Brian Frie1's'Translations'' Aspects of Irish Identity

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R・G・マーフィー:ブライアン・フリールの「Translations」(翻訳) 77

Brian Frie1's''Translations''

Aspects of Irish Identity R G Murphy

Some aspects of dramatist Brian Frie1's''Translations''are considered in the light of the eight- century old Irish Question.The play brings to light some problems of Irish identity that need to be recognised and taken to heart so that any solution can stand a chance of success. Friel takes translation out of the conf ines of the classroom or the dusty study and shows its interesting relationship with the reality that affects the totality of human affairs.

The diff iculties of the Troubles in Ireland from 1969'are so bewildering to many observers that they take refuge and force the issue into a simplistic definition。For example :the problem stems from British imperialism (meaning that all will be well if the 'forces of occupation'leave Ulster). Others blame it on the burning issue of religious dissension and intolerance;which has persisted for 4 centuries ted by the Protestant minority ascendancy and the creation of a Protestant-majority State in 1921;maintaining U.K.status. (Thus, union of Ulster with the Irish Republic would

ultimately solve the religious division since all would become well in time).The 'Irish Problem'is thus simplified for the electorates of influential countries such as the U.S. where'feel-good'factors carry politicians into (and out of) office,while the real problems fester under the coating.The Ireland of the late20th century has been in the making for eight centuries.Theoriginal clashesof the

English and the Irish were between2 Catholicised peoples.I must note here that the labels of ℃atholic'or 'Protestant'do not necessarily entail Christian behaviour.In the political interests of England's Norman King,Henry II ? intervention in a civil war in Ireland was undertaken. By mtervening.Henry could occupy and ef fectively exile nobles who were potential challenges to his power,and obtain the favour of the Pope in Rome,and;of course,extend his realm by occupying land in Ireland;buyirlgof f potential enemies and keeping them occupied in a hostile land that did not accept its conquest.Ireland was racially,cultural]y and linguistically different from the Normans and the Anglo_Saxon English,with their mix of Germanic and Norman French: the people were largely Celtic,with some mix from the Vikings;they spoke Gaelic,not French or English.There was no similarity between them at all,save perhaps,the Viking element.England was soon to be a centralised nation-state;Ireland was still based on a clar1-system (as was Scotland,taken over by an Irish tribe;the Scots).For centuries,English control of Ireland would be asserted by military means,but would constantly have to be re-asserted militarily.For the English who settled in Ireland as conquerors found that a process of cultural assimilation by Irish ways,including language,was similar to the cultural assimilation of the Normans by the French(they wereongina11y Vikings and had settled in the north of France before conquering England)and by the very Anglo-Saxons they lorded it over after 1066.The Statutes of Kilkenny in1366 were testimony to how threatening this

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78 福島大学教育学部論集第58号 1995年6月

cultural process was felt tobe.Toprevent what was called'degeneracy'among the English living in

Ireland these Statutes outlawed Irish dress and hairstyles;and the adoption of Irish language and laws by English people living in Ireland.They were,almost mevitably,doomed to failure,but,in time,more insidious measures and attitudes would be imposed as the Tudors instituted an efficient system of bureaucracy and military power,determined to act with total measures if compliance was not total.

Even with growing firmrlessof grip and a Machiavellian policy of realpolitik the direst outcome of which was the plantation of Ulster by Protestant settlers;mainly from Scotland,the majority of the Irish population remained opposed to domination by their neighbours from across the water. They also remained predominantly closed tothelanguageof their conq1lerors.Even after the Act of Union welded the two islands together in the'United Kingdom'2 English was a foreign language to most Irish_It was,of course,the language of any Irish people who had any sort of power: the Protestants,the people of Dublin,certain intellectuals or people of infh1ence in the community,and

those who had direct dealings with the English-speaking minority might well have a smattering of English much as any of the colonial races of the British Empireoverseas.In these cases,English was mapped onto Gaelic,producing some of the distinctively Irish features of English such as I'rn af ter 十 GERUND instead of the Present Perfect tense, which is a direct translation of the Gaelic indiaidh, in the sense of the English af ter. It is also interesting that some English people misunderstand the Irish English construction,thinking it refers to the future,on the lines of I'm doing or 1'm going todo3.In 1800,Gaelic was still the mother tongue of the majority of Irish,after over 6cerlturiesof the English presence.By1900,however,more than85% spoke only English;with a mere20,000 native speakers of the Irish language remaining.Considering that English had almost died out in Ireland by 1600,this reversal of the fortmesof the two languages is astounding.It is common to blame this on the major famines in the 1840s and ensuirlg emigration,but the major influx of Protestant,English_speaking settlers was over,and they were still in a minority.Brian Friel identifies another factor in his play, “Translations' (1980)4, set in a Gaelic-speaking community in the 1830s.It is the coming of the Ordnance Survey engineers and the subsequent re_nammgof settlements a;nd all natural features in English.As in Wales until recent decades,there were to be no bilingual road signs.English only graced the roadsides.0n its own,among people unable to speak or read English,this would not necessarily have led to such a rapid demise of Gaelic. The coup do grace,however,was administered by the establishment of schooling and the realisation, among certain people who wanted to improve their lot in life,that a knowledge of English would get them further than a knowledge of Gaelic alone.Those planning to emigrate would also be in need of English.Frie1's play is interesting to students of language,literature,history and comparative culture.Thanks to Frie1's use of a stage Babe] technique, an English-speaking audience hears

