How Has Translation Transformed Shakespeare? With Daniel Hahn

In this episode of Intelligence Squared, host Maithili Rao interviews award-winning translator Daniel Hahn about his new book, If This Be Magic, The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. Hahn explores how Shakespeare’s works are continuously reimagined across languages and cultures through the lens of translators from Bangla, Hungarian, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, German, Swahili, Maori, French, Japanese, Chinese, and Danish. He challenges the notion that Shakespeare cannot be translated, arguing instead that translation is a vital, interpretive art that reveals the richness of language and culture. Drawing on personal family history—his great-grandfather’s 1933 Brazilian translation of Hamlet—Hahn illustrates how translation choices reflect both linguistic possibilities and cultural contexts. He highlights the creative challenges translators face, from preserving puns and rhythm to navigating archaic language and poetic effect, and emphasizes that translation is not about mere meaning transfer but about artistic expression and human sensibility. The conversation also touches on the role of AI in translation, with Hahn cautioning against its dehumanizing potential, arguing that the uniqueness of individual translators—like Natalia Ginsburg’s subtle influence on Gabriele Baldini’s work—cannot be replicated by machines. Ultimately, Hahn asserts that the value of translation lies in its humanity, its imperfections, and its ability to make Shakespeare resonate across time and space. The episode reveals that while audiences may not consciously notice the intricacies of translation, the translator’s craft shapes the emotional and dramatic impact of a performance. Hahn shares vivid examples, such as how a Danish translator replicated the shock of Shakespeare’s trochaic opening line in Hamlet, or how a Maori translator grappled with the weight of Lady Macbeth’s question, Are you a man? He also discusses Tim Supple’s multilingual Midsummer Night’s Dream, where actors performed in their native languages, creating a layered, inclusive experience that transcended linguistic barriers. Despite the challenges of translating Shakespeare into languages with different grammatical structures or poetic traditions, Hahn finds inspiration in the creative solutions translators devise. He concludes that translation is not about loss, but about transformation—each version of Shakespeare a new, living work that reflects the translator’s world, their language, and their soul.