A View from the Bridge: Arthur Miller Translated by Arbonès and Sellent

Abstract

This article compares the type of language used in the translations of Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge by Jordi Arbonès (in 1965, although it was published in 1986) and Joan Sellent (in 2006). The comparison is based on the references to these two translators made by Xavier Pericay and Ferran Toutain in El malentès del noucentisme, along with Arbonès’ and Sellent’s statements about their own translations and translation styles and several statements by Joan Sellent that can be viewed as comments on the version by Jordi Arbonès. The conclusion is that Arbonès’ conception of Catalan literary language leads him to systematically use features that are characteristic of a cultivated or written type of language that do not fit the speech of Miller’s characters, who usually express themselves in a colloquial or vulgar manner. Likewise, as Pericay and Toutain noted, there are Castilianisms and unintended traces of English in his text. The translation by Sellent, on the other hand, is based on a more neutral oral language model that consciously incorporates some Castilianisms, and this allows him to reflect the linguistic variation and dramatic elements of the original more faithfully. Thus, the result of the comparative analysis of the texts is consistent with the ideas of both translators about what the Catalan literary language model should be.

Key Words: Jordi Arbonès, Joan Sellent, Arthur Miller, translation into Catalan, theatre translation, standard language