Hamlet in translation

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nearly half a century ago anthropologist Laura Bohannon headed to the Tiv
people of West Africa to do fieldwork. One significant result of her work
was a classic article called "Shakespeare in the Bush," which appeared in
_Natural History_ in 1966.  It explored the idea (in this case, fact) that
different cultures will probably make different sense of any given literary
work, Shakespeare's _Hamlet_, for instance.

If you haven't read it, you will be tested:
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/editors_pick/1966_08-09_pick.html

This is by way of lead-in to the fact (not idea) that a team of dedicated
scholars has now revised and reissued their classic translation of
Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ into the Klingon language:

http://www.kli.org/stuff/Hamlet.html

Klingon audiences find the play deeply moving, for reasons you don't want to
know about.

JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org