I had an email from a translation client a few weeks ago asking if I could translate an article from an old Czech magazine called Vesmír (“Space” in English) from 1965. I knew this translation was coming up because some time before that I had translated something for her and she asked me then if I would be interested in helping her out with a little job in the future. She just said it would be a Czech play. When the email came it turned out it was an extract from Vyrozumění by Václav Havel published in Vesmír some fifty years ago. The article was a plug for the play, I suppose, talking a little about the Prague theatre Na zábradlí rehearsing it and including a short passage. It was quite interesting so I thought I’d look it up and find out more about the play because I’d never heard of it. Lo and behold, I discovered that Vyrozumění had been translated into English! The English title is actually The Memorandum and the translator Paul Wilson.
To be honest or not to be honest, that is the question…
Ok…so an English translation of Vyrozumění already exists…hm, that makes things interesting. I had two options: I could tell my client that she can just go on Amazon and buy the whole book for less than I would charge her for the translation of the short article; or I could send her a quote and providing she accepted my price translate it for her. My problem is that I CAN’T LIE!!! Well, I probably can but I hate doing it, plus everyone can always tell I’m lying – I’m a rubbish actor. However, this was going to be done by email and she wouldn’t actually see my face so I might get away with it this time. A bit of a dilemma… On the one hand, I needed the money as I was trying to save up for a trip to CZ at Easter. On the other hand, I’m so stupidly honest that no matter how much I might have contemplated the two choices, I knew pretty much straightaway what I would do… Oh well, no money but a good feeling inside it is then. My client was extremely grateful for me telling her about the English translation of Vyrozumění and I knew that when she said that I would be her first point of contact if she had any more Czech translation jobs she meant it. So a kind of win-win situation in the end 🙂
The Memorandum by Václav Havel, English translation by Paul Wilson
I will admit that I decided not to buy the book for myself. I have grown out of Ionescian-style plays (is that the right form of the adjective??). I prefer a good laugh these days, a light-hearted comedy, nothing too serious, yep, that’s good enough for me. The Memorandum is obviously not one of those, that’s for sure. It might be a comedy of sorts but not the kind I would go for. It’s a parody on communist red tape of the era, which, by the way, seems to be surviving well into the democratic years, rooted deep down in Czech bureaucrats… So what’s this play like anyway? According to a reviewer on Amazon: “It’s the best political play I’ve read. A naturalistic comedy about the introduction of a new language into an organisation. Written by the president of Czechoslovakia. An Easy to read and short play. I have just performed this as part of a degree assessment, the audience really enjoyed the show.”
The Memorandum and “PTYDEPE”
Although I haven’t read the Memorandum I learned a new Czech word from reading about it! I wonder if you know it. It’s “ptydepe”. Very odd… Ptydepe is the name for the new official language used by the organisation in Vyrozumění (or Memorandum). It was scientifically created to make communication more precise and to eliminate any ambiguities. Here’s a short example in case you fancied learning it: “Ra ko hutu d dekotu ely trebomu emusohe, vdegar yd, stro reny er gryk kendy, alyv zvyde dezu, kvyndal fer teknu sely. Degto yl tre entvester kyleg gh: orka epyl y bodur depty-depe emete. Grojto af xedob yd, kyzem ner osonfterte ylem kho dent de det detrym gynfer bro enomuz fechtal agni laj kys defyj rokuroch bazuk suhelen…” No, I have no idea what it means…I wonder if Havel did, or his brother Ivan who apparently was the one that invented it. Today “ptydepe” is used to describe any type of nonsensical bureaucratic language that Czech clerks like using. We learn something new every day!
Anyway, to sum up, let’s hope my honesty pays off and I will hear from my client again 🙂
More Havel’s books below including his official Biography: Havel: A Life by Michael Žantovský are available on Amazon.UK.
1 Comment
I’m glad I know what Ptydepe means now – thank you. I don’t think that PTYDEPE is characteristic only for Czech bureaucrats, though. Recently we received a letter from HMRC written exactly in this “language”, its English version. So I would apply the term PTYDEPE to all bureaucrats all over the world. Perhaps Vaclav and Ivan Havel succeeded in creating an internationally recognised word like the Capek brothers did years ago with ROBOT 🙂