Editor’s Note 7.2 (2018)
Volume 7, Issue 2 (Fall 2018)
Welcome to the Fall 2018 issue of The Mercurian: A Theatrical Translation Review!
The Thief or Three in the Bedroom
by Radu Țuculescu
Translated by Mihaela Mudure
What is this?! Am I dreaming? Oh, no, I am awake! Good Lord! Adi… Adi, open your eyes!
We Are the Ones Our Parents Warned Us About
By Tanja Šljivar
Translated by Cory Tamler and Željko Maksimović
MARA: I kneel at my son’s grave and wail. He can’t hear me anymore.
MILAN: I’m in my grave. My mother kneels above the grave and wails. I can’t hear her anymore.
Why Does Everything
By Rafael Spregelburd
Translated by Samuel Buggeln and Ariel Gurevich
Sometimes I hide a document. I put it somewhere secret, and I start to gauge the effects. When I see everyone’s desperate, I pull the document from its stash, sign it and get the belt running again. I make myself indispensable, you understand?
Inching Towards Yeolha
By Sam-Shik Pai
Translated by Walter Byongsok Chon
Once upon a time in a tiny village called Yeolha, there used to be a spring, known for its limitless outpouring of hot water throughout the seasons. Yet over time, the village turned into a desert, lost its legacy, and fell into oblivion. Now all you can see is land, plain land, which directly meets the sky…
The Invasion
By Arthur Adamov
Translated by David Carter
Pierre: (He gets up and goes towards Agnès) I’ve found it!
Agnès: What? The word you were looking for?
Pierre: Better, the whole sentence!
Abu Hassan
By Franz Carl Hiemer
Translated by Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter
Fill the flowing bowl with wine,
fill the bowl with flowing wine.
In Review: Translating for Singing: The Theory, Art and Craft of Translating Lyrics
Reviewed by Rick Davis
My own modest proposal for its dissemination would be to find a way to place a copy on the desk of every opera house management, on the office chair of every Conservatory dean, opera director, and voice teacher in the UK and USA, and of course in the hands of anyone who is brave enough to engage in the traitorous act of opera translation.
The Mercurian 