Translation of Fairy-Tales
Daniela Apostol
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, December 2007
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES
History of the genre:
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“ Amor and Psyche” is considered to be one
of the first literary fairy-tales. It is a story
inserted in Lucius Apuleius’novel “The
Golden Ass”. Originally, adults were the
audience of a fairy-tale just as often as
children. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the
fairy-tale came up to be associated with
children’s literature.
“Beauty and the Beast”
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It is one of the best known stories of the world. The first
version of the tale appeared in 1740 by Madame Gabrielle
de Vielleneuve, but her audience were not children. The
next version is that of Madame Le Prince de Beaumont, the
best well-known one and most used for further
translations.
The story appears in many other cultures in different
forms, so as there are 179 tales with similar themes.
These different translations are adapted to the target
language and culture.
Interlingual translation of the tale
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English: “Beauty and the Beast”
French:
“La Belle et la Bête”
German:
“Die Schöne und das Biest “
Portuguese : “A Bela e o Monstro” / “ A
Bela e a Fera ”
Romanian : “Frumoasa si Bestia”
Spanish : “La Bella y la Bestia”
Beginning formulae:
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English : ” There was once a very rich
merchant…”
French : “Il y avait une fois un merchand qui
était extrêmement rich…”
Portuguese: “Era uma vez un mercador
muitissimo rico…”
“A fost odata ca niciodata un negustor bogat…”
These are specific formulae which place the story
in an unknown place and time.
Different meanings of the term
“Beast”
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While in English and French “beast” /” “bête”
defines even an animal or a person who behaves
badly, the Romanian “bestie” emphasizes the idea
of a crual or immoral person. When someone is
told “bestie”, one understands that person has a
terrific character, he is very dangerous.
In the story, the beast is seen more as an ugly and
stupid creature and less as a crual one.
In the English version:
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“beast”- refers to the main character, which is an ugly
being
“beast”-is used with reference to the horse “poor beast”
While in French, a third connotation appears:
“Vous avez raison, dit le monstre, mais outre que
je suis laid, je n’ai point d’esprit : je sais bien que
je ne suis qu’une bête. ” *
-* ignorant person
Free / “sense -for -sense”
translation
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English: “The two eldest had a great deal of pride, because
they were rich. They gave themselves ridiculous airs, and
would not visit other merchants’ daughters, nor keep
company with any but persons of quality.”
French: “Les deux aînées avaient beaucoup d’orgueil,
parce qu’elles étaient riches: elle faissaient les dames, et ne
voulaient pas recevoir les visites des autres filles de
marchands; il leur fallait des gens de qualité pour leur
companie.”
Portuguese: “As otras eram muito orgulhosas porque eram
muito ricas: armavam-se em grandes senhoras e não
queriam receber visitas das filhas dos otros mercadores.”
Other examples:
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The Beauty is seen as:
“more beautiful than ever”
“plus belle que le jour”
“mais bela do que o sol”
The prince after his
transformation is :
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“one of the loveliest princes that eye ever
beheld”
“un price plus beau que l’amour”
“um principe mais belo que o amor
As one can see, each story is adapted to the
target culture.
Specific similes
The Romanian version
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It is an adaptation, the tale respects the main
idea, but a lot of events are omitted. In the
story appears a goblin, which in other
versions is absent.
Also, the text is adapted to the Romanian
fairy-tale, “basm”, which basically contains
many archaic and regional words or
expressions.
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The language is not an academic one, a
foreigner would not understand without
any explanation.
Examples: “ a ajuns sarac lipit pamantului”
Free translation: he is now very poor
Literal translation: “he became poor stuck on the
earth”
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“necajit” / “amarat” are synonyms for
“suparat”-”upset”
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“a
trebalui”- archaic form of the verb “ a
munci”- “to work”
Intersemiotic translation of
“Beauty and the Beast”
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The tale has been notably adapted for both
stage and screen several times.
The best known version is the Walt Disney
production.
A French version of La Belle et la Bête was
made in 1946, directed by Jean Cocteau,
starring Jean Marais as the Beast and Josette
Day as Beauty.
Illustrations.
Bibliography:
http://www.lumeapiticilor.ro/?aid=92&caption=Frumoasa
_si_Bestia
http://cours.cegep-st-jerome.qc.ca/530-gjb-p.l/labelle.htm
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_beast
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.ht
ml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy-tale
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WRMKxmKK8&feature=related