JAITS＜ Article ＞

The Distinctions between Stage Translation and Film Translationof Beckett’s Happy Days
Yoshiko Takebe（Shujitsu University）
Abstract
This paper aims to clarify the distinctions between the stage translation and film translationof Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days from both interlingual and intersemiotic perspectives. This
paper first scrutinizes the interlingual translation of the stage version from English to
Japanese as demonstrated through the voices of the actors on the stage, and the intersemiotic
translation from the stage directions in the text to nonverbal factors on the stage during a live
performance. The paper then focuses on the interlingual translation of the film version in
French with Japanese subtitles as well as the intersemiotic translation from the stage
directions in the text to nonlinguistic elements on the screen. By comparing the effects of thestage and film versions that were presented in Japan in 2019 from the viewpoints ofinterlingual and intersemiotic translation, this paper ultimately discloses not only theenvironmental variance between these media but also Beckett’s vision for the stage, film, andtranslation.

Introduction
As opposed to Samuel Beckett’s (1906–1989) other plays, in which the situations of
the characters are stagnant and the sceneries of Act I and Act II are symmetrical andreversible, there is a dramatic change in both situation and landscape from Act I to Act IIof Beckett’s Happy Days (1961). Winnie, who is embedded up to her waist in Act I (without
the audience being given any specific reason or background by Beckett), is buried up to
her neck in Act II. The freedom to move her upper body and to control her property in Act
I is taken away in Act II. Moreover, the physical change from a mobile to an immobile
state in turn highlights the unchangeable spiritual bond between a wife and a husband.
Scrutiny of both the stage and film versions of Beckett’s Happy Days simultaneously
mirrors the relationship between audience and actors established through translation
strategies including interlingual/intersemiotic translation, domestication/foreignization,

TAKEBE, Yoshiko, “The Distinctions between Stage Translation and Film Translation of Beckett’s
Happy Days,“ Invitation to Interpreting and Translation Studies, No.23, 2021. pages 95-116. © by theJapan Association for Interpreting and Translation Studies

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

and dubbing/subtitles. This paper aims to explore what it means to translate Beckett’s
Happy Days for a Japanese audience by focusing on three Japanese productions presented
in 2019: Beckett’s Happy Days performed in an orthodox style at a small contemporary
theatre in Tokyo, in order to reveal the urban materialism depicted in Beckett’s originaltext and especially in Act I; another production of Beckett’s Happy Days, set inside a cavelike theatre in Yokohama, reminiscent of cave art in the Old Stone Age, to clarify the
relationship between the civilized and the uncivilized experienced by both the heroine andthe audiences through the shift from Act I to Act II; and the film version in French titled
Oh les beaux jours shown at the Samuel Beckett Film Festival in Kyoto. This paper focuseson the Japanese productions performed in 2019 because (1) they were the first productions
that used the new Japanese translation which had just been published in 2018 and (2) theyear 2019 became the final year for audiences to rejoice in the interlingual andintersemiotic experiences of actually being in a public theatre before the worldwide
pandemic began in 2020.
1. Stage Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days
Beckett’s Happy Days, first written in English, premiered in 1961 at Cherry Lane
Theatre in New York. It was then translated into French by the playwright himself in 1962.
The first Japanese translation of this drama was done by Shinya Ando (from the French
version) and Yasunari Takahashi (from the English version) in 1967. It was subsequently
revised by those same translators in 1990 (Beckett, 1991). For a long time, the Japanese
productions of Beckett’s Happy Days were performed according to this traditionaltranslation by the two great masters. However, by the beginning of the new millennium,
this first Japanese translation had become too antiquated to allow Japanese audiences tosavor the sound and rhythm of the play. Therefore, the legacy of the conventionaltranslation has now been replaced by new translations, and Minako Okamuro (Professor at
Waseda University and Director of the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda
University) is leading efforts to investigate the new versions of Beckett’s drama for the
new generations of the twenty-first century. The two Japanese performances of Happy
Days in 2019 that will be discussed in the following sections are based on the latest
translation by Kaku Nagashima published in 2018.
1.1 The Tokyo Version in 2019: Representation of Dubbing
1.1.1 Interlingual Translation
This section analyzes how the Japanese production of Beckett’s Happy Days
performed in Tokyo in 2019 was translated as the representation of dubbing on the stage.
In order to compare it with subtitles on the screen, the stage translation for the play is
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Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

examined as “dubbed” translation expressed through the voices of the characters on thestage. According to Pérez-González (2011, p. 17), “in the field of audiovisual translation,
dubbing denotes the re-recording of the original voice track in the target language using
dubbing actors’ voices”. Moreover, “if a film is dubbed for a foreign audience, thetranslated dialogue ideally should provide the same experience, so that target language
viewers are able to enjoy an equally realistic performance and are not constantly remindedthat what they are watching is a translation” (Koloszar-Koo, 2012, p. 156).
In spite of being embedded up to her waist in the mound in Act I, Winnie still has
the ability to use her upper body to the fullest in order to control her belongings. Whenthese movements and gestures are carried out by a middle-aged woman in line with thesource text, which specifies “a woman of about fifty” (Beckett, 1986, p. 137), the sceneryand the combination of the heroine and the setting of this play may provoke pathos anddesolation. The audiences may sympathize with Winnie, who is approaching the end of herlife. On the contrary, when these actions are performed more vividly by a young woman,unlike in the source text, audiences may be encouraged to see the heroine and the setting
separately and to focus on the artistic tempo of the nonverbal structure of the performance.
In other words, the audiences may find the scene of a young woman buried in a mound to
be rather comic and fresh, and instead concentrate on the modulation and rhythm of her
movements.
Such a situation was made possible at a small theatre in Tokyo when the play was
performed by a troupe of young Japanese actors called Seinendan, led by a young director
named Momo Hachisu, in January 2019. While the Japanese title has long been “Shiawasena (meaning Happy) Hibi (meaning Days)”, the title of this 2019 performance included theoriginal English word and was translated as “Happy na Hibi”. The agility and brightnessof this new title helped Beckett’s play, originally seen as complicated and obscure, to berendered more accessible for Japanese audiences. The new translation by Kaku Nagashima
was also more colloquial and melodious to the ear compared to the traditional version by
Yasunari Takahashi. Like the title of this performance, the book title of the new tra nslation
is “Happy Days”, and it includes all the original English words of the title by using
katakana, Japanese letters used for words of foreign origin.
Table 1: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translationsfor StageEnglish version

