Is there a good modern English translation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (act 2 scene 2)?

Answer

The question is what is ‘good’ or ‘modern’.

Just take the name of one of the two title characters: a Dutch Julie or an English Juliet? Or a more Italian sounding ‘Julia’? In Italian it’s Giulietta, not Giulia…

There are, however, many high-quality translations of the play into Dutch. In 1988, with ‘Shakespeare in the Netherlands’, Robert Leek presented a historical overview of four centuries of translation work: more than 60 translators, and a multitude of translations. Since then, more have been added, especially with the 2014 Shakespeare year.

So there is no definitive translation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but I will give an overview of the most important and modern. Some are more faithful to the English source texts, some are more rhythmic and rhyming and therefore playable, some are more intelligible to a contemporary audience.

• 1776-1910: Historical translations
  • Pieter Johannes Uylenbroeck made a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in 1776 based on a French translation.
  • Jacop van Lennep, 1852, the first widely played translation.
  • Leendert Burgersdijk made a translation in 1886, which was regarded as the norm for just under a century.
  • Jacobus van Looij made a new translation in 1910.
• 1963-present: faithful translations
  • Cees Buddingh published a ‘retranslation’ in 1963 in which he not only worked directly from the folio edition, but also admitted to using Burgersdijk’s translation.
  • Willy Courteaux translated the play in 1965, later republished in his collection of Shakespeare’s Collected Works (1967, with many reissues including a revised 2007 and a fine reprint last year).
  • Jan Jonk made a translation that is much more faithful to the first Folio, but it has not yet been published, except for the first act on his website www.janjonk.nl state.
  • Peter Verstegen is also said to have made a translation, but could not find a publisher or cultural fund for it.
• 1987-present: free stage adaptations
  • Hugo Claus made a beautiful but free translation in 1987
  • A year later (1988) Gerrit Komrij followed with a version that was also released as a radio play on a double CD in 2008.
  • And well ten years later (1999) that other author-translator Peter Verhelst made a free stage adaptation that even got a new subtitle: (study of a drowning body).
  • Frank Albers made a new, playable translation in 2009 for the National Theater in The Hague, and on his weblog (www.frankalbers.blogspot.com) also explains how the translation work went.
  • Jack Nieborg, a Shakespearean director, will perform this year with his company Romeo and Juliet in his own translation, which will probably also be published later this year via www.shakespearetheaterdiever.nl

None of the above works are freely available on the internet, but luckily most of the better libraries (for as long as they exist…) have some version of Buddingh, Courteaux or Komrij in-house. These are classics, written in contemporary Dutch, and fairly faithful to the sources.