What I do for my craft...

[alexpgp]

As I have noted several times before, the "weak side" of my Russian translation skills lies in that part of the culture that has little to do with aerospace or petroleum or engineering or computers.

So there I am, working away, when I run into the following sentence, and translate it:

Получалось совсем по Крылову: «Ты виноват уж тем, что хочется мне кушать».

Things were turning out absolutely according to Krylov: “What you’re to blame for is the fact that I want to eat."

I could, of course, have moved on from there, but it occurred to me that there might be a better, more literary translation. Krylov is, after all, a fairly well-known writer, perhaps best remembered for a series of fables told in verse.

I was able to find the fable from which the line came (The Wolf and the Lamb), and a number of miscellaneous translations in English, but then one thing led to another, and as I became caught up in the Russian verse itself, I started to translate the fable.

My first draft of the translation is posted below, and I've highlighted what I think is a better translation for the quoted line:

The Wolf and the Lamb

The weak do answer always to the strong:
In exemplars of this, our history is thick,
   But history is not our purpose, here;
A Fable serves to tell the tale, instead.

One too-hot day, a Lamb stops by a stream to get a drink,
   And of necessity, fall quarry to distress
As prowled those selfsame parts a hungry Wolf,
Who spies the Lamb, and rushes to his prize.
Yet to confer an air of sense and law upon his bent,
He shouts, “How dare you, rogue, to use your filthy mug
   To muddle unpolluted drinking water, mine,
   With silt and sand?
   Such impudence I must reward
   By tearing off your head!”
“Oh, Most Serene Sir Wolf, dare I
Bring notice of the fact I quench my thirst one hundred strides
Downstream, and thus the wrath
   Of Your Nobility is all for naught,
For I could not in any way disturb your drink with mud.”
    “You take me for a liar, then,
You worthless oaf! In all the world, I never heard of such a thing!
It’s almost like the time, two years ago, in summer
   You were uncivil, yes, right in this very spot!
   Don’t think I have forgotten that, young knave.”
    “Have mercy, sir, for I am not yet one year old,”
Cried out the Lamb. “So then it must have been your brother.”
"Of brothers I have none." - “A cousin, then. Whomever.”
In short, ‘twas someone of your ilk.
Yourself, your dogs, together with your shepherds,
   You wish me every kind of ill,
And undertake my end at every chance,
But your blood will do for now to cleanse their sins!”
“But what is it I’ve done?” – “Be silent, all this talk fatigues me.
I haven’t time to catalog your crimes!
I'm famished, and for that, the fault is yours!”
So said the Wolf, and dragged the Lamb away into the gloomy wood.

Cheers...

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

There's something about having a cold- which happens to me very rarely- that makes me want to eat. I think it is related to having your taste buds out of commission, your teeth ache from sinus trouble, and wanting to do SOMETHING to feel better. So today I have had a three piece french toast breakfast with raspberry syrup, two full-on meals of Korean bulgogi with vegies and vermacelli, and am contemplating a dinner from the freezer that may or may not be some kind of borscht. I may not get better, but at least I'll die happy!