The Interface between Translation and Drama:

Translating Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel from English into French

Abstract

Translating a dramatic text is a daunting task. The challenge is rooted in the fact that the text is specifically written to be acted or performed on the stage. A dramatic text is written in acts, scenes, and contains dialogues spoken by the characters. Apart from this, translating a dramatic text from one language with a different cultural setting into another language requires high creativity to guarantee faithfulness in the target language and culture. This article analyzes the interface between translation and drama as well as the woes and possibilities of translating Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel into French. The result of this research indicates that linguistic and cultural issues which are based on the shared knowledge of the original author and the readers are mostly problematic in translation and usually require the translator to do serious research to acquire the necessary background knowledge, and find out whether this background knowledge is at the target language readers’ disposal; if not, to make it available to them through translations, expansions, explanations, and footnotes.