Romeo & Juliet Portfolio

Explanation of translation

My part in Romeo and Juliet was to translate act 5 scene 1 and 2. In act 1, Romeo hears Juliet is death and goes to an apothecary to get a poison. In act 2, Friar Lawrence discovers Friar John didn’t get the letter to Romeo, and Romeo must think Juliet is death. They try to hurry and fix it just in time.

My translation:

ACT 5 - Scene 1

Romeo If I must believe my dreams; Juliet saved me by kissing me awake from

Death

Enter Balthasar (booted)

News from Verona? Hows my father? News from the friar?

If Juliet is happy, its all allright!

Balthasar I’m sorry to say – But is is my duty: Juliet is death, I saw her lying in Capulets’ monument.

Romeo Damn all stars! Get me paper, get me horses. I will go there tonight!

Balthasar I ask you Romeo, please be patient! You are too wild, it will go wrong.

Romeo Leave me, do what you’re supposed to. Don’t you have letters from the Friar?

Balthasar No, lord.

Romeo No matter, just go and get the horses!

Exit Balthasar

I will be with you tonight, Juliet. Without you – life is not worth living.

I need this man, I need the poison, I need the apothecary.

Apothecary Who’s calling so loud?

Romeo Show me you’re a men! Here are forty ducats. Get me the most deathliest poison that can be found! Please, please hurry.

Apothecary The law is too strict; if you offer them – you can take ‘them yourself.

Romeo You must be joking, look at your body: you look like a skeleton. Your eyes are full of hunger. The law is not you best friend, it won’t

Make you rich.

Apothecary My will decides – not the money.

Romeo I pay your poverty, not your will

Apothecary Put this in any drink you like. Its stronger than an army!

Romeo Here is your gold – get flesh on your bones. Farewell.

Exit Apothecary

Come poison, come with me to Juliet’s grave, there we’ll meet again

Scene 2

Friar John Verona: Friar Lawrence cell. Enter Friar John

Hello Friar, Brother!

Friar Lawrence Enter Friar Lawrence

This should be Friar John! Welcome to Mantua.

What tells Romeo? Or has he written down his thoughts?

Give me his letter!

Friar John I was looking for another brother to accompany me, to visit the sick and searchers of town. We were both in a house; the plague was there; we could not leave, that’s why I’m late…

Friar Lawrence Who then brought my letter to Romeo?

Friar John I could not send it, here is it. I couldn’t find a messenger; to afraid of the plague!

Friar Lawrence oh God! Its very important – he may get in danger without! Friar John:

Hurry and get me an iron crow!

Friar John Brother: I do anything for you.

Friar Lawrence Now I must go to the monument alone, in 3 hours Juliet will wake. She will curse me much that Romeo didn’t knew of this accidents. But I will write them! I will keep Juliet at the tomb till Romeo comes. The poor girl locked up in a deaths man’s tomb!

In act 1, first, I tried to shorten all texts a little, especially Romeo’s parts. For example the first lines (1-16), Romeo talks about some dream he had, which is not really important so I cancelled most of it, the essential part is Romeo asking about news from Verona – I tried to keep that in.

After this, Balthasar drops in and tells, in a very poetic and long way, Juliet is death, I basically only left the facts in: Juliet is death. When Romeo has heard all of this, he wants to go to Juliet and get a poison, to lie together with Juliet. Than there is a huge piece of text in which Romeo talks about how miserable life is without Juliet, I shortened it into a few lines, with most essential information and explanation. Than the apothecary comes in, and doesn’t want to give any poison to Romeo, Romeo, in return tells him how miserable he looks and he must be a real man, I tried to keep this part like the original, because I liked the way Romeo tries to convince the apothecary to give him the poison, the language he uses expresses his emotions very good.

In scene 2, Friar Lawrence hears Friar John was not able to give the letter to Romeo, and Romeo must think Juliet is really death, and not fake. The translation is not very different from the original text: I left nearly all information in, but the language is slightly adapted, a bit more modern. For example when Friar John talks about the plague: in the original version it was not really clear that he was talking about an illness, in my translation I tried to make it more sensible, so people know, he talks about the plague, and not just some vague sort of issue.

Analysis of a 40-line fragment

Act 2 – scene 2.

Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet. Juliet talks about her new love on the balcony, unaware that Romeo is listening.

In this specific fragment (lines 10-53), Juliet appears above her window, talks about her new love, unaware that Romeo is hearing her. When she discovers this, they arrange Juliet’s nurse to act as their go-between. A large part of text is a big metaphor, where Romeo compares Juliet to all sorts of different things.

In lines 10-25 Romeo describes Juliet her beauty and the wish he has to touch her.

‘Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven’ - Romeo talks about the eyes of Juliet, and how innocent and fair they look.