English,even when characters speak Gaelic.There are8 Gaelic-speakers,of whom three also speak English.There are2 British Army officers,neither of whom speaks a word of the native language. Ir13 Acts,Frie1lays bare certain elements of Ireland's deep-rooted woes.Under the violence that has characterised so much of Ireland's history and which has blanketed so much media coverage are ordinary men and women and their ordinary day_to_day concerns.Above them,as above us all,

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certain forces weave a tapestry into which we are a11drawn.Sometimes we are'prisoners'mercer less unwittingly shaped,represented by the'moving finger'in a pictureof our lives.In “Translat- ions',in a rural Irish community, Ballybeg,over the course of a few days in late August,1833,Frie1 lays bare,not only the predictable tensions and misunderstandings between British conqueror and native Gael,but also certain tensions at the heart of Irishness itself.As usual,the problems are

exacerbated by the strangling presence of British rule,but not all ot them originate from lt. The issue is between mist and clarity,dream and hard reality,wallowing in static dreams,holding fast to one's own Immutable cultural traditions or following the contours and dynamics of contemporary historical process,even at the cost of losing something of one'sown culture.

“Translations':a Synopsis

In the Irish county known as Ob11n ria rlgai, or Donegai in lts anglicised version, there is a community called local]yBaiie Beag。Some British Royal Engineers are camped in the area,making the first Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.This is the very U.K. that 26 of Ireland's32 counties will leave in 1921.The si:? remaining counties will form 'Northern Ireland',with a Protestant majority population,under challenge from within and without.Frie1 does not deal with Northern Ireland as such,but delves deep.Local place names are to be recorded

and then rendered into English by the cartographers.BaiieBeag wi11becameBailybeg.In Ba11ybeg the people we meet are attending a'hedge-school'run by Hugh More'Dome11and his son,Marlus. In this school,the language of instruction is Gaelic,and they learn the basicsof literacyof literacy and culture。Hugh has high aims,and they also learn Latin and Greek.Significantiy,there is no teaching of English,even though Hugh and his sons are also f luent in English.Hugh's manner with his students is authoritative_He holds his head high,though poor and not working for much money. He is one of those who are keeping Irish culture alive and strong, he feels, allying it with the Classical learning of the Mediterranean founders of European culture.Hiberno-Irish is closer m spirit to Ancient Greece and Rome than to modern Britain,he feels_He writes verse in Latin,in the style of Ovid. He translates it into English for Yolland, dismissing English as making his verse sound “plebeian'.Wordsworth is of no value to him,and he puts himself forward as a poet of renown,a possible teacher of poetic technique to any English poet :

HUGH:Did he speak of me to you?_Wordsworth?_ no.I'm afraid we're not familiar withyour literature,Lieutenant.We feel closer to the warm Mediterranean. We tend tooverlook your island. (p.41)

Hugh is often drmk and,although called'Master'by his students,is also sometimes a figure of fun to them on account of his mytho1ogising in very artict11ate and learned language,sometimes with his

tongue very firmly in his cheek.In Act 1,Hugh's other son,0wen,returns to the hedge-school from Dublin after6 years away.0wen reveals that he is working for the British as a translator.He is explaining the meanings of the Irish place_names tea British colleague in charge of the Ordnance

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Survey,and they are translating the sense into English if they can thereby obliterating the Irish sound.Sometimes they decide to merely anglicise the sound of the Irish because they cannot make a good enough translation.Yo11and,the Englishman,is captivated more and more by the poetry of the sounds and the meanings,and he wishes to do poetic justice to theorigina1lrish where possible. Owen,the Irishman,working for a foreign race,in a foreign tongue,is more detached.If anything, he has more of the supposedly Anglo_Saxon attitude and Yo11and has something of the supposedly Irish love of dreams,myths,make_believe. Thus are stereotypes capable of blurring or even intermingling in this play.

Maire;too,is moving towards a rejection of Irish mistiness.She and Manus,the teacher's other son,have a relationship.Marriage is unlikely;however.Manus shares the static dreaming of his father,and Maire tnes to push him into taking some practical initiatives so that they can work free of the stifling culture of Ba11ybeg.She wants him to apply to run the proposed government school. Manus defers to his father。In disgust,Maire loses patience with him.She and Yo11and fall in love. They are totally cutoff from each other by language,but they manage to bridge this by sensing each other s essential meanings through their abundant good wi11.Their 1ove scene is withnessed by