French version

Oldtranslation
Takahashi

Japanese
by

VoicesNew

on

Japanesetranslation
Nagashima

97

Stage:
by

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

Oh this is a happy

Oh

jour

ああきょうはしあ

ああ、これこそハday! This will haveencore que ça aura

わせな日だわ！

ッピーな日！またbeen another happy

été,

un!

きょうもしあわせハッピーな一日にday! After all. So far.

Malgré

tout.

な日になるわ！

なりそう！とりあ(Beckett,

Jusqu’ici. (Beckett,とにもかくにも。今えず。ここまでは。

1978, p. 63)

までのところは。

(Beckett,(Beckett, 1991, p. 41)

p. 46)

p. 159)

1986,

le

beau
encore2018,

As is shown in Table 1 above, compared to the old Japanese translation, the new Japanesetranslation matched well both with the source English text and with the modern Japaneseaudiences: (1) By using katakana for “happy” in the new Japanese translation, the plosive
consonant of the “p” sound effectively illustrated Winnie’s Japanese voice as therepresentation of dubbing translation as opposed to subtitle translation ; (2) the musicalityof the Japanese rhythm enabled the Japanese audiences to see the Japanese actress playing
Winnie on the stage as more natural and realistic, and (3) the three-dimensional livelinessand vividness of Beckett’s Happy Days were interlingually translated through the voices.
1.1.2 Intersemiotic Translation
Dubbing translation is different from other types of translation where “aspects suchas time constraints, lip-sync, facial expressions and gestures, character synchrony orvisually-linked elements, such as cultural references or visually-linked humour”(Koloszar-Koo, op. cit., p. 159) are concerned.
While the original lines and movements by a middle-aged Winnie are often perceived
by Japanese audiences as chaotic and mysterious, this latest Japanese version with a young
Winnie suggested that controlling and being controlled by her belongings on the mo undbrought her amusement and a sense of relief. The first act of Happy Days in this Japaneseversion thus symbolized, instead, the positive aspects of materialism from a young female
stance and in a contemporary way. Although Winnie is embedded up to her waist in the
mound, she still has the freedom to move her upper body and cherishes the opportunity to
be watched by objective eyes. Without deviating from Beckett’s source text, the newJapanese translation clarifies the meaning of the title Happy Days: with the aid of her
belongings, a woman rejoices in composing a musical piece through the diminuendo andcrescendo of her voice, facial expressions, and movements; she is content.
Thus, compared to the old Japanese translation, this Tokyo performance demonstrates
domestication (in which “the translator leaves the reader in peace as much as possible andmoves the writer toward him” [Schleiermacher, 1813/2004, p. 49]) through interlingualtranslation (“an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language” [Jakobson,
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Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

1959/2004, p. 139]) by matching with more modern colloquial Japanese, and throughintersemiotic translation (“an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal
sign systems” [Jakobson, op. cit., p. 139)]) by casting Winnie as a young woman insteadof “a woman of about fifty” (Beckett, 1986, p. 137). It was appropriate to conform to thestandards held by the target culture which, in this case, is Japanese modern culture. As
suggested by the translator of this performance, compared to the time when Beckett wasalive, “it is an important point to figure out how the age of fifty nowadays is accepted asaging” (Nagashima, 2018, p. 332, trans. mine). The young actress embodied Winnie’s lust
for femininity energetically rather than miserably.
1.2 The Yokohama Version in 2019: The Interlingual and Intersemiotic Effect ofSpace for Stage Translation
While nonverbal aspects are crucial for understanding the situation of Act I from theviewpoint of urban materialism and landscape, verbal aspects become more important foranalyzing Act II and its shift from Act I (see Table 5). This is because when human beings
are mobile and surrounded by materials, they are able to rely on those objects to relie ve
tedium and express themselves. On the other hand, when human beings are deprived of
their mobility and unable to use any objects, they need to be supported more by their own
words and sounds. Moreover, when human beings are left alone in a deserted area , they
are forced to survive in an uncivilized situation.
Such a situation where human beings are devoid of materialism wasintersemiotically translated according to Beckett’s Happy Days and emblematically
performed in February 2019 by a Japanese troupe called Kamome Machine at a theatre ina basement called The Cave (which was built from the ruins of an old building in
Yokohama) (Hagiwara, 2019). Against the exposed concrete wall, Winnie shone in a blue
dress on a silver steel mound which resembled a fresco or a cave painting. Cave
paintings have their roots in the Old Stone Age when Cro-Magnon men drew pictures ofanimals to symbolize their success in hunting and made figures of goddesses with stones
to pray for fertility and posterity during incantations and ceremonies. Seeing Beckett’s
Happy Days accompanied by a mural, the audiences were led to imagine that they werein a cave witnessing an incantation or a ceremony in the uncivilized world where Winnie
recalls the moment when “last human kind—to stray this way” (Beckett, op. cit., p. 165).
The echo effect of words and sounds was also technically beneficial in this cave-liketheatre. The cadence and rhythm of the Japanese translation resonated clearly andefficiently in the primitive landscape. Winnie’s words resembled a repeated lullaby, lulling
an infant to sleep. “Go back into your hole now, Willie, you’ve exposed yourself” (Beckett,op. cit., p. 147). The “hole” in this line emblematically conveyed two meanings: the womb

