Ball, Stone, Ball: Interlingual, Intramodal And Intersemiotic Translation Between And From A Work Of Creative Sign Language

Abstract

This article analyses translations of a poetic narrative from American Sign Language (ASL) to a humorous narrative in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and, finally, from Libras into a signed dramatic theatrical sketch. It addresses the relatively unexplored area of intramodal sign language translations, considering the changes that occur in an interlingual translation of a text in highly creative sign language and the adaptations made as the genre shifts in an Intersemiotic Translation to a dramatic theatrical text that is almost non-verbal. We analysed a narrative poem “Ball Story” in ASL by Ben Bahan (a highly poetic text), a translation of it by Sandro Pereira (a mainly humorous text) and an adaptation for a theatrical sketch by undergraduate students studying sign language literature (visual theatre).  It was observed that, despite some minor differences, the same content was presented in the translations into different genres, the poetic version being more performative in terms of declamation, the humorous version manipulating sign parameters, incorporation and intensity and the dramatic translation using cinematic aspects which draw upon but do not make use of the language system. The findings extend our understanding of the structure of creative signed texts and the possibilities for their translation.