Translation and Performance – Nina Simone sings Aznavour and Brel

Abstract

This paper aims to link Translation Studies to Performance Studies, to explore cultural, social and political aspects and any changes thereto caused by the translation process. To do this, the focus will be on shifts due to a change in performing artist and their individual performance styles and public images, which are likely to have influenced the song and its lyrics.

As an example the paper centres around two songs that were both translated from French to English by different translators (respectively lyricists) in the early 1960s and performed in the translated version by Nina Simone. The first one is Charles Aznavour’s Il faut savoir (1961), which became known as You’ve got to learn (1962); the second Jacques Brel’s Les désepérés (1965), translated as The desperate ones (1969). This choice allows to scrutinize two very different performance styles and artists in the respective original versions and how their work was modified to fit a very different artist and genre in the translations. In addition to this, the question arises if the switch from male to female artist caused additional shifts, and if so, how this was dealt with.

The paper is based on the principle that Translation Studies have undergone several turns over the past decades and continue to do so. The sociological turn enlarged translation research to include the people behind the translations and their social networks. Taking this as a starting point, the next step is the performative turn, which, as Michaela Wolf points out “marks a movement away from words, artefacts and textual research towards the understanding of the performative processes of cultural practices” (2017:30). The paper uses this premise to analyse the importance placed on the performing artist and their influence on the translation process and final product.