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of a woman and the cave space of the theatre. In fact, when Willie (Winnie’s husband)
reappeared at the end of Act II “on all fours” (Beckett, op. cit., p. 166), audiences could
see him crawling down the stairs from outside to the basement to reenter the cave theatre
through the transparent entrance door.
The contrasts between light and darkness, words and actions were particularly
convincing when Winnie’s umbrella caught fire, which highlighted the barbaric, primitive
atmosphere of the theatre.
Table 2: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translationsfor StageEnglish version

French version

Oldtranslation

Japaneseby

Takahashi

VoicesNewonstage:

JapanesetranslationbyNagashimaWell, I don’t blame

Une chance, que le

そう、あなたを責め

まああなたのこと

you, no, it would illmoulin tourne. (Unたりしないわ、えは責めない、そう

becomeme,whotemps.)

Ça que je

え、動けないわたし

おかしいから、動cannotmove,totrouvesi

が、口をきいてくれ

けないわたしが、

blame

my

Williemerveilleux,mes

ないからといって、 し ゃ べ れ な い ウ ィbecause he cannot

deux lampes, quand

わたしのウィリー

リーを責めたりし

speak.

(Pause.)l’une baisse l’autre

を責めたら、おかしたら。
（間）やった、Fortunately I am inbrûle plus clair. (Un

いわよね。
（間）あり

口が回ってる。

tonguetemps.) Ah oui, deがたいことに、また（間）すばらしいagain.

(Pause.)That

isgrandesbontés.

舌が回るようになことだと思う、私

what

find

so

(L’ombrelle

prend

ったわ。
（間）ほんとの二つのランプ、

wonderful, my two

feu. Elle renifle, lèveにわたしすばらし片方が暗くなると

lamps,

lesjette

いって思うの、私のもう片方が明るくderrière

二つのランプは、一なる。
（間）方が消えるともう

そう、ありがたい。

I

when

one

yeux,

goes out the otherl’ombrelleburnsbrighter.

le[Pause.]Ohrenverse en arrière

一方が輝きを増す。 （ 最 大 限 の 間 。 日

great

mercies.

pourse（間）ほんと、あり傘が発火する。煙consumer, revient deが た い こ と 。（ 非 常と、可能なら炎。彼The parasol goes on

face.)に長い間。日傘が燃

女は鼻をくんくん

fire. Smokes, flames

vieille extincteuse !

え出す。煙が出る、 させ、目を上げ、日

if

She

(Beckett,

できれば炎も。ウィ

傘を丘の右手側後up,

p. 49)

ニーはにおいをかろに投げ、のけぞぎ、目をあげ、日傘

り、火が消えるの[Maximumyes,pause.

feasible.

sniffs,looks

throws parasol tomamelon,
la

se

voir

Ah

terre,
1978,

100

そう

Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

her

right

behindを後ろにほうりだを見て、正面に向mound, cranes back

し、首を伸ばして燃き直る）おお土よ、

to watch it burning.

えつきるのを眺め

昔ながらの消火

Pause.] Ah,る。間）器。(Beckett, 2018,

you

earth
old

よ、汝年古りたる消extinguisher.
(Beckett,

ああ大地

p. 37)

火 器 よ 。 (Beckett,
1986,

1991, p. 32)

p. 153)As Table 2 indicates, the new Japanese translation was operative for highlighting theaesthetics of opposite elements both verbally and nonverbally: (1) Thanks to the use of apair of antonyms (“dark” and “bright”) that rhyme (“kuraku” and “akaruku”) in the newJapanese translation, audiences were able to hear the opposite words of “dark” and “bright”
while actually witnessing the opposite elements of darkness and fire; (2) maximum pauses
between Winnie’s lines encouraged the audiences to give their utmost attention to thecontrast between words and silences; (3) the comparison between Willie, able to move but
not speak, and Winnie, able to speak but not move, was emphasized in the Japanesetranslation by following the English version instead of the French version: as shown in
Table 2 above, the first sentence in this monologue “Well, I don’t blame you, no, it would
ill become me, who cannot move, to blame my Willie because he cannot speak” in the
English version was not translated into the French by Beckett; and (4) through the use ofrepetitive words and onomatopoeia in the new Japanese translation (“Soso” for “Ah yes”;“kunkun” for sniff), the echo-effect in the cave-like theatre became stronger as Winnie’s
vibrant voice created resonance in the space.
Thus, this Yokohama performance demonstrated domestication through interlingualtranslation by resonating with contemporary usage of the Japanese language and throughintersemiotic translation as an example of “site-specific art” since it was set in a cave-likespace and atmosphere. According to Kwon in One Place after Another: Notes on Site
Specificity,
site-specific art comes to represent criticality rather than perform it. The "hereand-now" of aesthetic experience is isolated as the signified, severed from its
signifier. If this phenomenon represents another instance of domestication ofvanguard works by the dominant culture, it is not solely because of the selfaggrandizing needs of the institution or the profit-driven nature of the market.
Artists, no matter how deeply convinced their anti-institutional sentiment or
adamant their critique of dominant ideology, are inevitably engaged, self -101