Sarah,a girl with a speech defect so bad that she is thought to be dumb.She has a soft spot for Manus,who has taught her some speech.She to]Is him that he has lost Maire to the Englishman,his cultural inferior.5 Soon Yo11and goes missing.We presume that the Donnelly twins;who are often mentioned but never seer1,are responsible for certain 'harassing measures of a violent nature

against the British.Manus runs away.Is he somehow involved in the abduction?He ignores Owen's advice to stay and not automatically bring suspicion on himself.In any case,Manus is lame and cannot hope practically to outrun the British Army.Someof the local people probably know more than they are willing tosayopenly.Now the congenial,sympathetic British military presence of Yo1land has been removed from the scene,a victim of the very forces that have come to bedevil the process of healing the present Irish situation.The stage is taken by the more typical British officer, Lancey,who threatens savage punitive reprisals against the local population if they do not break their communal silence and provide him with information about the disappearance of Lt Yo11and_ We are in the vicious circle of coercion-resistance-yet further coercion that has characterised

Anglo_Irish relations for ever 800 years.0wen,with a foot in both cultures,goes off to try to contact Doalty,who,though not a violent man,may have information that could help f ind Yo1land. Owen wants to avoid the punishment to be inflicted on everybody as a result of the disappearance and the conspiracy of silence,honed over the centuries.People are pnsonersof the past,locked in a war of attrition、Is the price to so many not too high?0wen has decided that the old ways lovable as they may be,are also menacing,damaging to the real health of the people,both spiritual and physica1.There must be a better way,and he wants to try to find it.The1ocal people set about hiding their livestock.Jimmy,a man in his sixties,long in love with Latin and Greek mythology, tells Hugh that he is gomg to get married.He is soa1one.Hugh muses on an incident in 1798 the year of Wolfe Tone's uprising,when he and Jimmy had gone off to fight,full of patriotic ideals,“two young ga]1ants with pikes across their shoulders and the Aenei,d in their pockets'.In a pub?

just23 miles from home they were both overcome by homesickness and decided to return,without

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Joining in the fighting.Earlier,as they had marched,things seemed gloriously ciear.As in an epic

by the Ancient Greeks or Romans,heroism was in perfect harmony with love of home, family, community.Somehow,as they drank,they realised the “desiderium rtostrorurn - the need for our own.0urpietas James,was for older,quieter things6.And that was the longest23 miles back I ever made. (Toasts JIMMY.) My friend,confusion is not an ignoble condition.''In these final pages of the play,Hugh has wistfully changed his tune.He now senses that something is rolling over the old ways of ancient Ireland,something unstoppable.He agrees to teach English toMaire.When she asks the meaning of the English word always,which she heard Yo1land repeat to her when he promised his undying love,Hugh's reply is that ai1oays ls a silly word.Nothing lasts always.Maire,kept alof t by love,waits for Yo11and toreturn.She does not heed Hugh's point,although she sensed earlier that things have run the traditional course and that something bad has happened to her lover. Jimmy and Hugh,the arch-dreamers of the play have the last twospeeches.Are we to take Jimmy

seriously when he talks of marrying?Or is he finally irretrievably lost in dreams,unable,in Hugh's words,to discriminate between the literal past,the'facts'of history,and the images of the past embodied in language?Jimmy warns Maire,and himself,of the dangers of ertdogarrtein,,''marrying within the tribe',and exogamein,7 the opposite,'marrying outside the tribe': “_ you don't cross those borders casually - both sides get very angry.'His words apply equally to local as national as also international 'tribal'dif ferences.The last words in the play are by Hugh. He attempts to summarise the new era by quoting from Virgil's epic of the tragic downfall of a civilisation as

something decreed by fate,wrought by a superior military power.Significantly,this work which he took with him on his day of war in1798,a work he knows by heart,now refuses to come intact from his memory.As Hugh stn1ggles with his words;the lights and the curtam godown.The play does not resolve any of the problems set in motion,but the audience has an unmistakable impression that something pertaining to the present day,something deep,has been touched.

Insiders v.0utsiders :Inter-and Intra-national R ift

The pressmg question for Ireland today it seems tome;ls to heal the rif t between the Orange and Green traditions in Ulster before anything like a united Ireland worth the name can be attained.The language and actions of groups such as the Provisional IRA and the Protestant paramilitary and mainstream political organisations follow the old ways of war In order to defeat the opposing community.Friel toucheson this indirectly,not mentioning the Orange community at all,but it is clear that the debate on stage ls concerned with showing how hardline positions and traditional prejudices close the eyes to the more practical and desirable aspectsof life.The play also urges that, as well as approaching the other tradition with eyes open to pitfalls,seas not to fail by default, there are aspects of the old Hiberno-Irish ways that may be inimical to healing the rift_He has been

called the Irish Chekhov,.focusing on the everyday,seemingly trival inlife,in order to raise issues and raise consciousness,not to suggest one way of solving the problems.By distancing himself in this play from the contemporary Ulster civil strife,he also avoids raising the hackles of audience members who may expect tesco a clear-cut propaganda tract in favour of one and against the other.

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The play is a mixture of allot these emotions,seen in national but also in community and individual guise.In contrast here are Irish and British ways.In Northern Ireland today the division is Irish, versus Irish where the former stands for traditionally Gaelic Irish culture,asserting itself against British domination,and the latter is the set of traditions of the population of Lowland Scots and some English who were 'planted' as a minority but ascendant colonising people, but whose forthright claims to be'British have been shared less and less by the British since the departure of Ireland from the Union in1921.How does this rift between the two ways come across on stage,if, indeed,the play uses'British'to stand also for Irish2'?

