the headline Taris mes out pnp-winning 'Mu'": The show entereà Paris triumpbantly in ûetober 1991, opening to packed houses and criticai acclaim But France has becorne the oniy major tenitory where the show couidn't stick 1.. .] 'The French public was not ready for big &cals, &er an' (Anonymow 1992: 69). And then one month later, an article enbitleci "Les MU': Of and By But Not for the French" appeared in the The New York Thes: A French epic written by a great French novelist, music by a French composer, an entirely aew production with French lyrics and rave reviews [in Le Figaro and Le Monck]. Sinely cnough, one would imagine, to break Paris's legendary tesistance to Broadway-style musicals [. . -1. Yet after a month of seIl-out perfotma~~ces,audiences began to tbio out. And now, wîth losses piling up, the Paris jinx bas won out again: the show wiil close here on May 24 der just scven months [...]. (Riding 2992: 1 1). Why did Parisians nject the French version of Les Mk? Robably because "France rwlly doesn't have a tradition of popuiar rnusicals" (ibid). Paris averages oniy one musical pet year, and %as WtionaLIy treated Broadway musicals like a poor nIationn (Anonymous 1991: 65). The French producer of Les Mi=, René Cleitman, sums it up thus: 'The French never brought the musical into the pop era It was viewed as opcretta and demoded [outmodedJ" (ibid). The above example sem to suggest that if a givm culture does not have a @cuiar geme in its repertoire, in ail iikeIihood, it wiiI not accept foreign models of that genre hoits PS.'~~ 2. A Case for Adaptation: Georges BastinysSprnish Adaptation of Jean Delisle's 'LAndysedu disconrs comme mCtbode de In a presentation entitled "Une stratégie d'insertion sociale d'une traduction" given by Georges Bastin at Concordia University on September 26, 2000, the speaker made a strong case for adaptation. Bastin adapted Jean Delisle's ciassic Amiyse du discota5 comme méthode de rmduction to teach his students French-to-Spanish translation. [n his adaptation, Bestlli reeeated exercises based on stylistic differences between French and ~panisb'~~whereas the original used exacises based on stylistic differences between EngIish aad Fmch in his article en- "La notion d'adaptation en traducti~~~'~Bastin argues that his adaptation was absolutely necessary given the specinc pedagogic context (1993: 473). if he had instead used "tninslation proper," Delisle's book wouid have been Mrtually useless for his Spanish-spcaking students: La notdqtation engendre la virtueiie inutil'i de I'œuwe pédagogique. Exemple: le choix (délibtké) de nowdes langues de travaiI et notamment de la langue aiatmelle du nouveau lecteur, œ choix atrdne à hi seul une adaptation globale, donc de tout I'oqe Son refiis transfomerah ia méthode Delisle en un ownige «iaformateur>>, mais Certamement pas «formateur>> (ibid). In his presentation, Bastin mentioned how a non-adapted translation of a didactic work wodd be po~ess:Delisle's Ana&se du Discours was recdy translateci into Chin- but using the same English-French examples as the originai! What pedagogic relevaace could Delisle's English-French examples possibly have to Chinese tmdation students? C-y not much. The tnmslaîor should have instead used Chinese styhtic cxsmples. In the above dc4Bastin outlines four conditions that clsna>md adaptatiom a) L'mefïbcitf du hnscodage. Phisieurs parties du discours sont COUT(MUII- taxées d' ~~~ibles>>:les jeux de mots, certains idiotismes, les parlers vernaculaires, les ambiguïtés intentionnelles, le métalangage, etc. [.. .] Cette m&cacÎté est la condition qui amène le traductern à choisir entre désigdon a &et de sais ou à se tradbrmer en adaptateur pour <-ex les meubles», b) L%md&quatioadu sit\utions. M'inadéquation des situations associe linguistique et extra- hgmstique en ce qu'elle porte sur i'expression linguistique d'une réalité extra-hguïstique. Le traducteur doit donc relever le défi d'établir une ~vdemeentre la aaraton de I'me de paroie prunier a ceIle de i'acte de parole second (le sien) [.. .]. C) Leeb.ngtmtntdtgmrr~Je~ent&gcnrefaitpuscrI'adaptationauntoutsutrrplan [...]. Le changement de genre n'est pas d'origine bguistique [...] iui, s'impose au traducteur de par un choix soit persomel, soit extérieur hi[. . -1. Autre trait caractéristique du changement de geme, le fkit qu'il affecte la giobaiite de l'ouvrage d) Rupture d'éqdibre COCMD~~IIU~,Nous poaoas gue tout texte s'insère dans un Mede paroIe pbIarge mettam en jeu des interlocuteurs dans un environnement à la fois historique, géogaphiqug soeiohguïsiique a cognïtE [. .