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

servingly or with ambivalence, in this process of cultural legitimation (Kwon ,1997, p. 98).
Just as the aforementioned Tokyo production performed by a young actress was
successful in rejoicing in urban materialism in Act I as “happy days”, this Yokohama cave
production was also appropriate for reflecting the primitive landscape of Act II by takin g
its audiences to the time of the Old Stone Age when people used cave paintings as a tool
to pray to gods.
These two productions challenged the notion of verbal and nonverbal translation as“dubbing” in that “they had to translate a written text into a target text which—although
being written—was intended to be spoken” (Koloszar-Koo, op. cit., p. 160) and where“producing a text which is ‘written to be spoken as if not written’” (Koloszar-Koo, op. cit.,p. 160) was required. In this sense, the new Japanese translation contributed to the“creation of authentic sounding dialogue” (Koloszar-Koo, op. cit., p. 156) that was naturaland audible.
2. Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days
Beckett’s stage play Happy Days was adapted for film in 2001 as one of the 19 films
in English by 19 directors for the project Beckett on Film, devised by Michael Colgan,artistic director of Dublin's Gate Theatre. Most of the films screened in December 2019
for the Japanese festival “Samuel Beckett Film Festival on the 30 th Anniversary of His
Death”, held at Kyoto University of Art and Design, came from the collection of English
versions of this Beckett on Film. However, for Happy Days, the festival screened theFrench version, which was filmed in 1971, entitled Oh les beaux jours and directed by
Jean-Paul Roux. As stated in the biography by James Knowlson, Beckett “borrowed thetitle, Oh les beaux jours, from Verlaine’s poem, ‘Colloque sentimental’” (Knowlson, 1997,
p. 508). Winnie was played by one of the most renowned French actresses of the time,
Madeleine Renaud, “who immediately asked if she could premiere it in France” (Knowlson,
op. cit., p. 508) when she was handed a copy of Beckett’s final text of Happy Days by the
director, Roger Blin, in 1963.
The most recent translation by Kaku Nagashima (2018) was also used for theJapanese subtitles shown on the screen of Beckett’s Oh les beaux jours at the film festival
in 2019. While the stage productions discussed above enabled Japanese audiences toappreciate the sound and rhythm of the new Japanese translation through the voices ofJapanese actors on the stage as a live performance, the viewers of the film version had theprivilege of reading Japanese words on the screen while listening to the sound and rhythmof the French words via the original voices of the French actors.
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Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

2.1 The Effect of Interlingual Translation: Subtitles on the Screen
As opposed to translation for the stage, which is transmitted through the voices of
the actors, translation for film is expressed in silence through letters as subtitles on thescreen. Put otherwise, the lines of the characters are translated with sounds for the stage
while they are translated without sound in a visual way for film.
The new Japanese translation by Kaku Nagashima that was displayed via thesubtitles on the screen audiovisually coincided with the lines and movements of the actors
who spoke French in Oh les beaux jours. The brisk cadence and rhythm of the newtranslation matched well with the articulate sound and movements of Winnie’s monologue.
Table 3: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translations
for Film
English version

Voices on screen:Old

French version

translation

Japaneseby

Takahashi

Subtitles on screen:
New

JapanesetranslationbyNagashima
Oh you are going to

Oh il va me parler

まあ、あなた、きょ

ああ、今日は返事

talk to me today, thisaujourd’hui, oh le

うはわたしに言葉をしてくれる、あis going to be abeau jour encore que

をかけてくれるのあ、またハッピー

happy day! (Beckett,ça va être!

ね、しあわせな日にな日になりそう！

1986, p. 146)

(Beckett, 1978, p.

なりそうだわ！

(Beckett, 2018, p.

35)(Beckett, 1991, p. 20)

25)

As the above Table 3 indicates, while the old Japanese translation is more literally loyal to
English source text, the new Japanese translation was more readable and accessible as
subtitles on the screen : (1) It became shorter by omitting pronouns (“you”, “me”); (2) it
became more concise by using kanji for “today” ; (3) it became more emotional by using“Ah” twice like the French version (“oh”) and (4) it became more rhythmic by using
katakana for “happy”.
It was constructive that the lyrics of the song sung by Winnie at the end of the playwere translated with only Japanese hiragana, the basic letters that are readable by children,
without using kanji, which are complicated Chinese characters. In this way, the audienceswere able to concentrate on the tone of Winnie’s singing voice, the melody of the musicbox and the soft atmosphere, which gave the impression one was listening to a lullaby for
infants (see Table 4 below).

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Table 4: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translations
for Film
English version

Voices on screen:Old

French version

translation

Japaneseby

Takahashi

Subtitles on screen:
New

JapanesetranslationbyNagashima
Though I say not

Heure exquise

思いの

ことばに

What I may not

Qui nous grise

たけは

ださぬ

Let you hear,

Lentement,

秘めたけれどねがいも

Yet the swaying

La caresse,

踊れば

おどれば

Dance is saying,

La promesse

つのる

つたわる

Love me dear!

Du

恋心

いつも

L’ineffable étreinte

やさしき指もふれあうたびにDe nos désirs fous,

ささやけり

ゆびさきが

Tout dit, Gardez-moi

きみをぞ

かたる

know,

Puisque je suis à

愛す

あなたの

Says for you,

vous.

