Customer Reviews

Translations: A Play (Faber Paperbacks)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I felt moved to add a review of Translations after reading several of the reviews other readers have left. Brian Friel has a feel for language that is nothing short of miraculous. This play in particular is a delicate and wonderful portrait of the universality of human experience. If you care enough to read these reviews you owe it to yourself to read this play. I am a long time admirer of Mr. Friel and I saw a remarkable production of this play in London several years ago. There are times - rare times - when a person leaves a theater and doesn't feel the ground under his feet because of the transport of the experience. That was one such performance, and this is that fine a play.

Over the past few nights I have directed this play at my college. I am studying the book as part of my English 'A' Level course, and you'd think I'd get bored of it, but no, I love this book. Being Irish, I feel that it captures the very essence of Irish culture, and the hatred portrayed by Manus toward the English soldiers, is caught so well by Friel. Definitive and Encapsulating, I love this story. Tragedy or no, it's one of the best books I have read about the fall of one's culture through Language. It challenges the typical stereotype of the Irish, and shows how pompus the English could be! BUY IT!

What a wonderfully light read for such a potentially heavy topic.

As a native of Ireland that is constantly reminded of the legacy of the crass 'Anglosizing' of our country, I found this a very incisive read. It is a wonderful snapshot of a period in our history which has scarred our language and lanscape forever. An example would be a town built on the site of an old monastery 'Mainstir na Fir Maoi' or The Monastery of the Yellow Men was translated to Fermoy, a meaningless name with no relevance to the look or history of the area. Or even the fact that I am more comfortable writng this review in English than in Gaelic.

Yet this is not a bitter book but a clever 'fly on the wall' account of the subtle changes being stamped on Ireland. This book of the play has developed wonderful characters which give us a great insight to what it must have been like for all the people who lived through that time.

There is no agenda in this book. It is a nicely humorous account of the times from an accomplished playwright and author.

If ever you plan to visit Ireland or if you live here and have wondered where places like Donegal got their names then this is book will give you enlightenment woven subtly into a wonderful story.

I had the privilege of performing in this play, and I must say that it is one of the most unspeakably beautiful pieces of theatre I have ever read. It challenges the reader/actor with its language, seduces him/her with its emotional power, and teaches an amazing lesson of love and change. I think it must be seen to be appreciated, but every time I read it I am staggered by its intelligence and poetry. (I did see a terrible production of it on Broadway, but a true interpretation of the play reveals it to be the masterpiece it is.)

I'll admit I had expected this play to be another political statement about disappearing languages and the hegemonic powers that threaten them--either that or a celebration of Irish Gaelic (I'm more with Joyce than Yeats when it comes to provincial sentimentality about a nation's older tongue). But Friel manages to make the reader/spectator ponder the seriousness of what can be lost in the translation of the marginal language into the majority discourse. In some instances, the signifer and signified, the sign and its referent are irrevocably separated. In such cases, the resulting loss is not merely to the "richness" of a country's culture but to human consciousness itself. What we can't say we can no longer know or even think.

Usually I pay scant regard to books which raise fewer questions than they answer.It was then with some surprise that I found myself giving this book 4 stars (even more surprising that I nearly gave it five). However anyone who dares to delve deep enough into this book will be rewarded with the desire to meet the author personally.I say that because even now weeks after I read "Translations", I find myself wondering how much Friel really meant. Without going too far into the plot (how important is it?) I can say that this book is about the Anglicising of Ireland.However it goes much deeper than this, investigating the very origins of culture and language. In this hectic world it is easy to do things just because your use to them, but in this book I personally have rekindled the desire to analyse what it means to be human.In terms of its prowess as a piece of literature Friel's style is exceptional, wonderfully caccooning his deeper message in the modern tragedy which is Ireland. It would be impossible to simply list the points he wishes to make, but for the purpose of summary I would say that two of the most important themes are: 1)What is culture, and how does it come about? 2)How does language concur with that culture, and what happens when it doesn't? This superb book has left me realising that a word does not qualify existance, and infact many of the truths (immemorial or otherwise) that we hold dear, are intrinsically twisted by reality and myth. All of that and a damned fine read too, what more can you ask? How do I change it to FIVE STARS?!

I enjoyed reading other reviews, but i was constantly getting the feeling that there was a real ingorance to the underlining theme of the play. On the surface it is about human emotions and the trials a change in culture can have on a society. Friel also challenges the sugnificance of language itself and forces us to seek the relevance of the communication we use. It is thought provoking causing us to realise that everything is subject to human perception, making us questionwhether any liguistic source is reliable, is language just a guise for the truth? Must read for anyone challenging the relevance of everything we know to be real.

an eloquent, moving play about the love of one's native language (Irish) and the plight of lost languages (Latin, ancient Greek, and so on). Of course, it was written after the largely successful revival of the Irish language. There's your delayed "happy ending." (It's not the same, though, not by a long shot.)

the nice thing about friel's play is that he conveys the machine of colonialism with the appropriate complexity--it isn't "bad Englishman, good Irishman," but something much more complex. sometimes people like Owen, unwittingly or not, sell out their own. Sometimes others, for example the English soldier here, are part of the colonial apparatus, but not consciously or intentionally--and such people may end up being the colonized culture's greatest champions.

I liked it better than Dancing at Lughnasa. It reads well--and a lot of plays don't.

I have studied this book as an A-level text and like previously reviewed found it very boring to begin with, however once you have started to delve deeper into the content of the book you realise that it has many morals and many themes, mainly about language. The book talks of a universal language and the death of languages, having made the Irish language a parallel with the Greek language. The book has romance and loss and deals with many of the problems that language can bring about. It is very cleverly written even though it is written in english it expresses itself as though written in English and Gaelic, this aids the readers understanding of the troubles that they are having in communicating. It is a very interesting book and would appeal to most readers!, a must in my opinion to people interested in language and history!.

Friel does a wonderful job of using the beginnings of the
Irish Potato Famine and the callous attitude of the English
government as a backdrop for the far more interesting issue
of language and history- more specifically, how the words
we use can only imperfectly capture the feelings and connections
we feel about the object itself; and how the stories we
tell about history can be more important than what actually
happened. What is most poignant and touching to me is
the relationship between Maire, who speaks only Irish, and
Yolland, the British soldier who attempts to learn Irish
as they fall in love.
The politics that undo their relationship seem almost to
happen as an afterthought- the moments they share, and
their ability to communicate beyond language, make the
play sad and joyful.
Although this to me is certainly a very Irish play, its
impact and meaning(s) cannot be confined to Ireland. It
poses questions to all of us and the worlds we inhabit.