-1. Même si toute eaductioa engendre iiaturrllm une modincation de cataias des démas constjtutifs de i'acte de parole original, [.. .] elle ne rompt pas nkedrement i'equilibre pnkximt -le:] Les traducteurs aqJais de L *&@me dh cüscmrs comme mCfho& clc CI&~OR, m dépit de lems mtalonitarn mglophones n des huit années sCparam l'édition originale de leur versiou, n'ont eu à conraster aucune ruphne d'eguilibre commtmr*donnel,aucune iaad~onmajeure entre les éléments constitutifs. . du nouvel acte de parole qu'ils entreprenaient (mime milieu sociolinguistique, mkes destulatarres, mime couple de langues que i'ori@al)- En mm&, notre choix déiiiiré de langues de travail diffhstes pour la version espsgnole &ne un désiquilibte évident et codela condition, la raison d'être de notre diriiruche adaptative (ibid). He coacIudes th& adaptation is ofien necessary sinœ, without it, the TT dlbe eikr L'adaptation est le proassug créateur a iiCFcssairç Carpression d'un sens ghW nsm à tétablir, dans un acte de parole iinalinguistique dom& I'epUilke cornmunicatîolmel qui aurait Cté rompu s'il y avait simplement eu traduction (M), There are maay der cases for adaptation that could be ctted, such as the gr~up)~which has redybecorne a dominant trend m the translation world'" AU these examples Sem to suggest thai Touxy is right: nowbligatory sMts nom the source text do appear to be a U[tiVefSal of translation-which leads me to my next section 3. Gideon Toury: Towards (ouiversai) Lam offranslatiod Behaviour h the nnal chapter of Descriptive Translation Studies und Beyond, Gïdeon Toury f~rmulatesprobabilistic laws to predict translation behaviour- These iaws are baseci on the basic equation: if X, then the greaterhhe lesser the liket'iood that Y (where Y is an observeci behaviour, or a certain @aspect thereof and/or their observable res& and X is the coaditioning fàctor) (265). Toq&usses 12 universal whose main categories are: a) the law of growing standardization and b) the law of interference. The assumption rmderlying the fjrst law is that ail translations are conscious and lmconscious CCmanjpdati~~*of the source textLM The assumption mderlying the second law is that tolmce of interference-"whether they manifest themse1ves in the fom of negorive h.m$ër (i.e., deviations fiom normal, codined pfactices of the target system), or in the form of positive ~asfet(Le., greater lkelihood of selectuig featines which do exist and are used in any case)" @id)-has to do with the socidhaal conditions in which the translation is pediormed. Thus, it foUows that 4. Critique Although Toiiry's "univemal" laws of translationai behaviour are faschaîhg, they need to be critiqued First of all, there are veq few examples. Toury does not analyze an extemsive corpus of tninsiated texts in orda to establish universal laws. As Lambert (1995) points out, "[m]ore than any other mode1 in this area, [the polysystem theoryl is The first pmblem 1.. -1is his tendeucy to ppseuniversals based on very lie evideace. A more extensive dysis of tWand cuEtural refatiom must take piace &te "univenakmcan be persuaSn,ely posited, The ccmtdïctious in his own data danonstrate the ephemd aatirre of many of his hypottieses and tend to distort the theoretid importance of what he is trying to articulate (121-122). Secondly, Torrry's use of tht tcmis ''~acuum/~a~'"~~is problemtic since it implies something negative, (i.e., a deficiency in the target culture). This assumption is dangerous because it may lead to ethnocentric ways of thinking about cultures-which Toury's notions of a "major or highly prestigious Ianguage/cuiture" and a "minor or weak language/culturen cm also be regarded as a fom of ethnocetrtnsm. Who are these "Wear cultures beurg compared with? With the dominent Western dture of course. Why shouid Western culture be the nom with which dl der dttires are a West-centred view of the world What's more, although he accepts the "fithat aü languages/dtures are diftihe suggests that mderlying that difference is a universal, homogeneous system, The assumption of Cultrwt Uaiversaiism, Le., "Wreall the same,- is also dangerous, as it tends to efface the imiqueness of individual cultures and languagesguagesFurthemore, Toiny's uciatan only docummts the coâformity to his universal laws; it would be mteresting to look at the exceptions to the nile: 'Toiay's target-oriented approach is compromised by the discovery that the= are many (&y) some-oriented ~latio'11~''(Lambert 1995: 136). 