THE FIRST TRANSLATION OF HAMLET INTO ROMANIAN BY IOAN BARAC (1776-1848)

Hamlet was one of the first Shakespeare’s plays that were introduced in Romania. The first attempts to translate his works into Romanian date back to the XIX^th century, and the Romanian translations were based on French Translations of the plays, given the strong cultural relationships with France and the fact that many scholars of the time knew French. Ioan Barac (1776-1848) was an Austrian translator and poet, born in Romania. He was one of the first to translate Hamlet into Romanian, working on Friedrich Ludwig Schröder’s German version of it. Ioan Barac’s interpretation of Hamlet in Romanian was written in the form of a manuscript, using the Cyrillic alphabet. In his version, Hamlet is presented as the flawless hero, as his growing wealth helps him defeat his cheating, murderous enemies. The denouement transforms him into a conqueror of fate, he surpasses all of the hardships and survives all of Fortuna’s trials, finally reaching his father’s throne. Aside from these changes, there are also certain parts that disappear. It seems like Barac continues to cut out and simplify his version not because he was forced by censorship or some theatrical purpose, but simply because  this was his way of working on a translation.