Oldal 117 [117]
YOSHIKO TAKEBE
of Hirata are categorized as "guiet theatre" that emphasizes the presence of
silence as natural, as realistic, to the contemporary audience. Ihey exclude
dramatic consistency, opting instead for a plotless atmosphere. Put otherwise,
Hirata seeks to impress his audience by deconstructing the three unities and
by creating situations that are closer to our daily lives.
This paper aims to explore the significance of translating silence
from one language to another by focusing on the relationship between
the aforementioned three playwrights; Beckett’s Come and Go and its
translation into the style of Japanese Noh Theatre in order to demonstrate
the intersemiotic translation strategy in play; how Beckett’s dramaturgy is
influenced by Chekhov’s theatre, by comparing the theatrical structure of
Beckett’s Come and Go and Chekhov’s The Three Sisters; and how Hirata
adapted Chekhov’s The Three Sisters to Japanese android drama in order to
reveal silence shared between humans and machines.
TRANSLATING SILENCE IN SILENT MOVIES IN JAPAN
When actors actually adapt the words in the text to their own voices and
physical movements, they are required to be conscious of nonverbal elements
as well. In the time of silent movies, they must have acted with non-verbal
elements more in their mind, and how to convey such non-verbal elements
shown in silent movies must have been an important element for Beckett
in writing his plays. During his years at Trinity College Dublin, Beckett is
said to have seen many Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin films. As stated
by Knowlson, the “love of old music hall and circus routines was to remain
with him and resurface later.”* Before discussing Japanese productions of
Beckett and Chekhov, this section briefly addresses a device unique to Japan
for translating the aesthetics of silence in silent movies.
When silent movies were imported to Japan in earlier days, Benshi played
the role of translator and interpreter for understanding the content of silent
movies. Benshi is “the famous screen-side narrator of Japanese silent film
who both offered narrative commentary and mimicked the voices of the
characters.”? Benshi stood next to the screen and told the story by looking
at screen and audience by turns. Few subtitles were displayed in conjunction
with each scene of the silent movies. Benshi wrote a script that summarized
the content of the movie. He expressed through speech not only the actors’
words, but also various sound effects projected on the screen. When the
actor in the movie cried, he too displayed a tearful face. He expressed and
2 Ibid., 57.
3 Abe Mark Nornes: For An Abusive Subtitling, in Lawrence Venuti (ed.): The Translation
Studies Reader, 2° edition, New York, Routledge, 1999/2004, 454.
+ 116°