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Václav Renc, Life, Translations of Shakespeare and The

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Václav Renc, Life, Translations of Shakespeare and The Masaryk University in Brno Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies V´aclav Renˇc,life, translations of Shakespeare and the translatological heritage of Otokar Fischer (B.A. Thesis) KateˇrinaKotaˇckov´a Supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Dr´abek, Ph.D. Brno, April 2006 I hereby declare that I have worked on this B.A. Thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. 28th April 2006 in Brno: Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 Life and work of V´aclav Renˇc 7 2.1 Life (18th November 1911 – 30th April 1973) . 7 2.2 Work and attitudes . 10 2.2.1 1930s–40s . 10 2.2.2 1950s–70s . 12 3 Renˇc’sapproach towards translating dramatic texts 14 3.1 Introduction . 14 3.2 Philosophy and beliefs . 14 3.2.1 Relation to other Czech translations of Shakespeare . 14 3.2.2 Renˇc’sunderstanding of Shakespeare . 16 3.2.3 Renˇc’stheory of translation . 17 4 The influence of Otokar Fischer on V´aclav Renˇc 22 4.1 Renˇcas Fischer’s follower . 22 4.2 Two translations of Macbeth .......................... 27 4.2.1 Inspiration and imitation . 27 4.2.2 Updating Shakespeare’s and Fischer’s language . 31 4.2.3 Comprehensibility and explaining . 33 4.2.4 Theatricality and theatrical speech . 36 4.3 Conclusion . 38 5 Afterword 40 6 Bibliography 41 7 Czech resum´e 44 Acknowledgements I would especially like to thank Dr Pavel Dr´abek for his valuable advice and introduc- tion to the contexts of Czech translation studies. As not much thorough research into the life of V´aclav Renˇchas been done, or any profound study of his work, especially translations, has been written, I had to investigate a lot of various sources, including Renˇc’sfamily’s and his colleagues’ personal testimony, which provided me with valuable information. At this point I would like to express my deep gratitude to those who knew V´aclav Renˇcin person and helped me to better understand Renˇc’scharacter, life and work. I am greatly indebted to Dr Jaroslav Nov´ak, Renˇc’sson-in-law, Professor ZdenˇekStˇr´ıbrn´yfrom Charles University, who was Renˇc’s aide and collaborator, Dr SvˇetozarV´ıtek,his former employer at the Moravsk´edivadlo in Olomouc, and other people willing to help me find out more about V´aclav Renˇc.This contributed to my focusing on the thorough processing of all the gained details that could explain the attitudes, intentions and beliefs of a poet, playwright and, last but not least, a man with a strong Christian faith, whose character and work influenced a lot of people who had met him throughout his turbulent life. Much important information has been derived from Renˇc’spersonal notes, essays and correspondence that have been well-preserved in the inheritance. This B.A. Thesis is a part of the Kaprad´ıProject (http://www.phil.muni.cz/kapradi), financed from the grants given by GAAV CRˇ (Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), “Elektronick´aknihovna pˇreklad˚uanglick´ych dramat” (Electronic Li- brary of Czech Translations of English Drama, no. B9164305) and “Elektronick´aknihovna novˇejˇs´ıch pˇreklad˚uanglick´ych dramat” (Electronic Library of Recent Czech Translations of English Drama, no. B901640501). 1 Introduction In this work I want to focus on the extraordinary figure of V´aclav Renˇc(1911–1973), the Czech poet, dramatist and translator of the twentieth century, who in spite of being significantly harmed by the political forces of his time, affecting both his work and his personal life, contributed to the state of Czech literature and translating and created some of the best Czech translations of Shakespeare’s plays. My research is divided into three main areas, his life, his own work and the translations he made from other languages, and finally his translation methods and their analysis. Renˇc’sdescription of the outer and more often the inner world of man found its way of presenting itself in his poetry first. Gradually the world of drama started to occupy his mind and gave way to expressing his inner beliefs and attitudes to the questions of one’s moral principles and faith. I will devote part of the second chapter of the thesis to the poet’s work and application of his world view to the art of poetry and drama in two different periods of his life. The third chapter deals with the artist’s attitude to translating, especially of Shake- speare’s plays, and his opinion of the translating of his time compared to some of the translators of the previous century. The second part of this chapter deals with some the- oretical views Renˇcwas influenced by – primarily by his lecturer and inspiration Otokar Fischer. It is shown how Fischer’s views