‘The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars’ – (=metaphor). He compares Juliet’s cheeks to the stars, her cheeks are way more beautiful than the stars are.

‘As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven’ – Romeo describes how beautiful Juliet’s eyes would be in heaven: the same as daylight compared to a lamp, the lamp is artificial compared to the daylight. Heaven is, compared to Juliet’s eyes: nothing.

‘Would through the airy region (sky) stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night’ – Romeo describes Juliet’s eyes, if they would fly through the sky, the birds would think the daylight has come, because her eyes are so bright.

‘See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!’ – Romeo wishes he could touch Juliet and be the glove around her hand, just to be able to touch her.

In line 26 Juliet talks, in lines 27-32 Romeo talks about the beauty of Juliet and he wished she speaks again.

‘As a winged messenger of heaven, unto the white-upturned wond’ring eyes’ – Metaphor, Romeo compares Juliet to an angel, with big, surprised eyes.

In lines 33-36 Juliet talks about her wish to be with Romeo, unaware that Romeo is listening.

‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ – She questions why he has to be Romeo, a Montague, her biggest enemy and only love.

‘Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet’ – Juliet wishes Romeo will cut with his father and stops being a Montague, or, if he swears his love to her, she will stop being a Capulet.

In lines 38-49 Juliet again talks about her love for Romeo, still unaware he’s listening.

‘Thou art thyself, though not a Montague’ – Juliet says Romeo is himself, even he’s a Montague.

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet’- How important is a name? If a rose had any other name, it would still smell as sweet. When Romeo would have any other name, he would still be the same. A name actually doesn’t mean anything.

‘Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for thy name, which is no part of thee, take all myself’ – Juliet wishes, Romeo will cast aside his name, and in return, take her.

In lines 49-53 Romeo says he accepts all what Juliet has said, and be her love. But Juliet didn’t knew Romeo was listening.

‘Henceforth I will never be Romeo’ – Romeo promises to drop his name and no longer be Romeo, but be Juliet’s love.

‘What man art thou that thus bescreen’d in night. So stumblest on my counsel?’ – Juliet discovers someone is hidden in her garden and has heard all her private mediation about Romeo.

The tone of this fragment is very sweet and Shakespeare can express this really well, it shows how much they love each other, but they are also afraid something is going to happen. The language use is very figurative, many metaphors, puns and personifications, in particular the metaphors are really poetic and used a lot, especially by Romeo.

The relationship of the people in this fragment (Romeo and Juliet) is a bit strange, Juliet doesn’t know Romeo is standing outside and hears her. Romeo does hear and see Juliet. And they are both talking about each others beauty and how much they love each other and want to be together. When Juliet discovers Romeo has heard all her talking, she is surprised, later they arrange to marry in secret. In the scene, there’s a large change in the way they speak, first, Juliet talks to herself, later she talks to Romeo, which is different. The relationship between them is also changing, at the start there is nothing, at the end, its starting to get more serious, they are going to marry! Which makes this scene a key scene in the whole play: not only because of the beautiful figurative language, but also because the importance of the conversation.

Evaluation of the project

A few months ago, the play Romeo & Juliet was handed out, the homework was to read act 1 and act 2. At home I sat down with the book and tried to read it, tried, because I didn’t really understand what I was reading about. The story was not very clear to me and the conversations were even more difficult to read. Later, in class, we read a part together and some explanation about the story was given, it gave me a little hope to maybe understand the next part a bit better. After the translating of the play I finally understood my part, and the story was more or less clear to me.

Everybody handed in his or her part, everything was edited and roles were divided. After that, we could finally start rehearsing the play. When I had to do my first scene (act 1, scene 1), it was a complete disaster: I didn’t know my text, I was afraid to shout and act like a nobleman. After this first time of practicing, my other scene’s were not practiced before the 8^th of june.

On the 8^th of June, the date of our performance, I was very nervous and didn’t eat a lot all day. We started the rehearsal, which didn’t go very well, but still reasonable. After the pizza, everybody hurried to dress up and put on some make-up. The performance itself, I can speak for anyone who participated: was great!

I learned a lot from this Romeo & Juliet project: at first the Shakespeare language, which was difficult in the beginning: but everyone finally saved to translate his or her part of the play. Secondly the translating, which made me understand everything a lot better. And thirdly the real acting of the play, which was for me, the most challenging of all. But now, when I look back, all my nerves where a little exaggerated. The difficulty is: on the moment itself it’s always difficult to put things in perspective.

The tip for next year obviously is: TIME! When we would’ve had a little more time, everything would probably have been less stressful. But we also showed: time is not the most important, your own input is most important after all!

I hope next year students will enjoy R&J, just like it did!