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El automóvil gris (The Grey Automobile) |
Between May 2002 and March 2003, I worked
with Mexican director Claudio Valdés Kuri to translate the script and design
subtitles for his theatrical production El automóvil gris/The Grey
Automobile, which currently is on tour. The protagonist of the play is the
1919 Mexican silent film of the same name. This film is perhaps the most
important silent film in Mexico. It is also decidedly “postmodern” insofar as it
resists the distinction between fact and fiction. Many of the actors/actresses
play themselves and the final footage of the film documents the actual
execution of the band of robbers “The Grey Automobile Gang.” Relying upon
Japanese Benshi-style narrators and a musician for interpretation, the Spanish
version of the play oscillates between two turn-of-the-century Mexico Cities.
Valdés Kuri insisted that I take “poetic liberties” throughout the translation
process. His attitude firmly established my position as the fourth Benshi of
the production. Walter Benjamin has written, “The task of the translator
consists in finding that intended effect upon the language into which s/he is
translating which produces in it the echo of the original.” Consistently, I
searched for visual and aural echoes in the forms and contents of my
translation. Perhaps the most challenging and rewarding moment of the process
occurred for me in the conflation of the task of the translator and the task of
the spectator/poet. For the climatic scene of the film, Valdés Kuri suggested
that I write a visual poem that would “translate” the emotions the characters
felt in the final hours before their execution. I chose to create a
motion-based poem, which not only is choreographed by the scene, but
codeswitches between Spanish and English. Graphic designer Dmitry Kmelnitsky
animated my efforts. Valdés Kuri and I plotted out the poem’s trajectory, even
as Kmelnitsky added his own poetic flourishes in terms of the text’s visuality.
The result exemplifies collaboration, approximating the spirit that propelled
the production. Click
here for more on the context of El automóvil gris/The Grey
Automobile.
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