Among the characters,we can see two basic standpoints.Hugh and his devoted friend and student, Jimmy,his son Manus,and even Doalty and Bridget,stand more or less for a resistance to'British' culture,The unseen Donnelly twins represent the violent wing of that attitude,with degrees of support from theothers.Diametrica11y opposed to this is the stereotype British of ficer,Lancey_ These parties are locked in confrontation.Three characters are,wittingly or unwittingly,engaged in

bridging the divide:0wen,Yolland and the milkmaid Maire.Noneof them are totally one or the other.There is a fluidity,with areas where one colouring'shades intotheother.There is a tragic sense that they are to be disappointed in their attempts,since they are unaware of just how deep the gulf is.The classic Romeo and Juliet motif of Yollar1d and Maire is not resolved by the play's end, but it is remarkable that the two get together at a11.Neither speaks the other;slanguage.At first

they use Owen as translator;but they get on better without him,holding hands;getting beneath the layer of words to the common sense beneath of two human beings who want the best for others, Friel demonstrates this bri11iantly.The two are trying to communicate linguistically,but to ne avai1.It looks as if the relationship may not go further until Yo11and delves deep down inside himself and somehow commumcates through by_passlngordinary adult1ocution.He simply repeats any Irish name he can remember from his work that day.He had been through many names with Owen and had developed a liking for the sounds of the language,the spirit he felt them conveymg, a non_English spirit.Insteadof the anglicised version recorded in the official name-book,Burnfoot, he murmurs Bun na hAbham.He then fo]]ows up with other names,mtil she responds.She speaks in the same'language;,and then they get into a rhythmical game of repeating a name and adding a new one,which is in turn repeated and added to.She feels his sincerity,and the basis is laid for building a mear1ingfu1,mutually beneficial relationship across the deep cultural chasms dividing their twopeoples.She,in turn,will remember the English place-names that he teaches her,with deep respect.This contrasts with Hugh's disdainful response towards the culture of his country's oppressors.It is also instructive to observe how Yo11and revels in the spirit of Ireland that Hugh takes refuge in :the alcoholic spirit?Anna na mBreag's poteen,Hugh controls his tongue,whereas Yo11and;s tongue is loosened,He is;indeed,sufficiently emboldened by the very air of Ireland to express concern about the justificatior1of the Ordnance Survey mission and Lancey's wish to speed the process up.Yo11and is deeply considering how the anglicisation might best preserve the spirit of the Irish original :

YOLLAND I'm sorry,sir,'I said,'but certain tasks have their own tempo.You cannot rename a

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R,G・マーフィー:ブライアン・フリールの「Translations」(翻訳) 83

whole country overnight.'Your Irish air has made me bold. (p.36)

Owen,as one who is rejecting aspects of his culture that are impractical,uses place-names to try to bang some common sense into both his father and Yo11and.He wants to wake them both from the intoxicating sleep into which they have fa11en.Not unkindly,but firmly,he brings Hugh's local knowledge up to date :

OWEN :Do you know where the priest lives ?HUGH:At Lis na Muc,over near_

OWEN :No,he doesn't.Lis na Muc,the Fort of the Pigs,has become Swinefort. (Noul turning th.epages of the Name_Book - a page per name.) And to get toSwinefort you pass throughGreencastle and Fair Head and Strandhi11and Gort and Whiteplains.And the new schoolisn't at Po11na gCaorach _it's at Sheepsrock.Wi11you be able to find your way ? (p_42)

Hugh pours himself another drink l By page66,he is resigned to the fact that English has taken over a valuable aspect of Irishness.With his customary wry irony,he declares, ''We must learn those new names.We must learn to make them our own. We must make them our new home.''

Interestingly enough,by this time Owen has begun to realise the more disturbing aspects of this new take_over and is still feeling the effects of his rather surly response toLancey's threats.More will be said on this later,but it typifies this play that is dealing with a highly difficult Irish Question and demonstrating just how potential]y voh1ble everything is:no sooner have people found a suitable solution to an issue than the issue seems to change_'Protean;is hardly the word to fit lt. But Hugh's words echo the feelings of Friel today.

'What's in a name?that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet',goes the famous quotation,8 and this is Owen's approach to anglicisation.He has no sympathy with Yo11and's misgivings :

OWEN :_we;re taking place_names that are riddled with confusion and_YOLLAND :Who's confused?Are the people confused?

OWEN:_and we're standardising those names as accurately and sensitively as we can YOLLAND:Something is being eroded.