心より

そ の お も いIt’s true, it’s true,

1978, p. 83)

Every

touch

of

fingers
Tells

me

what

I

You love me so!
(Beckett,

moment,(Beckett,(Beckett,

1991,

p. 55–56)(Beckett,2018,

p. 61)

1986,

p. 168)

2.2 The Effect of Intersemiotic Translation on the Screen
Compared to the artificial and unrealistic setting on the stage, the film version
situated the actors in a more realistic background described as an “[e]xpanse of scorchedgrass rising centre to low mound. Gentle slopes down to front and either side of st age”
(Beckett, 1986, p. 138). Moreover, while the audiences for the stage were restrictedbecause their viewing position was limited to their own seats, the multiple angles of thecamerawork enabled the film audiences to see Winnie from various positions and distances.
For instance, close-ups of Winnie’s face were possible, allowing all audiences to perceive
all the nuances in her facial expressions and eye movements. The camerawork also meantthat all audiences could observe the depth and perspective of the scene from different sides
and from above, while long shots enabled them to see Winnie and Willie on the twodimensional surface of the screen as three-dimensional figures with height, width anddepth. The variations of the angles thus provided both macro and micro viewpoints forappreciating Oh les beaux jours.
On the macro level, these varied angles were productive for portraying Winnie from104

Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

a distance and from above as a part of the mound or the earth, which ultimately revealed
Winnie as the womb-tomb. They were also useful for highlighting Willie, “[t]o her rightand rear, lying asleep on ground, hidden by mound” (Beckett, op. cit., p. 138) and Winnie
as the couple who survive in this no-man’s-land. “Willie was supposed to be sitting like anembryo in Beckett’s planning draft, which implies that the hole he returns to represents thewomb” (Takahashi, 1991, p. 172, trans. mine).
WINNIE: Go back into your hole now, Willie, you’ve exposed yourself enough.
[Pause.] Do as I say, Willie, don’t lie sprawling there in thishellish sun, go back into your hole. [Pause.] Go on now, Willie.
[WILLIE invisible starts crawling left towards hole.] That’s theman. [She follows his progress with her eyes.] Not head first,
stupid, how are you going to turn? [Pause.] That’s it … rightround … now… back in. [Pause.] Oh I know it is not easy, dear,crawling backwards, but it is rewarding in the end. [Pause.] You
have left your Vaseline behind. [She watches as he crawls backfor Vaseline.] (Beckett, op. cit., p. 147).
The above scene was also portrayed efficiently in the film on the micro level. Winnie’s
close observation of Willie as he endeavored to go back to his hole, was captured by aclose-up, and the audiences were able to empathize with Winnie because they were viewing
the scene through the same lens and from the same standpoint as her.
Integrated into the film, the Japanese subtitles naturally became one of theintersemiotic elements on the screen. In other words, the lines spoken by the actors weretranslated not only interlingually but also intersemiotically as the nonverbal signs ofJapanese verbal letters on the screen. Japanese audiences were able to capture the nuancesof the lines through the distinctions between the three kinds of letters used in Japanese:kanji, also known as ideograms; hiragana, the basic letters that are readable by children;and katakana, Japanese letters used for words of foreign origin. The silent Japanese letterson the screen semiotically conveyed the scene on the screen.
3. The Environmental Differences between the Film and Stage Translations ofBeckett’s Happy Days
Table 5 presents the overall distinctions between the modes of the three productions
discussed in this paper. With the aid of the newly published Japanese translation in 2018,
all the Japanese productions in 2019 were to align more with modern Japanese audiences.
While the stage productions were interlingually and intersemiotically translated with the105

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)“domestication” method by casting a younger actress and utilizing theatrical spaces, thefilm version was translated intersemiotically in a way that was faithful to the author via the“foreignization” method. The contents of Table 5 are analyzed in detail in the following
sections.

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Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

Table 5: The Overall Distinctions between the 2019 Productions of Beckett’s Happy
Days in Japan
1

Foreignizationand domestication

2 Dubbing3 Beckett’s

4 Beckett’s lifeand subtitles

Happy Days

(see section 4)2019 Tokyo

Interlingual

1. Urban

1. Reflects

stagetranslation:materialism inBeckett’s

performance

Domestication

Act I

urbanismin

2. Civilized

the

more

Intersemiotic

3. Mobilesophisticatedtranslation:

4. Nonverbal

environment

Domestication

effectof Paris.

5. Winnie’s
Sameaseffectreliance

dubbing

objectson

2019

Interlingualtranslation

Yokohamatranslation:

with

stage

Domestication

Japanese

2. Uncivilizedvoices3. Immobile

2. Rural life in

4. Verbal

southern

performanceat The Cave

1. Spiritualism in
Act II

Intersemiotic
translation:homeland of
IrelandSignificanceDomestication

1. Beckett’s

France5. Winnie’s

withwife Suzanne

reliance

on

voice

while
participating
in Resistanceduring WWII

2019 Kyoto

Interlingual

Japanese

1. HybridismFilmtranslation:

subtitles

Frenchvoice

Beckett’s

Festival

Domestication(translated(trans.

frombilingualism

from

Englishby(FrenchBeckettin

English).
2. Reflectsonof

1. ProvesandIntersemiotic

English)translation:

the screen for

1962) and new

Foreignization

FrenchJapanese

Beckett’s

voicessubtitles (trans.

precise stage

from English indirections on2018).

the screen.

