Types of Translations

The first time is saw the title of Brian Friel's work I didn't fully understand the depth behind it. I was busy on Amazon.com trying to hunt down book after book, and to me it was simply just another title on a long list of works that I was excited to read for the upcoming school year. It wasn't til today in class that I realized that versatility of the title. What exactly is a translation? When people hear the word, they tend to groan thinking about confusing language classes they were forced into during high school. But translations in communication have more to do than just language, and this is evident through the play. The translations aren't only from language to language (english to irish), but also through the different characters' motions, intentions, tone, personality, and intelligence. The play's purpose is to show that when people communicate more is being translated than just words. Sometimes the misunderstandings aren't through a lack of understanding the language, but a lack of understanding the person. A person's identity can be a language itself, and for there are many ideas/actions/likes/thoughts/ that we posses that others do not comprehend. In order to fully communicate with another individual, we as humans must take the time to understand that individual, because when we understand them, then we are speaking the same language.