OWEN:Back to the romance again. (p.43)

Owen demonstrates and releases his exasperation at the culture he has 'escaped'from ;

OWEN :_we call that crossroads Tobair Vree,And why do we call it Tobair Vree ? I'll tell youwhy_Tobair means a we11.But what does Vree mean?It's a corruption of Brian- (Gaelic

pronMn,aati,on.) Brian _art eros,on of Tobair Bhriain.Because a hundred and fifty yearsago there used to be a well there,not at the crossroads,mind you - that would be toosimple_but in a field close to the crossroads.And ano]d man cat]ed Brian,whose face was

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disfigured by an enormous growth got it into his head that the water in that well wasblessed;and every day for7 months he went there and bathed his face in lt. But the growthdidnft go away;and one morning Brian was found drowned in that we1l.And ever since thatcrossroads is known as Tobair Vree_even though that well has long since dried up.I knowthe story because my grandfather told it tome.But ask Doalty -or Maire - or Bridget_ even my father _even Manus _why it's called Tobair Vree;and do you think they'11

know? I know they don't know.Sothe question I put toyou.Lieutenant,is this :What dowe do call jt _what ?_The Cross?Crossroads?Or do we keep piety with a man long dead;long forgotten,his name 'eroded' beyond recognition,whose trivial little story nobody inthe parish remembers? (pp.43-44)

Yo11and insists that the Irish name remains.It is here that Owen's exasperation with names again bursts out as he corrects Yo11and's use of 'Roland'.Yo11and,significant[y,takes the correction as useful learning;and with some humour they both put the matter behind them.Both men are Outsiders,and both are potential bridge_builders.Each has something to learn:there is many a pitfall for bridge_builders.Yolland is sympathetic to Gaelic culture,as he sees lt. He is deeply impressed by the high level of culture of these supposedly backward,ignorant peasants.He also senses an idyllic contentment which results from their culture.It compares favourably with what he feels of his own culture.He seems to be a Romantic,and Owen warns him not to be misled by initial

impressions on a rare day of good weather.0wen,as all in Ba11ybeg,is not enjoying such a state of contentment.As Hugh wryly expresses lt:

Yes,it is a rich language, Lieutenant, fu]1 of the mythologies of fantasy and hope andself_deception_a syntax opulent with tomorrows.It is our response to mud cabins and a diet ofpotatoes ;our only method of replying to_ inevitabilities. (p.42)

As an expression of Hugh's Irish version of shikata ga rtai,this is tuff et self-parody,making his remarks that end the play not completely unexpected,though all the more polgnant.When Hugh previously defended'confusion;as a not ignoble condition,he sounded one of the major notes of the play,one which needs to be examined on its merits.For confusion about Irish racial constitution is

one of the points the writer seems to be regrettmg very deeply.This confusion consists of denying realities,taking refuge in misty dreams of a much loved mythical Golden Age,spoilt only by the mcursionof a foreign culture,an incursion to be resisted spiritually.

Manus follows in his father's footsteps.He seems also to be in his father's shadow.He is quick to see Owen's translation_work as a kind of betrayal of the Irish.He also sees that Owen's translations of the military and disdainful mode of Lancey's speech are toned down.0wen's translations are 'free;_Manus is aware of underlying 'realities'and is unwilling to play the traditional game at Hugh's hedge_school of quoting literature and playing with words in order to react with dignity and somehow save face:

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MANUS:You weren't saymg what Lancey was saying 1OWEN: Uncertamty in meaning is incipient poetry'-who said that ?

MANUS:There was nothing uncertain about what Lancey said :it's a bloody military operation,Owen l And what's Yo11and's function?What's 'incorrect'about the place-names wehave here?

OWEN :Nothing at a11.They're just going to be standardised.MANUS:You mean changed into English ?OWEN :Where there's ambiguity;they;ji be Anglicised. (p.32)

Owen,as all would_be reformers is face_to-face with the requirements of compromise.Like a politician,he slides out of the trap by means of words.He is called Roland'by the British.Manus challenges him on this,too.The implication is that he has been taken over by them,having even his own name anglicised.0wen treats this with humour;and we feel that he is genuinely unconcerned that anything as superf icial as a word,a name;ls worth bothering about.Getting on with life is more important to him :

OWEN;Isnt it ridiculous?They seemed to get it wrong from the very beginning - or else theycan't pronounceOwen.I was afraid some of you bastards would laugh.

MANUS:Aren't you going to tell them?

OWEN:Yes -yes -soon-soon.MANUS:But they_OWEN:Easy,man,easy.0wen_Roland - what the hell ?It's only a name.It's the same me,

isn't it ?Well,isn't it ? (p.33)

Manus,however,doubts that a rose by any other name'smells just as sweet_For they are talking of identities,and the name will change the essence of the person and the place in Manus's view,as

also in Friel s,just as Owen's translations changed Lanceys crass imperialistic statements into reasonable,sweet words of friendship :

LANCEY

OWEN

This enormous task has been embarked on so that the military authorities will beequipped with up_to_date and accurate information on every corner of this part of theEmpire.

The job is being done by soldiers because they are skilled in this work. (p.31)

During all this, which is marked also by comedy as Owen summarises Lanceyfs long-winded utterances in a few words,toLancey's bewilderment,Hugh is dulling reality with too much alcohol, without losing control totally_It is,perhaps,another of his ways of inner emigration from the reality he senses in the depths of his entrails,physically distant from his brain, though st加connected with it in sense.

The relationship between the brothers is uneasy,and it has long been so.Manus 1ooks 1ong and

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hard at the uncomfortable Owen and his “0wen-Roland-_ It's the same me,isn't it ?''and his

reply is laced with irony: “Indeed it is.It's the same Owen.”0wen tries to laugh it off with“And the same Manus'',punching him lightly and playfu11y.Theleve1of national division is thus

more than cross_cultural and inter_racial ; it also divides families. Individuals such as Owen; Yo11and and Maire are also riven by division,straddling or wishing to straddle both cultures.

