Using a certain national holiday as a hook, we will be looking at specific foreign language translations held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust library. This series will be a collaborative effort by Shakespeare Birthplace Trust staff and volunteers and will also include contributions from guest bloggers. Collaborators will bring a wide range of backgrounds in different languages and cultures to this new series.
There are over eighty languages represented in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust library and the collection of foreign language texts of Shakespeare’s works is constantly growing. Most of our translations are donations, usually given to us by the translators. Some of them were writers themselves, for example Goethe and Hugo. Others had powerful political connections such as Julius K. Nyere, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Queen Victoria’s cousin, King D. Luis de Braganca of Portugal and Oxford graduate King Rama VI of Siam (Thailand).
Whilst this blog series will focus on the traditional translation, it is interesting to note that there are many different forms of translations such as songs and choral works, paintings, cartoons and graphic novels, sign language and sub titles to name a few.
We look forward to sharing our foreign language texts with you and hope you will enjoy our new blog series.
Mareike Doleschal (Collections Librarian) and the Translating Shakespeare blog team