Translations: Act 1 Summary & Analysis

It is an afternoon in late August of 1833 in the Irish-Speaking townland of Baile Bag/Balleybeg in County Donegal, Ireland. Manus and Sarah are in a hedge school situated in a dusty old barn, full of disused farm instruments alongside the students’ stools and benches and table for the school master.

Manus, the school master’s older son, is in his late twenties or early thirties with shabby clothes and an air of intensity. An aspiring teacher, he is also lame and works as an unpaid assistant for his father. At the moment he is teaching Sarah (who sits on a stool with a slate on her knees) how to speak. Sarah, who is waiflike and somewhere between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five, has a speech defect so severe that she communicates through gestures and grunts. In the corner reading Homer in ancient Greek is “the Infant Prodigy” Jimmy Jack Cassie, an unmarried man in his sixties who wears heavy clothing and attends evening classes for stimulation and company.

Manus holds Sarah’s hand as he calmly instructs her to repeat phrases after him. She is reluctant, but with Manus’ steady encouragement she is able to say, “my name is Sarah.” Both are joyous. Jimmy enthusiastically reads aloud from Homer in both Greek and English, telling the story of the goddess Athene transforming Odysseus into an old man. He jokes with Manus about his love for “flashing eyed” Athene.

Manus looks out the window and wonders aloud where “he” (someone yet unknown) is. Sarah mimes that the man is probably drinking at a pub following a baby’s christening. With the man out drinking, Manus prepares to teach the class himself; it is now clear he was talking about his father, the school master. As he prepares the materials for class, Jimmy continues to read aloud, alternating between ancient Greek and English, stopping once to ask Manus the proper translation of a phrase. Sarah shyly gives Manus a bunch of flowers that she had hidden in the barn before class. Manus gets Sarah to say the word “flowers,” then kisses the top of her head.

A “strong-minded, strong-bodied” woman in her twenties named Maire enters. Manus feels awkward that she saw him kissing Sarah and he comments on having seen Maire harvesting hay. Maire ignores him and sits on a stool next to Jimmy. The two converse briefly in Latin, before Maire comments that she is even worse in English, knowing only three words. She proceeds to say a memorized line of “English” aloud—"in Norfolk we besport ourselves around the maypoll”—though with an odd accent and without knowledge of the words she is saying. Maire continues to ignore Manus and asks Jimmy if he knows what the phrase means, but he responds that the only English word he knows is “bosom.”

Manus apologizes for not seeing Maire the previous night, saying he had been called upon to write a letter for a local woman. This woman dictated as Manus wrote, but she got so absorbed in her own story that she forgot who she was dictating to and insulted Manus and his father. This makes Maire laugh. She then notes that English soldiers will be coming to give her a hand with the hay, though she won’t understand a word they are saying.

Doalty and Bridget, two students in their twenties, enter noisily. Doalty carries a surveyor’s pole and does an imitation of the drunken school master. Doalty says that whenever the Red Coats put a surveyor pole down, he picks it up and moves it a few paces to confuse them and assert “a presence.” Jimmy recites Latin and Manus beats Doalty to translating it.

Everyone settles down for class, and Bridget asks if anyone knows the name of Nellie Ruadh’s baby, who was christened earlier that day. Manus asks where the Donnelly twins are, and Bridget begins to answer before commenting on the squeakiness of her slate. She practices writing while Doalty works on multiplication.

Manus walks around the school room to check in with each student. Upon reaching Maire, she says that the “passage money” came the previous night. She then tells Manus he needs to apply for a job at the national school that is soon opening, because it will put the hedge school out of business. He says he cannot apply because his father already has. Sarah is listening behind his shoulder.

Bridget off-handedly mentions soldiers making maps while talking about the “sweet smell,” indicating crop rot. Maire grows annoyed, asserting that the potatoes have never failed in Baile Beag. Talk returns to the new national school; the new laws say children must attend from the age of six until at least twelve, and that people don’t have to pay for anything except their books. This seems outrageous to Doalty. Bridget adds that all lessons will also be taught in English.

