Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Shakespeare in Singlish - Hamlet, Act 1

Act 1, Scene 1

Horatio accompanied the two watchmen Marcellus and Barnardo because they told him that they saw a ghost who looked just like the dead king and Horatio thought lightly of that. Just when the two watchmen were about to tell him the whole story, the Ghost appeared.

HORATIO
What art thou that usurp’st this time of night
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee, speak

(Translation)
Oui! Simi lang so late already come here?
somemore machiam wear until like our dead Denmark king going to war like that
Guan E Ye order you to speak!


But instead of answering him, the ghost walked away into the darkness. After the ghost has gone, Marcellus asked Horatio whether he knew why the country appeared to be in preparation of war. Horatio told him that after the dead King has slayed Fortinbras, the king of Norway, and conquered his land, Fortinbras' son, also known as Fortinbra, has now gathered his people to fight and take back his land.

Act 1, Scene 2

After King Hamlet's death, his brother Claudius has married his wife Gertrude. Having heard of the young Fortinbra assembling his men to fight against Denmark, Claudius wrote a letter to Fortinbra's old uncle, who was the present head of Norway, to advise him to stop his nephew. And so Claudius instructed Cornelius and Voltemand to send the letter.

At the same time, Polonius' son Laertes has asked Claudius' permission to return to France. After granting Laertes his wish, Claudius found Hamlet still in his melancholy state.

CLAUDIUS
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died today,
“This must be so.” We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father.

(Translation)
We all know all people will die what,
why you still take it to heart? Ti Gong will think you're wrong,
your dead father will think you're wrong, and even nature think you're wrong.
You cannot think is it?
All Lao Peh will die one what
Stop mourning your father because nin peh is your father now!


Knowing that Hamlet was intending to return to the university of Wittenberg, both Claudius and Gertrude tried to advise him to stay, which Hamlet agreed. Happily, Claudius and Gertrede went off to celebrate, leaving Hamlet alone.

HAMLET
Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

(Translation)
Sianz, if only my dirty flesh can melt away into a vapor.
If only God didn't say cannot commit suicide.
Tian ah! Do you know how sianz and meaningless my life has become?


HAMLET
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.

(Translation)
Only one month nia, even before she had broken in those shoes
that she wore to my father's funeral, crying so hard.
Walau eh! Even animals also will mourn its dead mate longer!
Some more go marry my uncle, my father's brother,
if he is like my father, then I Hercules liao!


Then Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo came over to visit Hamlet and tell him what they saw. Amazed, Hamlet decided to accompany them on watch for the night, hoping to see his father's ghost.

HAMLET
My father’s spirit in arms. All is not well.
I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.

(Translation)
My father's ghost come back and armed. Something not right.
I suspect must be some foul play. Walau! If only it is night already!
Until then, I must remain calm. Bad things will be revealed one,
no matter how hard people try to hide them.


Act 1, Scene 3

As Laertes packed his bags to leave, he bid his sister Ophelia farewell and warned her not to take Hamlet's affection for her too seriously. After all he belonged to the royal family and was not free to make his choices. After Laertes boarded his ship, Polonius chided Ophelia that he too noticed that she has been too close to Hamlet. Ophelia tried to assure Polonius that Hamlet and his vows were true to her but Polonius disagreed.

POLONIUS
For Lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him that he is young,
And with a larger tether may he walk
Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows

(Translation)
Hamlet is still young okay,
and not like you, he is free to fool around.
Aiyah, in short, don't believe him lah.


Act 1, Scene 4

Hamlet, Horatio and Marcelius stood watch by the night while the king and his men partied. And when Hamlet was grumbling about how all these celebration were giving the royalties bad names, the Ghost appeared.

HAMLET
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee “Hamlet,”
“King,” “Father,” “royal Dane.” O, answer me!

(Translation)
You look so weird but I want to talk to you.
I'll call you “Hamlet,”
“King,” “Father,” “royal Dane.” Oui! Answer me!


The Ghost then beckoned Hamlet to go one corner to talk. The men tried to stop Hamlet from going with the Ghost, thinking that it will harm him, but Hamlet still carried on.

Act 1, Scene 5

GHOST
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.

(Translation)
Wa si lim peh's ghost,
condemned to KLKK for some time at night
but trapped in the fires during the day
until I repay all my past sins.


Then the Ghost asked Hamlet to revenge his death.

GHOST
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forgèd process of my death
Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.

(Translation)
Everyone was told that when I was sleeping in my orchard,
I kana bitten by a poisonous snake.
Everyone in Denmark really thought this is how I died.
But of all people, my son you should know right?
That so called poisonous snake that stung your father
is now wearing his crown.


Furiously, the Ghost went on to complain how could his lustful wife marry his brother. But then the sun was coming out soon so the Ghost hurriedly told Hamlet how his uncle sneaked up on him while he was sleeping in the orchard and poured poison into his ear to kill him. Before he went away, he advised Hamlet that no matter how he make his revenge, do not harm his mother.

HAMLET
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.
It is “Adieu, adieu. Remember me.”
I have sworn ’t.

(Translation)
My notebook leh? - I better write this down
So someone can smile and smile and actually is a villain
At least I know in Denmark someone can do that.
So uncle, now is the time to deal with the vow I made to my father.
He said, “Remember me.” and I sweat I will.


It was then Horatio and Marcellus came over to check that Hamlet was okay. Hamlet did not tell them what the Ghost told him, but instead told them to keep secret of seeing the ghost. When the men were hesitant, the Ghost actually spoke up from nowhere and commanded them to sweat by Hamlet's sword.

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