Pushkin, continued...

[alexpgp]

No sooner had I completed my slug of work on the big job than that itch - the compulsion that resulted in this post earlier today - made itself apparent again.

Here, then, is all of stanza 6, canto 1, of Eugene Onegin:

Латынь из моды вышла ныне:
Так, если правду вам сказать,
Он знал довольно по-латыни,
Чтоб эпиграфы разбирать,
Потолковать об Ювенале,
В конце письма поставить vale,
Да помнил, хоть не без греха,
Из Энеиды два стиха.
Он рыться не имел охоты
В хронологической пыли
Бытописания земли;
Но дней минувших анекдоты
От Ромула до наших дней
Хранил он в памяти своей.

My translation:

Now, Latin has from favor fallen,
And if the truth I were to tell,
He had sufficient stock of Latin
To translate witty sayings well;
To speak at length of Juvenal
And sign his messages with vale;
And though not perfectly, recall
Aenid verses - two in all.
He had no wish to go explore
Through chronological debris
And excavate life's potpourri;
But funny jokes from days of yore
From Romulus through history
Committed he to memory.

Yeah, I know, it's not exactly Pushkin and may set a new standard for "lost in translation," but the product is mine own, so I think it's shiny!

Anyway, dinner calls. This concludes my career as a translator of classical Russian literature, most certainly for now. Had this been a more complete translation, it likely would have been published and critically acclaimed. <grin>

Cheers...

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I think NOW is the time for a voice post! For the Russian, of course!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

There are, of course, different theories of poetry translation. Some people try as much as possible to imitate the form of the original, with slight alterations where necessary. A great example is The Ink Dark Moon (http://www.amazon.com/Ink-Dark-Moon-Komachi-Shikibu/dp/0679729585), wherein several translators translate ancient Japanese poetry.

Then again, there are those people who put their own stamp on it, such as Alexander Pope's translation of The Odyssey, which he converted into rhyming couplets (his favorite form).

We had to do some poetry translation for one of my graduate level classes in the MFA (Poetry) program. I did French, because it was the language I studied in high school and college. The most challenging thing for me was to capture both the meaning and the music.

In your translation above, it seems you've managed that.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

You make a good point. Indeed, Eugene Onegin would make a fine candidate as a poster child for the phenomenon. Vladimir Nabokov published his own translation, concentrating on reproducing the meaning of the words than on trying to make the result sound beautiful, to very mixed reviews.

I am reminded of his poem On Translating Eugene Onegin, which goes, in part,

Reflected words can only shiver,
Like elongated lights that twist,
In the black mirror of a river
Between the city and the mist.

Thanks for the compliment.

Cheers...

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

That's a very apt description of the process. Have you considered doing any book-length poetry translation projects? I believe there's a good market for it. Perhaps some modern Russian poets?