Manus’ father, Hugh—a large, dignified yet shabbily-dressed man—enters carrying a stick. He has clearly been drinking, though he does not appear drunk, and explains that he was celebrating following the christening of Nellie Ruadh’s baby. As Hugh speaks, he quizzes the room on the Latin and Greek etymological origins of certain words and phrases, such as “caerimonia nominationis”—which Maire correctly responds means “the ritual of naming.” Hugh also asks where the Donnelly twins are; after a brief pause, Bridget says they’re probably at “the turf” before changing the subject to how much she owes Hugh for lessons.

Hugh tells Manus to get him a cup of tea and then address the class. He says that on his “perambulations”—which Maire responds means his walk—he met Captain Lancey of the Royal Engineers. Lancey, who is in charge of surveying the area, told Hugh that some of his equipment and horses have gone astray. Lancey also said he speaks only English and was surprised the Baile Beag townspeople did not; Hugh responded that they could not properly express themselves in English.

As Hugh quizzes Bridget on Latin conjugations, Maire gets to her feet and asserts they should all be learning English. She says that the “Liberator” Daniel O’Connell called Irish a “barrier to modern progress,” and Maire agrees that it is far more useful than Greek or Latin—especially because she is going to America after the harvest. Hugh responds that he discussed the new national school with the local Justice of the Peace, who invited him to take it over when it opens and run it as he runs the hedge school.

Hugh’s younger son, Owen, enters. He is in his twenties, handsome, charming, and dressed like a city man. He enthusiastically greets everyone, remarking that even after six years nothing has changed. Owen confirms that he now owns multiple shops in Dublin and has six servants. He says he travelled from Dublin with Lieutenant Yolland, one of the sappers in charge of re-naming places in Baile Beag. He has also brought Captain Lancey, the British cartographer in charge of the area.

Before bringing the men in, Owen remarks to Sarah that she is a new face in the classroom. After a brief pause she responds with her name. Before letting the men in, Owen says he is now on their payroll. Sarah excitedly tells Manus that she “said it,” but he ignores her, too interested in his brother. Owen says he is acting as their interpreter.

Hugh has everyone frantically tidy the room. Manus approaches Maire and remarks that she should have told him she was definitely leaving Ireland. Maire responds that though Manus talked to her about getting married, he has no solid job nor home and refused to apply to work at the new school—and, as such, he now has nothing.

Owen returns with the two British soldiers: Captain Lancey, a middle-aged man who seems uneasy around foreigners, and the shy, gangling Lieutenant Yolland, who is in his late twenties or early thirties. Lancey bluntly asks Owen—whom he mistakenly calls “Roland”—if the Baile Beag residents speak any English. Lancey proceeds to address the group as if they were slow-witted children, over-enunciating as he explains that his job to create a map of the county. Owen tells Lancey to simply speak normally and let him translate.

Lancey says that the queen’s government is creating a new comprehensive map of Ireland, complete with topographic details, to provide the military with better information and for taxation purposes. Owen translates the gist of everything Lancey says, though he simplifies Lancey’s grandiose language and makes it more palatable to the Irish locals. Owen asks if the group wants to hear Yolland speak; Maire asks if Yolland has anything to say, which Owen translates to Yolland as “she’s dying to hear you.” Yolland stumbles over his words, saying he feels foolish for not knowing the language—which Owen translates as “he wants me to teach him Irish”—and that he has fallen in love with the country.

As the others mingle, Manus confronts Owen about mistranslating the soldiers’ words. Manus says that the undertaking sounds like a “military operation” and demands to know what is “incorrect” about their current place names. Owen responds that they will be “standardized,” which Manus understands to mean “changed into English.” Manus also asks if Owen will ever tell the soldiers that his name is, in fact, not Roland. Owen insists it does not really matter since he is the same man regardless of what he is called Manus watches as Owen confidently returns to the rest of the group, while Sarah stares at Manus.