Five play translations by Professor Gary Racz of the Department of English, Philosophy and Languages have appeared in The Golden Age of Spanish Drama: A Norton Critical Edition, edited by UCLA’s Barbara Fuchs: The Siege of Numantia by Miguel de Cervantes; Fuenteovejuna and The Dog in the Manger, both by Félix Lope de Vega; Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Trials of a Noble House by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Earlier versions of Fuenteovejuna and Life Is a Dream were published in The Norton Anthology of Drama, Vol. I (2009). Life Is a Dream first appeared in the Penguin Classics Series in 2006. Fuenteovejuna was similarly published as a stand-alone volume by Yale University Press’s Margellos World Republic of Letters Books in 2010 and was reprinted in The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Vol. C, in 2012.
To date, Life Is a Dream has received six stagings: at LIU Brooklyn’s Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts in 2007; by The Spanish Duke Company at Duke University’s Duke Theater in 2008; by A Festival of Fools in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, in 2010; at Brigham Young University—Idaho’s Snow Black Box Theatre in 2011; at Hampden-Sydney College’s John Auditorium in 2013, and at Elmhurst College’s Mill Theatre in 2018. Fuenteovejuna was performed as the M.F.A. production by Rogue Shakespeare of Mary Baldwin College at the Blackfriars Playhouse in 2014. The Siege of Numantia, The Dog in the Manger, and Trials of a Noble House await their premieres in these new translations. By way of preview, here is Segismund, the newly freed heir apparent to the throne of Poland, addressing Rosaura, a lady-in-waiting to Stella, in Act II, scene vii, ll. 1593-1617 of Life Is a Dream:
No, say you are the sun, in whose domain
Of fire the stellar bides,
For Stella basks in rays your light provides.
In all the fragrant realm
Of flowers, there’s but one goddess at the helm,
The rose, whom others call
Their empress, being loveliest of all.
I’ve seen the finest stones
Extracted from the earth’s profoundest zones
Revere the diamond’s shine,
Their emperor as brightest in the mine.
At lush courts in the sky
Where stars from teetering republics vie,
I’ve seen fair Venus reign
As queen of all that vast and starred demesne.
Mid perfect spheres I’ve seen
The sun rule lesser orbs, which he’d convene
At court, where he holds sway,
Presiding as the oracle of day.
How could a case arise,
Then, where the planets, stones, and flowers prize
Great beauty, yet yours serves
A lady far less fair? Your charm deserves
More praise than hers bestows,
Oh bright sun, Venus, diamond, star, and rose!
