Lingua franca

As we watched today's TedEd video on Descartes's cogito, I was reminded of an idea I saw once in a textbook: that Descartes's famous cogito, ergo sum was never originally written in that manner, even though it was often referred to as such to preserve the "originality" of the phrase. No, instead, it had been written as je pense, donc je suis, dowsed in what was once considered to be a common man's language, even though French nowadays is associated with pretentiousness.

In a fun stroke of coincidence (or perhaps not...), Waiting for Godot was also originally written in French as En attendant Godot, Beckett's original masterpiece that he later translated to the English version with which we more commonly associate the playwright. But, as referenced in my last blogpost, pieces can change meanings as they're translated from one language to another, and even though Waiting for Godot is a self-translation, the play is not immune from this effect. 

I found a paper that explored some of these differences through analysis of En attendant Godot, Waiting for Godot, and even a couple non-Beckett translations that had been done over the years. One of the big differences that the paper first noted was the more vulgar language used in the French version, a version that used words like merde (pardon my French, literally) and contained hidden and not-so-hidden references to far more "offensive" ideas. 

Before the English royalty and authorities were willing to have Waiting for Godot performed in England, however, they insisted that Beckett replaced these un-English words and ideas — because the English could never do anything crude or immoral, right (I hope the italics is enough to convey the sarcasm dripping from my thoughts)? In this sense, En attendant Godot was a version more suitable and attractive to the "common" Frenchman, a surprising twist that seems to mirror Descartes's decision to publish his Discours de la Méthode pour bien conduits sa raison, et chercher les verités dans les sciences. Both shared the idea of using French as a means to appeal to the common reader, avoiding the ornamental features of language that might restrict enjoyment from an audience. In fact, this point might even be further strengthened when considering that French was not even Beckett's first language (some theorize that it was a way of evading his inner self, but still the point remains that it strengthened the popularity of his work). 

As for more isolated differences, translators (including Beckett himself) seemed to do a pretty good job at maintaining meaning, with German translators even sticking with Warten auf Godot as the title instead of War warden auf Godot (Waiting for Godot versus We're Waiting for Godot) to keep the focus on waiting, rather than on the characters. 

A primary difference and challenge the paper focuses on, however, is the translation of Didi's monologue in the second act, which contains an allusion to Hamlet. Different audiences, however, require different hints to arrive at the allusion; while the French version only contains an altered version of the quote, the English version takes a direct quote from Hamlet. Two Polish versions also exist, with one translated by Rogoziński and based only on the French version and the other by Libera, a translator and expert in Beckett's works who referenced the English and French versions. Rogoziński's version thus lacks the clarity of the English allusion and can prove tricky when searching for such allusions, while Libera's version is much easier to understand. Missing this allusion can take away from the nuance that intertextuality adds to the play, detracting from the meaning of the work as a whole.

Sartre argued the existentialist thought that l'existence précède l'essence (existence precedes essence), with respect to humans. But perhaps, in the realm of words, this — or some parallel of this — holds true; authors' words exist before their shape or form on paper gives them meaning. Language on paper and readers' interpretation give these formless words a life and meaning of their own, subject to the way in which we distort the original "words" in the author's head. 

Or, maybe I'm too tired to write, and philosophy at night is not my strong suit...chaque fois que je pense à la langue française, je deviens un peu trop philosophique!