The original or the French version?

Sometimes you don't have a choice on French TV, like on Monday evenings when the American series Castle is shown in the French version only. It is better on Tuesday evenings when Mentalist is shown in both French and English. But on Thursday evenings I get an overdosis of my maternal language: the Danish series Borgen is shown in French and of course Danish for three consecutive hours.

In the cinema you usually have the choice between the original ("vo") and the French ("vf") version, at least here in Paris, but you have to be careful when you choose the session. Thus I remember living in Caracas in 1995 and wanting to watch Forest Gump that had just won an Oscar. It was a terrible shock when Forest Gump opened his mouth and spoke in Spanish!

Nowadays you can order almost any book in the original (or English) version on the Internet, but I remember having to make a choice: read the book in the language of the country where I was living or not read it at all. Sometimes it is a difficult choice. Like when the Milennium triology came out. I managed to get the first volume in English whilst I was passing through a German airport on a business trip, but the next volumes were not being translated into English  until long after the French translation came out. Wait or not? I gave in and read the 2nd and 3rd volume in French. I could obviously have ordered the Swedish or Danish version, but then I would have run into another dilemma: do you buy a book in a language that only you can read, or do you opt for a version that your friends can read - which allows you to share the reading experience with somebody else? 

On Saturday evening I went to the theatre to watch a play that was part of the package that I had subscribed to. In advance I decided that I hated the play for the simple reason that it was the French version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Objectively the performance was good, and both George and especially Lennie played well, but John Steinbeck in French? Lennie keeps a souris in his pocket, and he dreams of having lapins on the farm that he would like to buy with George. You get the point?

Imagine listening to Shakespeare's Hamlet in French:

Etre, ou ne pas être : telle est la question.

Y a-t-il pour l’âme plus de noblesse à endurer

les coups et les revers d’une injurieuse fortune,

ou à s'armer contre elle pour mettre

frein à une marée de douleurs ? Mourir... dormir, c’est tout ;... 

Well, that is not so bad. Let's try the German version then:

Sein oder Nichtsein; das ist hier die Frage:
Obs edler im Gemüt, die Pfeil und Schleudern
Des wütenden Geschicks erdulden oder,
Sich waffnend gegen eine See von Plagen,
Durch Widerstand sie enden? Sterben – schlafen –

Ouch, that does not sound right.... Let's be honest, there is nothing like Shakespeare's own language:

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? To die: to sleep;

So please, give me the choice! Let Castle speak American, let Hamlet speak English, and let the prime minister of Denmark speak Danish!