2. Theme mirrors
Beckett’s Film.

107

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

3.1 The Relationship between Actors, Audience and Environment in the Stage

Translation
The stage productions are equated with “dubbing” translation in contrast to“subtitling” translation. Japanese audiences were able to savor the “foreign” product intheir own mother tongue without any inconvenience. Compared to subtitles on the screen,
dubbing does not require intense concentration to both read the words and watch the scene.
In the case of stage productions, the environment enables the Japanese audiences to interact
with the actual actors who speak in their native language live in front of them witho ut
being distracted by the asynchronicity between the mouth movements of the actors on thescreen and the voices of the actors (usually seen in dubbed films).
While the verbal translation was “domesticated” via “dubbing” translation on thestage, the nonverbal translation was also “domesticated” in that the environment created
was more accessible for the target audiences. Owing to the success of the productions, theperformances of Beckett’s Happy Days in Tokyo and Yokohama in 2019 once again provedthat the urban materialism shown by Winnie in Act I and the shift from the civilized to theuncivilized situation experienced by Winnie in Act II both resonate with globalized theatre
regardless of time and space. According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation
Studies, “shifts are seen as required, indispensable changes at specific semiotic levels, withregard to specific aspects of the source text” (Bakker, 2011, p. 270) and “changes at a
certain semiotic level with respect to a certain aspect of the source text benefit theinvariance at other levels and with respect to other aspects” ( Bakker, op. cit., p. 270).
Whether in the twentieth century when Beckett was still alive or in the more globalized
twenty-first century, inevitable changes in language and landscape in turn maintained theunchangeable, universal aspects and invariance of the source text.
The more the heroine became immobile, devoid of materialism and overpowered by
the primitive landscape, the more she became reliant on her words and emotions. In otherwords, the nonverbal movements and gestures of her upper body aided by her stage
properties in Act I were replaced by the verbal rhythms and expressions of her lines in Act
II. This keen awareness of rhythm in one’s voice is also reflected in Beckett’s style ofdirecting. In fact, Beckett is known as a strict director who aimed to translate the verbal
lines in the text into the nonverbal rhythm and movement of the actors on the stage.
Many actors and directors who worked with Beckett spoke of his personal
dislike of what is so often thought of as acting and of his tendency todehumanise the actors in his plays. Brenda Bruce, who played Winnie in the
British premiere of Happy Days, told me how he tried to get her to speak herlines according to a very strict rhythm and in a very flat tone. To her horror,
108

Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

one day, he even brought a metronome into the theatre and set it d own on thefloor; ‘this is the rhythm I want you to follow’, he said, leaving it to tickinexorably away (Haynes and Knowlson, 2003, p. 109).
This precise demand placed upon rhythm by Beckett was also preserved both verbally andnonverbally in the recent Japanese translated performances of Happy Days.
Table 6: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translationsfor StageEnglish version

French version

Oldtranslation

Japaneseby

Takahashi

VoicesNew

on

Stage:

JapanesetranslationbyNagashima
What would I do

Que ferais-je sans

言葉に見放された

これらがなかったwithout them, when

eux, quand les mots

とき、こういうもの

らどうしよう、言words fail? [Pause.]

me

(Un

がなかったら、わた

葉に見放されたと

Gaze

beforeme,temps.)

Regarder

しどうしよう？

き。
（間）前を見つwithcompressed

devantmoi,les（間）前をじっと見

め、唇を閉ざす？

pause

lèvres rentrées ? (Un

つめるだけだわ、唇（長い間。そうす

while she does so.] I

temps long pendant

をぎゅっと結んで。 る）できない。
（間）

cannot. [Pause.] Ahqu’elle le fait.) Je ne（そうする。そのまそうそう、ありがyes, great mercies,

peux

ま長い間）できない

たい、ありがたい。

great mercies. [Longtemps.) Ah oui, deわ。
（間）そうそう、 （長い間、小声で）pause.

Low.]

grandes bontés, de

とっても、とってもときどき声が聞こhear

grandes bontés. (Un

ありがたいこと。

える。
（耳をすますtemps（長い間。低い声表情。ふつうの声）

lips.

[Long

Sometimes
sounds.

I[Listening

lâchent ?

pas.

long.

(Un

Bas.)

expression. Normal

Quelquefois

で）ときどき音が聞

でもしょっちゅう

voice.]

j’entends des bruits.

こ え る 。（ 耳 を そ ば

じゃない。
（間）あ

often. [Pause.] They

(Expression

立てる表情。普通のりがとう、音あり

are a boon, soundsd’écoute.

Voix声で）でもそんなにがとう、音は助け

are a boon, they help

normale.) Mais pas

ちょくちょくじゃて く れ る …… 一 日

me . . . through thesouvent. (Un temps.)

ない。
（間）ありがたをやりすごすのday. (Smile.) The old

Je les bénis, je bénis

いお恵みだわ、音っを。
（微笑み）昔っstyle!

lesて、助けてくれる、 ぽい！（微笑み、消But(Smilenotoff.)bruits,ils

Yes, those are happy

m’aident a. . . tirer

わ た し が …… 一 日える）そう、ハッピ

days when there aremajournee.

という日をやり過ーな日、音のする

sounds.

(Sourire.) Le vieux

ご す の を 。（ 微 笑 す

日 は 。 (Beckett,(Beckett,109

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

1986, p. 162)

style !

(Finduる）昔ふうの言い

sourire.) Oui, ce sont方！（微笑、消える）

de beaux jours, les

そう、音のある日

jours ou il y a desは、しあわせな日。

bruits.