Yolland is dreamy,an idealist,one of those Englishmen who in previous centuries were assimilated by the Gaelic culture around them. For Manus, however, he is not welcome. Manus is more comfortable with the fixed,traditional,black_and-white categories.He rebuffs with sarcasm the

bumbling attempts of Yo11and to acquire Gaelic.The following is all in Irish,except for Yo11and's words :

OWEN :Can't you speak English before your man?MANUS :Why?OWEN :Out of courtesy.

MANUS:Doesn't he want to learn Irish?(ToYOLLAND)Don't you want to learn Irish? YOLLAND :Sorry - sorry?I -I -

MANUS:I understand the Lanceys perfectly but people like you puzzle me.OWEN :Manus,for God's sake 1 (p.36-37)

It would take a great deal for the Manuses te sco the possibilities of peace between the two traditions.In this play,he spurns the chance.His nationalistic hatred merges with personal jealousy of Yo11and as a man who takes his woman,Maire,away.

The Pull and Push of the 'Irish'Tribe9

Are Owen and Maire also guilty of dreaming ? Are they traitors to their much oppressed culture?0wen is the most Frielian character,a person who has lef t his culture and is returnmg as a different man,fitting uneasily into ways with which he is familiar but which he no longer accepts blindly.His eyes are open teether possibilities.Heleft the community6 years previously,sensing that jt and the whole culture that had produced it was too static to support a modern,more dynamic wayof life.This he fomd in Dublin,the relatively anglicised capital city.He is resigned to the British holden Ireland,until the scene in which Captain Lancey,the more stereotype,stage English off icer,Issues an ultimatum,demanding the return of Yo11and and preparing to evict the people and destroy their animals if Yo11and is not returned unharmed,With a touch of irony,Friel now makes Owen look at Lancey,seeing him (for the first time?) as a truer representative of the British presence in Ireland than a decent man such as Yo11and.He suddenly becomes less than completely co_operative in his responses toLancey'sorders.Significantly,he uses native Irish names now instead of the anglicised names he has been helping the British team to record and advising his father to get used to,since lt is the new reality :

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LANCEY :Where does she live?OWEN :Bun na hAbhann.

LANCEY :Where?OWEN :Burnfoot.

LANCEY :I want to talk to your brother - is he here?OWEN :Not at the moment.

LANCEY :Where is he?

OWEN:He's at a wake. (pp.62)

This information is deliberately false,since Manus is on the run,and we suspect he is involved in the abduction of Yo1land and the burning of the British camp,which Doalty is watching as LanCey addresses them a11.Doalty follows the time_honoured pattern of non-cooperation:he takes his time

before mentioning it toLancey.He speaks in Gaelic,to Owen,who is to translate the message. Lancey,hearing words mumbled aside,and unaccustomed to the fact that these British subjects speak a language other than English,takes umbrage and adopts a hostile tone in demanding of Doalty (who cannot answer,even if he wanted to,since he is a monog1ot) :

LANCEY :What's your name? (ToOWEN.) Who's that lout?OWEN:Doalty Dan Doalty.

LANCEY :Where does he jive?OWEN :Tulach Alainn.

LANCEY :What do we call it? (pp.62-63)

Here,the use of pronouns is highly signif icant.Does Lancey include Owen in his lilo,said with the emphasis of exasperation? This question is left open by Friel,although the direction of events On stage hints that Owen_the_cartographer in the pay of the British,who know him as'Ro]and,might be part of 'us',but Owen_the_indignant_former-peasant among these poor people who are about to have even their miserable few possessions totally destroyed by the troops,'s excluded - of his Own volition。 (whether Owen will again come to terms with the reality he had earlier espoused is not certain,but jt is also possible.) Lancey feels the latent rebellion in his reply:

OWEN:Fair Hi11.He says your whole camp is on fire. (p.63)

Lancey;s reaction js one of total surpnse,and his peremptory style is of no use concerning the burr,jng tents,which are too far gone_His next words are ominous for Doalty and Owen,but they are no longer any surprise_Friel enables us to feel how things have reverted to the old mould of total antagonism between Anglo_Saxon and Gael,the utter missing of minds and hearts.0wen's use of year is unmistakably hostile,expressing solidarity with his former neighbours;in this particular instance at least.

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LANCEY :I']1 remember you,Mr Doalty. (ToOWEN) You carry a big responsibility in all this_(He goes off .) (p.63)

In such ways throughout the whole of this very well_crafted play,Friel shows how big events and themes mteract at a111evelsof life,striking at communal and individual minds,hearts,souls - and bodies.These abstract,spiritual matters are Imprinted in the very flesh and bone,mixed in with the blood that courses through the veins as people live each day.At such heightened moments,it is obvious,and all are conscious of lt. At other,less sensitive moments,the same blood runs through the same bodies.Mothers feed their children with tales from now and from the distant past,lost in the mists of time.How is the folk_memory? Is it accurate in its indignation,especially if living conditions are poor and control over the running of the country is in the handset an alien race with an alien tongue,different ways of feeling (perhaps no feeling?).What is the importance of accurate facts when feelings govern and the body is cold and under-nourished? The mythology risks taking on added importance.This provides Friel with another major theme,one which may have elements that sicken the present with too much of the past making the present woes seem intractable.This is where he sees a role for his art:as a potential healer of communities.

