I once
saw two different productions within a fortnight of the same Molière play. One
was a close translation of the original text, and it's staging contained many of the elements
of the time when it was written. The second one was brought right up into the
21st century, with a modern setting and modern jokes. Quite quirkily it was
delivered mainly in rhyming couplets. I slightly preferred the latter though
also appreciated the former. I remember this as I try to make my decision now.
I'm
currently working on the third book in the Schellberg cycle. This one is almost
completely fictional and set in Nazi
Germany. I'm allowing my characters to speak in quite modern English. I do
agree that this would sound strange if the story were set in 1940s Britain.
However we're one step away here as the characters are all speaking another
language some of the words and phrases might be useful. In any case, just as in
the second version of the Moliere play, bringing our characters into the 21st century
might make them more accessible.
A couple
of examples:
1. older
brother Kurt refers to younger Eberhard as "Bro". This could anyway
be a translation of "Bruderchen" or "Mein Bruder" both of
which may have been used in the 1940s.
2. A
school girl struggling with fractions complains that the work is "doing my
head in". This phrase does not exist literally in German. However there
was no doubt something equally colloquial then in German as there is probably
as well now. The modern German would not be appropriate but the modern English
may be acceptable as an equivalent.
So,
there seems to be a suggestion that this might work.
However,
in the first novel, The House on Schellberg Street , I do use a 1940s' English. This is partly because it is
set in that place and time and partly because the letters I transcribed as part
of my research produced a certain pleasingly old-fashioned tone.
So. It
remains a dilemma for the moment. It could be that by the time you read this a
decision has been made.
