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As You Like It = Όπως αγαπάτε / Όπως σας αρέσει

nickel

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Εδώ και πολλά χρόνια αναρωτιέμαι τι ακριβώς σημαίνει ο τίτλος της σεξπιρικής κωμωδίας As You Like It. Τον προβληματισμό πρέπει να τον πέρασαν ο Ρώτας και ο Μπελιές, αφού ο πρώτος μεταφράζει Όπως αγαπάτε και ο δεύτερος Όπως σας αρέσει. Αποφάσισα να το ψάξω, αφού η έκφραση δεν υπάρχει κάπου μέσα στο κείμενο του έργου και δεν είναι καμιά καθιερωμένη έκφραση, δεν είναι π.χ. το as you like ή το as you please.

Μετά από λίγο ψάξιμο, θεωρώ ότι το παρακάτω κείμενο δίνει την πιο σφαιρική παρουσίαση της απάντησης:

And this reminds me of the dispute as to the origin and significance of the title of the play. It may have been suggested, as some have supposed, by the preface to Lodge's novel of Rosalynde, to which the poet was indebted for his plot. Lodge says to his readers concerning the novel, "If you like it, so," -- that is, "so be it," or "well and good." The German critic Tieck fancied that the title was meant as a reply to Ben Jonson's criticisms on the loose and irregular style of Shakespeare's comedy. Ben was a scholar, and believed in the classical rules for dramatic composition. The free-and-easy methods of his brother playwright were rank heterodoxy in his eyes, and he could not help sometimes expressing his righteous horror at them. In the preface to Cynthia's Revels he had said of his own play, "'T is good, and if you like it you may;" and Tieck believed that this suggested to Shakespeare the title for As You Like It; as if he had said, "Well, here is another of my careless comedies: take it as you like it." But it does not seem to me at all probable that Shakespeare would select the name for a play solely or mainly to indulge in a little hit at another author--and a hit that would not be readily understood without an explanation.

Whatever may have suggested the title--and, as I have said, it may have been Lodge's preface--I have no doubt that it was adopted as fitly expressing the tone and temper of the play. This is the view of another German critic, Ulrici, who, in summing up his argument, says: "In fact all [the characters] do exactly what and as they please.... Each looks upon and shapes life as it pleases him or her.... It is the poetic reflex of a life as you like it, light and smooth in its flow, unencumbered by serious tasks, free from the fetters of definite objects and from intentions difficult to execute; an amusing play of caprice, of imagination, and of wavering sensations and feelings."

Οπότε, πλέον, και οι δύο αποδόσεις μού φαίνονται ταιριαστές, και θα μπορούσαμε να σκεφτούμε κι άλλες.
 
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