find their reflexion in Renˇc’sthoughts and prac- tical translating. Finally I will proceed to analyze some aspects and prevailing tendencies of Renˇc’s translating from English, particularly of Shakespeare’s work, and I will present these on examples from Renˇc’stranslation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth compared to the translation of the same play by Otokar Fischer. Due to the limited space of the thesis the analysis will not provide a general picture of Renˇc’swhole translation work. However, the examples presented here will try to demonstrate important aspects of his translating practice, which granted V´aclav Renˇcthe title of an exceptional poet and a translator with a fine feeling for the language. In the course of my research into Renˇc’slife and work as well as his translating and theoretical thoughts, I have drawn my thesis upon several sources. These included field research, Renˇc’scorrespondence, notes, essays and articles for theatre programmes and newspapers, personal communication with members of Renˇc’sfamily and with his col- 5 leagues, and the literature about Renˇc’slife and work, which I will include at the end of my thesis in the bibliography. 6 2 Life and work of V´aclav Renˇc 2.1 Life (18th November 1911 – 30th April 1973) V´aclav Renˇcwas born in Vodochody in the Roudnice region in Northern Bohemia on the 18th of November 1911. Though, because of a mistake that occurred in his certificate of baptism, claiming the date of birth to be 28th of November, all his documents remained based on the incorrect date for his whole life. His father worked as a bricklayer following his father’s footsteps. When he returned from the First World World where he had fought as a member of the Russian legionnaire troops, the family moved to Prague. Renˇc’sfather became a messenger at court due to his enfeebled health caused by the war, and his mother worked as a knitter. In the twenties Renˇc’sonly sister Vˇerawas born. Young V´aclav started to go to primary school in Prague, and then also went to grammar school. He graduated from the school in 1930. During the summer holidays he studied Latin, which enabled him to enter the Faculty of Arts at Charles University and enrol in philosophical and linguistic courses. V´aclav, like his father, belonged to the Czechoslovak Church, though during his student years he converted to Catholicism, which strongly influenced his later work. In his university years he met people like Josef Kostohryz, Frantiˇsek Lazeck´yand other writers, whom he joined in the association publishing the magazine R´adˇ . From 1927 he also contributed to the Studentsk´yˇcasopis under one of his many pen- names Jarka St´ıt.ˇ In 1933 Renˇcpublished his first collection of poems Jitˇren´ı and two years later another one called Stud´anky, both of which were well received by the literary critic and Renˇc’sprofessor F. X. Salda.ˇ In the years 1933–36 he became a promotional editor of the Booksellers and Publishers Union of the Czechoslovak Republic and together with FrantiˇsekHalas he was publishing the magazine Rozhledy. In 1936 he graduated from Charles University with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy after presenting a dissertation Bergsonovo pojet´ıintelektu a ˇzivotn´ıhov´yvoje [Bergson’s conception of the intellect and life evolution] (Rotrekl, 1991: 114) In the same year he married Alena Sedl´akov´a,who came from a family with a high social status. For V´aclav Renˇc,coming from much lower social conditions, it meant to try hard throughout his whole life to adapt to the more respected family background. Fortunately, his wife’s family accepted him on the basis of his received education in the time when the degree of a doctor meant a higher status in the society. In the year 7 following his wedding Renˇcpublished another collection of poems Sedmihradsk´azem and he also became an editor of the publishing house Novina, where he worked from 1937 to 1942. Then he became a professional writer and only partly continued contributing to the magazine R´adˇ together with FrantiˇsekLazeck´y(from 1940 to 1944). In 1937 Renˇc’s son Ivan and in 1943 his daughter Zuzana were born in Prague. The family moved to Fryˇst´aknear Zl´ınwhere they stayed until 1945. By the end of the Second World War he had already written another two collections of poems (Vinn´ylis, 1938, and Trojzpˇevy, 1940) and several plays (for example C´ısaˇr˚uvmim, 1944), along with translations from French, German and Polish. After the war the family moved to Olomouc where Renˇcwas offered a job of a dra- maturge and stage director in the Olomouc theatre and two and half years later they moved again. This time it was Brno where Renˇcaccepted the offer to work in the Na- tional Theatre as a lecturer and later a stage director.
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