'Y The fourth criticism 1 have of Toury's theory is its claim to be an "objective" explainable in tmsof mathematical fordae. The transt ation coatexts of diffant cultures and societies, however, have an infinite number of variables. Tryiag to boil them down to epigrammatic formulae seems to me a firtilc-ifnot mipossil~task. My,Toury's level of discourse in Descriptive TrmIation Srudes and Beyond tends to be extremely theoretica&hdeed beyond most readers-end his style makes for very arduous teading Although a complex style is sometimes necessary to express complex ideas, and evqprofessional field danands that its members understand its own voice and vocabulary, 1 wodd argue that the opscity of Toiny's discourse gmtuîtous1y comp1icates the ahdycomplex notions. ui short, Toury's exmciating style nmbs all but the most masochistically dedimed reader, it needs to be revised into something a little more Rader fnendly and more accesstible to his turget dience-after alî, a target- orienteci approach is his raison d'être. CONCLUSLON Despite its shortcomings, the PS remauis an excelIent methodologicat tool to analyze and desai'be tradzrtional phenomem+as I have hopefully dernotl~tratedin this thesis. The PS has had a signincanf impact on developments in Translation Studies over the past three decades. Mngthe 1980s, the PS and Translation Studies began to mage to the point where the two were almost indishguishable (Gentzier 1993: LM). TmIation SNdies eventuaUy adopted Toiay's focus on descriptive work and on socio- Iiterary nom that govem the target culture and constrain the translation process (1331, and this led to the abandonment ofthe notion of one-twne equivalence. In its stead, the idea of inescapable CCididelity"is now beginning to receive wider acceptance. Toury's main argument-that tramlators tend to make nowbligatory shih away fiom the source text because theu main gdis to produce acceptable translations in the target culs indeed seems to have a grain of ûuth. Noman Denny's "idiomatic" translation of the novel Les Misérables, Herbert Kiretmer's adaptation of the musical, and Georges Bastin's adaptation of Delisle's Analyse du Discoras ail support Toury's (hypo)thesis. By fm, Tomy's most important contn%irtionto Translation Studïes is the notion of transiational noms. In this thesis, 1have shown that Wilbour and Demy's translations exempIify 19% and 2oth-century translation noms respectively: Wübour's monologicaiîy semantic appmch reflex% the Romantic notion of authorsbip and the devaluation of the role of the tntoslator in the 19* Denny's approach on the other hana exemplifies the prevat?ing doctrine in our the, which Bnan Mossop dls % ideology ofidioumtic transhion" (Mossop 1988; 1989; 1990)- I have also shown in this thesis how the 1985 Engtish adaptation of the musical Les Misétables adopted the noms and conveatiom of the target cuEtufecuEtufe1argued that the peculiar cowtmhts on lyric translation forced the tnmslator-lyrcist tu cross the translation-adaptation borderline- Ifhe had not adapted the lyncs, they would have been in conflict with the rhythm of the music or very difficuit to understand, My conclusion was that the exceptional constraints for mlating a Broadway-style musical denand adaptation rather than traaslation Wry has unfortunately not been very kind to adapters: "tantôt imitation d'un copiste, tantôt déformation d'un faussaire, l'adaptation appiirait presque toujours comme une trahison, un crime, voire un manque de respect !" (Bastùi 1993: 473). Such contempt for adapters throughout the aga has its rmts in a misguided belief that there is something tnherently immoral or unethid about adapting Indeed, "c'est sur une ceéthique de I7adaptatio~>qu'il kudrait plutôt s'interroger" (Gouanvic 1999: Il?).'" How, the can we judge if an adaptation is ethical or not? I wouid argue that one way is tu detemine wh&er or not the adaptation reflects the author's intention. Though the author's original intention is sometimes not easy to detemine, in the case of Hugo's Les ~isérables!~~it is explicitly stated in his introductio-4 for that matter? it is hard not to notice his monoIogic message throughout the nove1. Judged on this basis, Demiy's idiomatic tradation and the 1985 musical adaptation of Les Misérrbles are clearly ethicai since they both wnvey the author's telenlogid goaL The PS7s indusion of adaptations and braditiouaiiy ~jectedgemes is a positive new devdopment for Translation Studies7 oflering a vast and fascmating new area for hiher iuvestigatio~t Translation is no longer Medto the confines of linguktics; it now hcludes music, theatre and fihn as we&areas where adaptation is the nom and translation is the exception ui the words of Even-Zohar, "traaslation is no longer a phenornenon whost nature and borders are @en once and for dl, but an activity dependent on the relations within a certain cuituial system'' (1990: SI). Boubii, Alain, and Claude-Miche1 SchSuberg (1985). Les Misérables. Pimo-vocal score. New York, Hal Leonard Publishing Corporatioa -(1990). Les Misérables. Piano-vd score. 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