Uses of Theatre in the Ireland of post-1969'Troubles'

This play could well settle into the mould of propaganda_theatre_It does contain lines that would give glee to the Nationalist views by demonstrating the superiority of Irishness and its culture over Anglo_Saxon attachments te a business ethos and the use of naked force when cha11enged.Hugh;s

comments on language and culture,and the essential spirituality in Gaelic culture are elegantly phrased,delivered without noticeable rancour,in supreme peace of mind.0n meeting Lancey in the early part of the play,off_stage,Hugh reports that the officer wishes to address the community about incidents in which unknown local people have been harassing the military mission:

HUGH:He then explained that he does not speak Irish.Latin? I asked.None.Greek? Not asy11able.He speaks - on his own admission - only English;and to his credit he seemedsuitably ver8cund -James?

JIMMY :1/「erecundus _humble.

HUGH:Indeed.He voiced some surprise that we did not speak his language_I explained that a fewof us did,on occasion_outside the parish of course_and then usually for the purposesof commerce,a use to which his tongue seemed particularly suited_and I went on topropose that our own culture and the classical tongues made a happier conjugation -Doalty?

DOALTY:ConJugo -I join together.HUGH:Indeed _ English,I suggested,couldn;t really express us. And again to his credit he

acquiesced tomy1ogic.Acquiesced_Maire?(p_24-25)

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We must not forget that Hugh is speaking Gaelic here,as schoolmaster supreme.He is claiming that English is of no great use in the things that really matter,those of the heart and spirit.Gaelic can hold its head up in the company of Latin and Greek,languages and cultures of great stature.Frie1, however,now elaborates on a major point that he raised earlier in the person of Maire,described in the stage directions as strong_minded, strong_bodied and in her twenties. Hugh's views no longer have uniform support,particularly among the young.Already his sonOwerl has left the community and effectively joined the modern world,increasingly in thrall to that very language Hugh has just disdained. Maire reacts with a gesture of impatience to Hugh's traditional schoolmasterly game of checking his students'progress;refusing to answer.Hugh,significantly, does not notice,since he is not looking at her.He assumes she does not know and proceeds to ask Bridget;who gives the required answer.Maire decides to broach the subject:

MAIRE:We should all be learning to speak English.That's what my mother says.That's what Isay_That's what Dane℃onne11saidlast month in Ennis.He said the sooner we all ]earnto speak English the better. (p_25)

0℃onne11 (1775_1847)was the man who used peaceful agitation in Ireland and achieved far more than violence did in advancing Irish civil rights_Though careful to respect the British Crown, 0℃onne11was a thorn in the side of the Government.Hugh reacts with disdain to any thing or anyone that smacks of compromise with un_Irish ways (for him,practical affairs that call for awakening from the Dream;for blowing away the mists of tradition):'Does she mean that little

Kerry politician?”he counters,but the thrust proves unequal to this challenge:

MAIRE:I'm talking about the Liberator,Master,as you we11know.And what he said was this:'The old language is a barrier to modern progress.' He said that last month.And he;sright.I don't want Greek.I don't Latin.I want English_I want to be able to speakEnglish because I'm going to America as soon as the harvest's all saved. (pp.25-26)

This is the voice of modern Ireland,talking of emigration,mstrumental learning of English,the language without which a person ls stuck in oblivion,lost in dreams that never end,but run to nightmares;delusions that lead to violence in the name of the Nation,and one impasse af ter another in things that really matter.Frieldoes not lightly eschew the old culture.He regrets the passing of thelanguge,the partition since 1921.He seems to be urging;not so much the wholesale abandonment of the myth,os of Ireland that fired Yeats and many a rebel fighter;as its viewing more objectively, so that those elements that are inimical to the survival of 'Ireland;are seen for what they are and removed from the national psyche.The wheels of 'progress'turned and uprooted within a few decades the very Gaelic culture that Hugh soloves.Hugh's reaction to Maire indicates something regrettable as far as protecting his nation's culture is concerned:in silence,he takes out his whisky flask,drinks;replaces the flask in his pocket and resumes his disdainful,schoolmasterly pose: We have been diverted _diverto _ divertere - Where were we?' This reminds us of similar

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behaviour throughout history in the face of impending major changes,and it is deeply tragic.He then informs the people that he has been asked to run the new school to be set up by the authorities, and that he has insisted it be run in the time-honoured way,''Filling what our friend Euripides calls the'apiestospithos;'' ('the cask that cannot be filled').Hugh and his old friend and pupil Jimmy sprinkle Greek and Latin over their utterances as liberally as some people sprinkle parmesan cheese over their spaghetti sauce.It is as much a matter of taste as of culture.Maire wants something different.She will not get it in Ba11ybeg,it seems.Hugh will be passed over for the job at the new school and his hedge_schoolwi11also1oseout to that schoo1.The times are indeed witnessing the end of a way of life.

