Language of Love

Reading the scene between Maire and Yolland made me think of the story line in the movie Love, Actually, that follows Jamie (a British writer) and Aurelia (a Portugese house keeper). They don't speak a common language but develop a love over the course of the movie. They use pantomime and gestures to communicate but through something that goes beyond words, they are drawn to each other and fall in love.

When Jamie returns to England for the holidays, he learns Portuguese while Aurelia learns English (not knowing what the other was doing). He ends up proposing to her in broken Portuguese---



This may be a sappy, romantic, unrealistic story, but I love it- it's my favorite plot in the movie. And although communication is important to any relationship, I feel that just being in the same room with someone, just being quiet together is a time for bonding- you become comfortable with that person.

I'd like to believe that if Maire and Yolland could have lived happily ever after, they would have learned each other's languages and been able to communicate beyond place names.

The Setting

Having traveled to Ireland for 2 glorious weeks last May, I took thousands of pictures (literally). Here are just a few of the landscape to give you a better idea of the setting of the play.

A view from the plane as we descended onto the Emerald Isle.

The cliffs on Inis Mor

From the top of Blarney Castle

Along the coast of Inis Mor, the main island of the Aran Islands- its population is 900.

Along the coast in Galway

The spoken word

Tonight, I read the first act of Brian Friel's Translations. So did my fiance. We read it aloud by splitting up the roles, although at times we were talking to ourselves (like when Daniel was reading for Manus and Jimmy). It really made a difference in my understanding of the play. I had started reading it by myself but the scenes came to life when we were reading it out loud, putting in the inflections and stumbling over the Gaelic and Latin. Our translation was definitely an interesting one.

As the story progressed and Owen explained how the English would be renaming some areas and towns to make it "easier," I was reminded of a scene from P.S. I love you. Here's the clip- it's a terrible version of it, since someone was recording it in a movie theatre, but it's all I've got. About a minute and a half in, Holly (Hillary Swank) struggles with the name of an Irish town- a prime example of how things can get lost in translation!