Translations

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Laertes Dialogue (Hamlet)

Here's a line from the Shakespeare play Hamlet-

LAERTES: How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Concience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.

Laertes was stunned by grief of his father Polonius's death. This was the most emotional emotional point for him in the play. Laertes was saying that, since his father the lord chamberlain was killed, he would break the oath that he sweared to protect the royal family. He did not want to serve his country (Denmark) anymore. All he wanted to establish was that he would seek revenge for his father and hunt down the murderer. (The murderer, in case you did not know, is Hamlet.)

Here's my way of translating the above dialogue into modern language-

LAERTES: How did my father end up dead? How is all that is left of him a stiff, unyielding body of cold flesh? I won’t be played around with; to hell with all our vows of allegiance and loyalty! To hell with the damned honor of keeping promises! Conscience, grace, all to the deepest, darkest pit of Tartarus! I don’t care if I wound up dead in the end of the cavern, afflicted by suffering. I don’t care if I’m cursed for all these cruel means. I don’t care if I’m damned to hell now- I don’t care. Anything that should happen shall happen; I don’t care as long as I gain revenge for my father’s vile murder.

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