Theatre
Julius Caesar
Juliohs Siza
Thomas Decker · 1964
Synopsis
Rome celebrates Caesar's triumphant return, and the common people mock the tribunes who want to break up the celebration; Cassius and other conspirators, who fear that he will accept the crown offered to him three times, win to their plot the honest Brutus, his friend, torn between affection and the republic, despite the omens, the soothsayer and Calpurnia's dreams. Shakespeare's tragedy is rendered entirely in Krio, from the conspirators to the common people.
Context
Krio passed for a degraded English: by choosing one of the most canonical texts there is, its translator wanted to prove that it could carry the gravest themes, and the play opened Shakespeare to an audience that had not received an English education. He later translated As You Like It, under the title Udat di kiap fit, and some sonnets. Critics have read his version as a meditation on Roman politics at the moment when the Sierra Leonean state was being born.
Who it is for
A translation into Krio of a well-known play. The interest lies in the linguistic demonstration itself.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the starting point of Krio theatre, the translation has been the subject of academic studies, including that by Tcho Mbaima Caulker in 2009.
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