(Takahashi, op. cit.,(Beckett,

1978, p. 69–70)

2018, p. 52)

p. 46)As the above Table 6 shows, the new Japanese translation corresponds more aptly to theprecise rhythm and tempo of the metronome that Beckett demanded by (1) omitting
pronouns (“I”, “me”), (2) using repetitive sound (“Soso” for “Ah yes”), (3) creating rhymes(“Soso” for “Ah yes” and “So” for “Yes”), (4) changing the location of a question mark;(5) using the plosive consonant of “p” sound (“mukashippoi” for “The old style”; katakana
for “happy”) and (6) loyally following the word order of the original English text (“whenwords fail”, “when there are sounds”), where inversions are created in the new Japanesetranslation. In this way, the crispness and emotions of Winnie’s monologues are
linguistically accentuated through her voice on the stage.
3.2 The Relationship between Actors, Audience and Environment in the Film
Translation
In contrast to “dubbing” translation, “subtitling” translation provides audiences withan environment where they hear the foreign voices of the actors while they read translated
subtitles on the screen. Such an environment gives bilingual audiences the opportunity tocheck whether the translation on the screen is literal or nonliteral by listening to theoriginal voice of the source language.
The film version of Beckett’s Oh les beaux jours presented in 2019 at the SamuelBeckett Film Festival in Kyoto provided Japanese audiences the opportunity to savor hisplay in French as filmed with the original French actors in 1971 (Roux, 1971/2019).
Contemporary Japanese audiences experienced the genuine image created by the
playwright beyond the barriers of language and time. As Kaku Nagashima, whose newtranslation was used for the subtitles on the screen, observes, “there are differences
between the English and French versions of the texts Winnie cites from during hermonologue (such as lines from Shakespeare in the English version vs. lines from Racinein the French version)” (Nagashima, 2018, p. 331, trans. mine). For example, “Fear no
more the heat o’ the sun” (Beckett, 1978, p. 36) in English, which comes from
Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, is replaced by “Qu’ils pleurent, oh mon Dieu, qu’ils frémissent
de honte” (Beckett, op. cit., p. 37) (meaning “May they weep, O Lord, may they tremble
with shame”) which echoes Racine’s Athalie. Although the translator compared the two
110Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Daysversions, his recent Japanese translation is based on the English version which he considers“to be wilder and more vigorous than the French version, which is more sophisticated”(Nagashima, op. cit., p. 331, trans. mine). That is to say, Japanese audiences experienced
a hybrid product, made up of refined French and modern Japanese translated from robust
English (see Table 7 below).
As explained above, although the title of the film is Oh les beaux jours, the Japanesesubtitles frequently included the word “happy” in katakana based on the English title
Happy Days. This approach of translating from vigorous English into more colloquial
Japanese was pervasive throughout the subtitles on the screen. The vividness of theJapanese letters in the subtitles was moderated by the elegant and traditional atmosphereof the French language through the voice of the actress (see Table 7 below).
Table 7: Comparison between English, French, Old and New Japanese Translations
for Film
English version

Voices on screen:Old

French version

translation

Japaneseby

Takahashi

Subtitles on screen:
New

JapanesetranslationbyNagashima
Fear no more theQu’ils pleurent, oh

もはや恐るるなか

もう恐れるな、太

heat

sun.

mon

れ、灼けつく日の光

陽 の 熱 さ を 。

1986,

frémissent de honte

を。

(Beckett,(Beckett,

1978,(Beckett, 1991, p. 23)

p. 28)Oh les beaux jours

ああ、しあわせな思

ああ、ハッピーな

memories! (Beckettdebonheur!

い 出 の 数 々 ！

思 い 出 ！ (Beckett,op. cit., p. 142).

(Beckett,

op.

(Beckett,

op. cit., p. 19).

o’

(Beckett,thep. 148)Dieu,

qu’ils2018,

p. 37)
Oh

the

happy

p. 27).

cit.,

1991,

p. 14).

The film was thus able to prove Beckett’s bilingualism of French and English interlinguallyand to reflect his precise stage directions on the screen intersemiotically. It is true that
“Beckett himself deconstructs the myth of which language is the source text, and his two
texts can be said to be equal” (Okamuro, 2018, p. 8, trans. mine). Nevertheless, the newJapanese translation is based on “the latest English version published in 2009 to 2010 bya British publisher, which is the most reliable one” (Okamuro, op. cit., p. 8, trans. mine).
While the recent Japanese translation used for the subtitles onscreen is loyal to
Beckett’s English version, the new translator alludes to the possibility of domesticating it,
observing that “Winnie’s citations from Shakespeare’s text in her monologue could be111

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

replaced by lines from a traditional Japanese text when the performance is in Japanese”(Nagashima, 2018, p. 331, trans. mine).
4. Beckett’s Life and Bilingualism Reflected in Happy Days
In order to have a deeper understanding of the translation of Beckett’s Happy Days,
this final section scrutinizes Beckett’s life and his vision for the stage, film, and translation.
4.1 Beckett and Film
Beckett wrote a script for his only film, entitled Film (1963), in English. It starred
Buster Keaton (1895–1966) and premiered in 1964. This is a silent movie lasting for only
twenty-four minutes during which O (object) played by Keaton is pursued tenaciously byE (camera eye). In the climax scene, the object (the man) that does not want to be seen has
to face the camera eye. It is important to mention here that the theme Beckett most wanted
to manifest throughout his theatrical career may well be “the existence perceived byothers”, in other words, “the actors perceived by the audiences”. This theme of “being
watched by someone else” is reflected in Winnie’s well-known line, “Strange feeling thatsomeone is looking at me. I am clear, then dim, then gone, then dim again, then clear again,
and so on, back and forth, in and out of someone’s eye” (Beckett, 1986, p. 155) and its link
to Berkeley’s philosophical proposition, “To be is to be perceived (‘esse est percipi’)”(Berkeley, 1710/1998, p. 31). In stark contrast to Winnie, who rejoices in being perceived
and watched by someone else, the protagonist in Beckett’s Film is afraid of gazes. Byutilizing the technique of close-ups, the film version of Oh les beaux jours was successful
in demonstrating the camera eye, that is to say, the existence of audiences perceiving theexistence of the actors on the screen. Thus, both Beckett’s aesthetics, used to enact thetheme of the film (“to be is to be perceived”), and the camerawork were intersemioticallychoreographed for Oh les beaux jours, giving it gravity and perspective and enabling theaudiences to see everything on the screen three-dimensionally with height, width and depth
as if they were participating in a live performance of the stage version.
4.2 Beckett’s Life Reflected in Happy Days
Beckett’s life can also be seen as a shift between the civilized and the uncivilized,
which is reflected in Happy Days (see Table 5 above). He abandoned the rural environmentof his homeland and chose the urbanism of the more sophisticated environment of Paris.
However, his participation in the Resistance during the Second World War meant that
“Beckett and Suzanne eventually found a refuge from the Gestapo in the small village inRoussillon” (Knowlson, 1997, p. 319). His rural life in Roussillon in southern France with
Suzanne is exemplified in his works including Happy Days. “Roussillon is a place of red
112

Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

sandstone cliffs, red soil and red sunsets. To the craggy cliffs, with their protruding massesof rock, cling pine trees, and on the slopes and level stretches of countryside are vineyards,
for the grape thrives here in the burning sun” (Cronin, 1999, p. 329). This contrast between
the civilized and the uncivilized experienced by Beckett is still a universal issu e for all
humankind. Contemporary people who are privileged enough to move freely from one
place to another may distract themselves from their loneliness by controlling and being
controlled by urban materialism nonverbally, as demonstrated by Winnie in Act I. On theother hand, when people are situated in a rural environment devoid of materialism andconvenient transportation, they are inevitably forced to concentrate on the more spiritual
aspects of their existence and language, which are depicted through the relationshipbetween Winnie and Willie in Act II.
4.3 Beckett’s Bilingualism Reflected in the Film Version of Happy Days
As a whole, Beckett was proficient in illustrating the same content not only throughthe distinct media of stage and film but also through the different languages of English andFrench.
The expressive power of body and voice can compel theatre audiences toswallow, and enjoy, peculiar linguistic experiences. The plays of SamuelBeckett are a good example. Their gestures are precisely choreographed andtheir words are acutely speakable, but the significance of what is going on is
hard to state. Audiences are held fascinated by something strange. Translation
helped to bring this effect into being. Beckett sometimes wrote in French andthen translated into English, sometimes the other way round. Whatever the
direction, the texts in both the languages inhabit a translational imaginative
space: either they have come from the other language or they are about to go
into it (Reynolds, 2016, p. 116).
While Beckett wrote Happy Days first in English and then translated it into French himself,some of his other plays were written in French and translated into English. This is why it
can be difficult to determine which text is the source and which one is the target . For theJapanese audiences of Oh les beaux jours in 2019, this indeterminacy was an advantage,as it allowed them to appreciate the unique, hybrid nature of the French film version(translated from the English by Beckett himself in 1962) and the new Japanese subtitles(revitalized from English by the new translator, Kaku Nagashima, in 2018).
Thus, the Japanese audiences were able to simultaneously hear the sophisticatedlines in French and see the new Japanese subtitles translated from robust English on the113

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.23 (2021)

screen. The combination of experiencing French verbal sounds aurally and the silent
Japanese subtitles (translated from English version) visually on the screen enabled theaudiences to go beyond the barrier of media and languages with the aid of audiovisualtranslation. Compared to dubbing, “[w]ith subtitling, the coordination of sound and image
is made more complex with the addition of a textual component, further illustrating thesemiotic interplay in all forms of audio-visual language transfer” (de Linde and Kay, 2014,p. 2).
Conclusion
By examining two stage translations and one film translation of Beckett’s Happy
Days presented in 2019 in Japan, this paper illustrated the following two points:(1) Winnie, who relies on her objects in Act I, then depends on her voice in Act II. This
shift from Act I to Act II can be carried out naturally because Winnie’s voice in Act II istreated as a material, a substance, just like her belongings in Act I (see Table 5). In thissense, the Japanese stage productions of Beckett’s Happy Days performed in 2019 anddiscussed in this paper were successful in representing Winnie’s voice as substance andmaterial. Like dubbing translation on the screen, Winnie’s voice was portrayed as being as
crucial as material things in sustaining one’s raison d’être, a notion which echoes andintersects with globalized theatre.
(2) On the other hand, the collaboration between the Japanese subtitles (translated fromthe English version) and the French voices in the film mirrored the twofold translation:interlingual translation between English and French by the playwright himself; andintersemiotic translation of the concept of “to be is to be perceived” from text to film. The
French film version of Oh les beaux jours revealed the same theme of “esse est percipi”
as Beckett’s only film, titled Film. The close-up technique of the camerawork
intersemiotically verified the preciseness of the stage directions written by Beckett, who
was strict about directing and translating his oeuvres.
. .................................................................

About the author
Yoshiko Takebe is an Associate Professor of Interpreting and Translation Studies at
Shujitsu University.
....................................................................

114

Distinctions between Stage and Film Translation of Beckett’s Happy Days

Notes
Part of this paper is based on “Translating Beckett in Japanese Urbanism and Landscape”
presented at the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) World Congress 2019
on July 8 th and on “The Environmental Effect of Subtitles for Film Translation in Beckett’s
Happy Days” presented at the IFTR 2021 World Congress on July 16th.
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