Tuesday, April 14, 2009

To translate Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle.....


Setelah bertungkus lumus (Aku pilih perkataan tungkus lumus sengaja nak menunjukkan elemen yang lebih dramatik padahal takdelah 'tungkus lumus' sangat... ok) siang dan malam..antara kekalahan Liverpool dan mamai-mamai tak cukup tidur ....Aku hampir berjaya menamatkan translation ENGLISH-BM Brecht's Caucasion Chalk Circle.

Seperti yang semua maklum, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (CCC) adalah berdasarkan cerita pendek Bertold Brech, Der Augsburger Kreidekreis dan asalnya disadurkan dari persembahan China abad ke 14, Circle of Chalk oleh Li Xingdao.CCC adalah teater terakhir yang ditulis oleh Brecht sebelum dia mengehembuskan nafas terakhirnya. Ianya dipentaskan kali pertama pada tahun 1948 Carleton College, Minnesota (karya penulis agung pun boleh didebut oleh pelajar kolej. Isnt that cute?) CCC is consider as one of Brechts most staged play. The most famous.

Brecht dengan konsep dan idea Epic Teaternya. And this Epic Theatre is not easy to define with words alone ...the whole concpet of Epic Theatre will be fully utilzed if u can understand how theathre works actually. Or in another way to say it...u must watch a lot of theatre to not just understand what is Epic Theatre but also to enjoy it.
. Bagi aku Brecht's idea is like german football, full of technical. means Epic Theatre is technical And technical theatre always consider as difficult and complex (would u agree on this?) . Thats why, if i have a choice to read play, Brecht's play is the last choice for me to pick for me. I mean Galileo? sounds like a whole trip to science class back in form 4 right? not!

Yes its easy to categorise Brechts work as complex... walaupun sebenarnya aim Brecht mudah sahaja (kalau buat teater tanpa fun, why bother at all? is one of his famous statement) And the truth is his play is very.... direct. Some people say its all about men in rugs lol (which i sometimes tend to agree)

Epic Theatre is nothing new. Its been done before in the mould of Greek Tragedy and so on. Brecht only popularized it. Give a new name, new technique and with a fresh play, anti war alike...boomb! epic Theatre is born and gave meryl Streep her charachter to perform in Broadway.

To translate CCC is not like to read Ulysses. Not so hard to translate this play..not like most modern play like the one by Albee, Genet and others. Prof Chess Skinner give me freedom to translate it my own way. Make it more local taste, he said. But i'll keep most of the real names nad places. After all, CCC is baesd from a classic Chinese play , he said. Sounds like a true gentleman. Sounds like he wants me to having fun in this process.

CCC Story is about a women, an ordinary kitchen maid named Grusha, who in turmoil of war and chaos, kidnap gabenors baby and treat the baby as her own, through bad times and good times. running mountains and danger..... Then came back the mother to take away the baby. A court is conduct by a drunken Azkad, for he the one who decide which women should take care of the baby by putting the baby in the circle and let the one who can grab the baby be a winner thus legally adopt the child.
For Chess, CCC is about ownership. Thats what attrackt him for the play. For me its just about a love relationship between mother and son; subject that i love to cover.

This story, at this hour and this times seems all coming back to me. In another word: how ironic it is for me to do this kind of story at the same time im starting to enjoy having a relationship with my own son.

Grusha maybe my mom holding Naufal, while me and my wife going to work. Or maybe Grusha is my own wife while she busy trying to make the boy sleep while im at the other room playing with my own computer. Or maybe I am Grusha, trying to learn how to love my own boy.

Dan bila aku alihbahasakan skrip ini, ada kalanya aku mengintai melihat Naufal dihadapan sedang bermain. Now it all makes sense to me why im the one who need to transfer this script.

Now another not so difficult task for me before I finally finish it.To rename the play. According to Indonesian translation, Its Lingkaran Kapur Putih. I may should find another title for this translation.
I suggest GRUSHA. or GRUSHA (Caucasion Chal Circle) Simple as that. Like Salina is a rename after..(gosh i forgot the original title of Salina)
Theres a reason to it. apart from easy to pronounce, I just want it to continue a long tradition of play thats been staged under Diploma Showcase that resemble struggle of a women. Somehow, feminism and FTKA is like....isi dan kulit. Eceh. First dip showcase, back in 2002 is a partly monologue title Wanita Oh Wanita. then we had Salina in 2004 I think. Then we made Medea in 2006 and some other titles that gave a what latest pop bruvado as girls power (?) . all about feminist ..women in the verge of a nervous breakdown or something like that. So i think i'll go for GRUSHA...or maybe others i have no idea yet.We'll discuss it later with the director and the production. maybe we'll gave it another new name. Or maybe we'll stick with Lingkaran Kapur Putih. The most important thing is for people to know that its a Brecht's were doing.
The first Brecht play by FTKA.....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

mungkin hanya pakai title "kapur"?

saat omar said...

ada beberapa few cadangan untuk tajuk Caucasian Chalk Circle....

1) Grusha
2) kapur Putih
3) Bulatan Kapur Putih
4) Grusha si Tukang Masak dan Bulatan Kapur Putih
5) kapur
6) Brecht's Grusha
7) Diploma Showcase's Grusha
dan bla bla bla :)

Anonymous said...

pakai maksud latin chalk - "calx"

Fasyali Fadzly said...

wow, semakin best diploma showcase punya projek. banyak karya-karya yang bagus-bagus dipentaskan. tetapi saya tetap menunggu karya student sendiri yang digunakan untuk penilaian akhir. nak tengok macam mana hasilnya.

kali ini saya tidak mahu masuk dalam rehearsal dan hanya mahu tonton produknya sahaja. mungkin itu lebih baik, kot... hehehe

zubin said...

Hello sipengantin baru, how was malam musin bunga UiTM?

saat omar said...

yeah Vitamin..tahun lepas berita harian menyiarkan yang universiti paling aktif mementaskan teater adalah dari fakulti kita...so keep up the good work.

haha Dr Zul..dah setahun khawin lebih kawinlah..pengantin tua ok

Anonymous said...

diploma showcase bdk2 thn akhir fakulti teknologi kreatif&artistik mengenengahkan CCC ni yg berkonsepkan 1 malaysia...ape mcm...ok x...pape pon,gud luck to all bebudak management & seni lakon!:-)

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also...