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When She Danced...
Dec. 11th, 2001 01:21 amToday at class I felt AWFUL! I had only skimmed the play we were supposed to talk about and I kinda knew squat about it and then I was put into one group with a girl who hadn't read the damned thing! I was so lost! It was terrible and embarrassing! Then, the lecturer came to sit with us because we were such a small group! Oh my God, it was so embarrassing and I felt like such a loser... T_T
On the brighter side, the play isn't as bad as I thought it was! hahaha! Do you know Martin Sherman's "When She Danced"? I had no idea it was "real", as in based on a real person and her real life! It's about Isadora Duncan who apparently was a famous expressionist dancer. THE most of all expressionist dance. Of course I know nil about it. She invented all that caboodle with "dancing like the wind" or imitating figures on Greek vases and what have you. Well... ANYway, she apparently was married to a Russian poet, Sergej something. She didn't speak a word of Russian and he no English. So, they only communicated on the basis of gestures and the sound of what they said. Which, of course, was exactly Isadora's art. The whole play is a huge
mixture of all sorts of languages! English, German, Russian, French, Italian, Swedish... it's scary!
Well, this Russian poet, he's a real bastard, but Isadora has no clue, of course. Their romance dies when they meet a woman who translates for them and she realizes that all his poetry was mocking her in a way. Because she was tormented by her children's death who drowned, and he wrote a poet about a female dog having her puppies drowned in the moonlight and he recited it to her a lot.
Don't get me wrong, the play isn't about their romance at all. Well, maybe a bit, but not much. It was just one aspect that I found interested. Now, the reason I'm starting all this is that the girl who was assigned to present this play just so happens to be Russian and she read all of Sergej's lines out to us! In the play, we all had skipped them of course, because he talks a lot and it was kinda difficult. But she read them and it was lovely! She could read very well. She read the poem, too. I loved it! I read the translation and thought that the poem sucked, but when I heard it in Russian, with the melody and rhythm of the original language, it was beautiful.
I've never experienced anything like this before. Usually, I always want to understand everything, want to know the words and all. This was the first time I actually experienced language as... as an emotion, as the carrier of a message, not just information. It was fascinating... Just like this one character said. What's her name... Betzel or so. She's the translater and she first refused to translate that poem. Said it can't be translated. But then she was forced to and the poem lost its magic... Translations are quite impossible, I realize.
Next time I see this girl I want to ask her to read the poem for me again. I'd love to record it... but that would be a bit pretentious, no? *sighs*
On the brighter side, the play isn't as bad as I thought it was! hahaha! Do you know Martin Sherman's "When She Danced"? I had no idea it was "real", as in based on a real person and her real life! It's about Isadora Duncan who apparently was a famous expressionist dancer. THE most of all expressionist dance. Of course I know nil about it. She invented all that caboodle with "dancing like the wind" or imitating figures on Greek vases and what have you. Well... ANYway, she apparently was married to a Russian poet, Sergej something. She didn't speak a word of Russian and he no English. So, they only communicated on the basis of gestures and the sound of what they said. Which, of course, was exactly Isadora's art. The whole play is a huge
mixture of all sorts of languages! English, German, Russian, French, Italian, Swedish... it's scary!
Well, this Russian poet, he's a real bastard, but Isadora has no clue, of course. Their romance dies when they meet a woman who translates for them and she realizes that all his poetry was mocking her in a way. Because she was tormented by her children's death who drowned, and he wrote a poet about a female dog having her puppies drowned in the moonlight and he recited it to her a lot.
Don't get me wrong, the play isn't about their romance at all. Well, maybe a bit, but not much. It was just one aspect that I found interested. Now, the reason I'm starting all this is that the girl who was assigned to present this play just so happens to be Russian and she read all of Sergej's lines out to us! In the play, we all had skipped them of course, because he talks a lot and it was kinda difficult. But she read them and it was lovely! She could read very well. She read the poem, too. I loved it! I read the translation and thought that the poem sucked, but when I heard it in Russian, with the melody and rhythm of the original language, it was beautiful.
I've never experienced anything like this before. Usually, I always want to understand everything, want to know the words and all. This was the first time I actually experienced language as... as an emotion, as the carrier of a message, not just information. It was fascinating... Just like this one character said. What's her name... Betzel or so. She's the translater and she first refused to translate that poem. Said it can't be translated. But then she was forced to and the poem lost its magic... Translations are quite impossible, I realize.
Next time I see this girl I want to ask her to read the poem for me again. I'd love to record it... but that would be a bit pretentious, no? *sighs*