Conclusion

A study of history requires more than the mere ability to memorise a plethora of dates,

personages,events and their significance for future events.Torea11y know how history relates to the here and now in a significant way,in u ster,say,both'traditions'need to probe more deeply into matters spiritual,things that moved_and may still move- people in the deepest reaches of their being.It is also beneficial to remove detrimental and self-defeating aspects of the myths of the tribe,upon honest reflection.Tradu.ttore,traditore,goes the Italian proverb about the inability of translation to really'give back er 'bring over'the total of anorigina1.Translation thus seen risks being a process of betrayal,and the translator may be a traitor.Be that as it may,translation is a requirement of reality.0wen,reading the winds of reality,runs the risk of being neither one nor the other;Ulster,and Ireland more widely,has still to tackle the issue of 'One Irish people or Two Irish peoples?',to translate'Irishf.

Can English put across the true Ireland? It might come as a shock teether countries to hear that English may not really “express'the Irish as well as their own tongue.If,as seems beyond doubt; the Irish language ls a minority tongue in its own country and the shrinkage of its area continues; despite government policy'a,Friel is adamant that frish English must be Irish,and not a branch of British.It must be able to sound Irish if used in a translation of plays by Chekhov,for example, following rhythms,turns of phrase;intonation and word - choices that would occur to Irish people rather than to people in the English Home Counties.Somany translations of Chekhov into English have rung undoubtedly of this Home Counties culture'',which made Friel himself translate “Three Sisters'into Irish English'2.Given that the Irish must accept this reality of the supplanting of their

tongue,the English of the Irish must always be theirs,able to express them and not to give that final victory to the colonisers that was not to be won political]y.

Richard Pine'3 makes some comments that can close this discussion, Ultimately, he says, all Frie1's work revolves around the crucial connection between map-making and commurlication.He

describes Friel not with bitterness, as a post-colonialist intent on annexing and subverting England's English where it dominates Irish English,Psychologically,Pine claims,there is a George Yo11and and anOwen0'Donne11in each of us,and I think he puts his finger on some of the valuable contributions that “Trar1slations'and art more widely is capable of making in the troubled lives of

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R・G・マーフィー.ブライアン・フリールの「Translations」(翻訳) 91

human communities and individuals.“But great chunks of awareness,certainty,sensibility,can start to fall around and become_violent_ .Tobe free of these 'thugs'of one's psyche one must recover the powerof laughter.0ne is contima1]y aggravated by the fear of losing and the chance of

winnmg,urltilultimatelyone finds that the qualitative difference between wmners and losers is a certain kind of f reedom'. In short,Frie1's work shows all of us,oppressors and oppressed,that we need to divine and test our selves,the inner landscape.The ultimate necessity is the right kind of loyalty;betrayal,if need be of one's self_The ultimate freedom is a self-deridinglaughter.The rest, perhaps,follows.

NOTES:1 Others would date them from 1968.2 From 1801_3 R. McCrum, W. Cran & R. MacNei1 (1986): The Story of English. London Faber &

Faber/BBC Publications. (Esp_pp.162-193)4 Published by Faber & Faber,London,1981;premiered in 1980.5 In Manus's view;and that of his father.

6 pietas:piety.Jimmy has been asleep during this speech. (p.67)7 Jimmy often intersperses Greek in his Irish.8 'Romeo& Juliet';II/ 2,43_9 'Irish,10 Cf.D.Greene- The Atlantic Group:Nee_Celtic and Faroese'in E.Haugen;J .D.McClure& D.

Thomson (1981)(eds):Minority Languages Today.Edinburgh,Edinburgh University Press,1_ 9 . Cf.also D.Fenne11: 'Can a Shrinking Linguistic Minority be Saved?',in the samevolume,pp.32_39.Both are pessimistic about the survival of Irish as a mother tongue andcritical of mistakes in government measures to save the language.

11 Cf.V.Gottlieb:''The dwindling scale':the politics of British Chekhov', in P_Miles (1993)(ed):Chekhov On The British Stage.Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,pp. 147-155.Other contributors make similar points about English acculturation of Chekhov_

12 Cf.U.Dantanus (1988):Brian Frie1,A Study.London,Faber & Faber.References to Chekhovare especially pp.182ff_

13 R.Pjne (1990):Brian Friel and Ireland's Drama.London,Routledge (pp.230- 1)

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ブライアン・フリールの「Translations」 (翻訳) :

アイルランド人のIdentity (独自性) に関する考察R_G. マーフィー

劇作家ブライアン・フリールの「翻訳」という劇におけるいくつかの観点は、800年以上に及ぶアイルランド問題に照らして考察することができます。この劇は、どのような解決も成功の機会と成り得るように、アイルランド人の独自性 (アイデンティテイ)、認められ、心に留められるべき独自性の問題に光を当てます。フリールは翻訳を教室やほこりっぽい書斎の狭い範囲から連れ出し、人間に関する事柄全てに作用する現実と翻訳の興味深い関係を示します。

Documents

Brian Frie1's'Translations'' Aspects of Irish Identity