Plate atlas The Map of Untranslatability

Atlas / Plate 10

Plate 10 · from English

The Sound and the Fury

The words “sound” and “fury” are easy. The title is a quotation. Leave the quotation out, and the idiot’s tale is no longer standing behind the book.

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929), citing Macbeth, act 5, scene 5: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Where the line breaks

ENParts
soundMacbeth’s noise
furyMacbeth’s rage
the citationMacbeth
ENSourceThe Sound and the Fury
soundSource
furySource
the citationSource
FR French Usual rendering Le Bruit et la Fureur
Bruit Arrives
Fureur Arrives
— Breaks Cultural reference

Usual rendering. The standard French title.

DE German Usual rendering Schall und Wahn
Schall Arrives
Wahn Breaks Connotation
— Breaks Cultural reference

Usual rendering. The standard German title.

ZH Chinese Published translation 喧哗与骚动
喧哗 Thins Connotation
骚动 Thins Connotation
— Breaks Cultural reference

Published translation. 李文俊’s title. The wording Chinese readers meet.

JA Japanese Usual rendering 響きと怒り
響き Thins Connotation
怒り Thins Connotation
— Breaks Cultural reference

Usual rendering. The usual Japanese title.

Text alternative

French “Le Bruit et la Fureur” (usual rendering): breaks: cultural reference. German “Schall und Wahn” (usual rendering): breaks: connotation. Chinese “喧哗与骚动” (published translation): breaks: cultural reference. Japanese “響きと怒り” (usual rendering): breaks: cultural reference.

sound Macbeth’s noise

The audible half of a quoted pair. In Macbeth it is already empty noise.

What happens to “sound” in each lane
LaneFormStatusBreakWhat happens
French Bruit Arrives — Noise. A fair word for Macbeth’s sound.
German Schall Arrives — Sound, reverberation. The noise arrives.
Chinese 喧哗 Thins Connotation Clamor, hubbub. Public noise, more social than Macbeth’s “sound.”
Japanese 響き Thins Connotation Echo, resonance. Nearer music than Macbeth’s empty noise.

fury Macbeth’s rage

Rage, not madness and not mere commotion. Paired with sound in the quotation.

What happens to “fury” in each lane
LaneFormStatusBreakWhat happens
French Fureur Arrives — Fury arrives.
German Wahn Breaks Connotation Wahn is delusion, madness. Fury is rage. The title has slid toward the novel’s theme of disordered mind, and off Macbeth’s word.
Chinese 骚动 Thins Connotation Commotion, turmoil. Not rage.
Japanese 怒り Thins Connotation Anger. Close to fury, a little more personal and a little less cosmic.

the citation Macbeth

The title is a cut from “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” The idiot, the tale, and the nothing are not in the title. They are what the title cites.

What happens to “the citation” in each lane
LaneFormStatusBreakWhat happens
French — Breaks Cultural reference A French reader is not handed Macbeth by the words alone. The quotation has to be recognized, or taught.
German — Breaks Cultural reference Even a reader who knows the English line may not hear it under Wahn.
Chinese — Breaks Cultural reference The surface is a mood of uproar. The idiot’s tale signifying nothing is not in the phrase.
Japanese — Breaks Cultural reference The quotation is not self-activating.

The joint

Faulkner’s title is already a translation, from the play into the novel. Macbeth’s line says the tale is told by an idiot and signifies nothing. The novel takes the idiot seriously, and still wants the nothing. A reader who hears the play hears that bargain. A reader who does not hear the play hears a mood.

French Le Bruit et la Fureur keeps the pair, noise and fury. The break is only the citation, which is the same break any reader without Macbeth would have in English too. German Schall und Wahn does something more: Wahn means delusion. The title now points at madness, which the book contains, and away from the word Shakespeare used. Chinese 喧哗与骚动 is clamor and commotion, a strong phrase, and a social one. Japanese 響きと怒り is resonance and anger, slightly inward, slightly musical.

None of these is a blunder. Each is a package that fits the target language’s way of naming an uproar. The thing that does not fit in the package is the play.

Why this break matters to a reader

The Benjy section is the idiot’s telling. A reader who has Macbeth in the title already knows the book is daring them to call that telling nothing. A reader of “clamor and commotion,” or of “sound and delusion,” meets a family falling apart, and only later, if a note tells them, the dare. The dare is part of the book’s meaning. It can be restored in a preface. It is not in the words 喧哗与骚动.