English is my mother tongue but I have lived most of my life in France. Recently, I went to see a new production of Shakespeare’s Richard III in French. For the first time in my life I realised I could actually undertsand every word.
Okay, so here’s the big question : Is Shakespeare simply better in translation?

J’ai vu récemment une nouvelle production de Richard III de Wiliiam Shakespeare en français.
Quelque part pendant la représentation de cette pièce, que j’avais déjà lue et vue sur scène à plusieurs reprises, j’ai pris conscience que, peut-être pour la première fois, je pouvais tout entendre, tout comprendre de ce qui se jouait devant mes yeux et à portée de mes oreilles. Ce fut une véritable révélation.
Est-ce que Shakespeare est amélioré par la traduction?

Believing you won’t understand something can be an obstacle to even trying. Why didn’t I feel that as I followed Richard III’s opening monologue in a new production of this famous Shakespeare play in French ?
Perhaps because, when you are in a theatre, you are drawn into a more-than-verbal situation. You are held in a room by a character, eye to eye, who wants you to understand what s/he is going through by any means necessary. Unless Shakespeare is simply better in translation?

To use or not to use ChatGBT : that is the question for a connected world to answer.
Here is a report from the Subjective Classroom which looks at precisely this, but in a way that turns the tables on the usual interaction with the AI robot. This report gives you Marvin Gaye, Roman Jakobson and ChatGBT all in the same text. Huh? Yes, that is what you read, and there are more surprises waiting for you.
Welcome to intralingual translation in the age of artificial intelligence with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” as the original soundtrack.