There’s a Double Tongue in Cheek: On the Un(Translatability) of Shakespeare’s Bawdy Puns into Romanian

Abstract

AbstractThe translatability of William Shakespeare’s titillating puns has been a topic of recurrent debate in the field of translation studies, with some scholars arguing that they are untranslatable and others maintaining that such an endeavour implies a divorce from formal equivalence. Romanian translators have not troubled themselves with settling this dispute, focusing instead on recreating them as bawdily and punningly as possible in their first language. At least, this is the conclusion to which George Volceanov has come after analysing a sample of Shakespearean ribald puns and their Romanian equivalents. By drawing parallels between such instances of the Bard’s rhetoric and three of their Romanian translations, my article aims to reinforce the view according to which Romanian translators have succeeded, by and large, in translating Shakespeare’s bawdy puns into their mother tongue.