The wild duck

A DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS
By HENRIK IBSEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY ELEANOR MARX AVELING
Copyright, 1890, by John W. Lovell Co.
BOSTON WALTER H. BAKER & CO.
“Vildanden” is perhaps the most difficult of all Ibsen’s prose dramas to translate. Some of the speeches of Gina and Relling are indeed quite untranslatable. The difficulty in the case of Gina is in respect to her frequent malapropisms, which, for the most part, turn on the mispronunciation of a word, or the use of a word which resembles in sound the one she wants. It is obvious that in the transference of such blunders of one language to another their exact significance can not be caught. Occasionally it has been possible, as when she says “divide” for “divert,” or calls the pistol “pigstol.” But these instances are rare, and more frequently Gina’s slips could only have been indicated by entirely changing her words. As I have aimed at making as literal a translation as possible I did not feel justified in so departing from the original.
ELEANOR MARX AVELING.
The first Act at Mr. Werle’s. The four other Acts at Ekdal, the photographer’s .
Pettersen ( lighting a lamp on the mantel-piece, and placing a shade upon it ). Just listen, Jensen; there’s the old chap standing up by the table and proposing to Mrs. Sorby’s health in a long speech.
Jensen ( bringing down an arm-chair ). Is there any truth in what people say, that there’s something between them?
Pettersen. Goodness knows!
Jensen. For he’s been a great rake in his time.