From: coren@osf.org (Robert Coren)
Subject: Re: Opera in the vernacular
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 14:17:31 GMT

In article <Bw6KKD.2vs@news.udel.edu>, conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad) writes:
> In article <1992Oct14.211728.21236@osf.org> coren@osf.org (Robert Coren) writes:
> 
> [In reference to Andrew Porter's translation of the RING:]
> 
> >What did he do with "Rache rieten sie mir!"?
> 
> (This is Hagen's line as he stabs Siegfried.  Literally, "They call me
> to revenge!", "they" being the ravens -- Wotan's symbols -- just
> sighted.)

Well, *really* literally, "To me they counselled revenge." But anyway...

> 
> "Vengeance!  That's what they cry!"
> 
> Not deathless prose, but it articulates the line correctly (division
> after the first 2 syllables), and places "Vengeance," correctly, on the
> same spot as "Rache."

Well, I admit that this was something of a "trick" question, intended
to illustrate my belief that a really satisfactory singing translation
of the _Ring_ is impossible. (That is, without knowing what it was, I
was pretty sure that Porter's translation of this line wouldn't
satisfy *me* :-)). Now, I haven't actually heard Porter's (or
anybody's) translation of the _Ring_ in performance, so I probably
shouldn't speculate on how well it "works", but I'm going to anyway. 

This is one of the big dramatic climaxes of the whole cycle. I don't
know if the German counts as "deathless prose" either (by the way, the
text of the _Ring_, although for the most part neither rhyming nor
metrically regular, is intended as poetry, not prose), but at least
it's terse and to the point. The English is just plain clunky, and
doesn't really serve the dramatic purpose very well. It's not a whole
lot better -- perhaps even worse -- than the version in the mostly
execrable translation in the Schott/Eulenberg score: "Vengeance is
their decree!"

Then there are technical matters. Yes, the word "vengeance" falls in
the right place, and scans the same way as "Rache" -- sort of. But
it's nowhere near as well suited to that abrupt shout, given all those
N's, the consonants at the end and the soft consonants in the middle.
Wagner was pretty careful about this sort of thing, especially at
important moments, and he has really set the word "Rache" in a quite
specific way.

Further, although the cesura in this case comes in the right place,
you'll note that in German the rest actually interrupts a sentence, an
effect that is lost by turning the line into two separate clauses.

Then there's the whole question of _Stabreim_ (alliteration), an
integral part of Wagner's poetry, especially at dramatic high points.
Again, I haven't read Porter's translation or his commentary on it,
but I assume he's simply let Stabreim go by the boards (he certainly
did in this instance), since attempts to preserve it would add
essentially impossible constraints.

My point, which this detailed example is simply intended to
illustrate, is that Wagner set a specific text -- in this case, his
own; and while one might argue whether the text itself is "deathless",
there's clear internal evidence that the *sound* of that text, and the
relationship of every syllable to every note, is an important part of
the _Gesamtkunstwerk_ that Wagner was aiming for. A translation,
however good, must sacrifice this aspect, and in my view leaves
something that is not really quite Wagner.

> 
> That's one of the biggest problems with Wagner -- the orchestra responds
> to certain important words as they're being uttered, so they must be
> placed on the right beats.  Unless you're careful, this can get you into
> very Germanic, but un-English, inverted order.

That's one of the "biggest problems" that remain if you accept the
major compromises necessary to translate in the first place. From my
perspective, it's an additional problem whose significance is dwarfed
by the effects of those compromises.

--Robert
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