Early start...

It was cold last night and I never did get warm. I felt I was tossing and turning all night long.

I woke up around 4:30, but didn't really acknowledge the fact until 5 or so. After letting Ming out, I went downstairs to start on the job for the referred direct client: 12 pages of fairly repetitive stuff, once I got the first "repetition" of text to the point where I was satisfied with it.

After nearly three hours (including a trip to the store to get Galina some oranges for her morning smoothie, as I'd juiced the last three while waiting for Ming to do his morning thing), I've got 9 pages finished. The remaining three pages contain much the same information, just rearranged somewhat.

The weather's been weird. Yesterday, it was pleasant to experience a 5-minute morning rain shower, which I thought then moved off toward the Weminuche wilderness.

Not so.

Actually, the rain was pretty evident along most of the way to Durango, and although it was clear while I was there, the precipitation started again on the way back. By the time I'd passed Bayfield or so, the rain had turned to a mixture of rain and snow. By the time I got home, it was snowing, and sticking slightly on the ground. Hopefully, that means another inch or two of snow on the mountain.

This, after a couple of days of spring-like weather. Go figure.

Time to go open the store and do the report.

Cheers...

Taking a break...

Things were going pretty slowly, there, and may go that way again... I don't know.

I finally got started on today's translation work around 1:45 pm, and by 3:30, I'd only translated about 160 segments. However, this kind of work is not linear. A number of the segments I translated today and yesterday repeat (either exactly or approximately), so there are a number of segments that are "done" for all intents and puposes... I just have to make sure they're correct before moving on.

In any event, things started to speed up as I went. From 5:00 to 5:30, I translated more than 150 segments. Go figure.

After two bowls of Galina's borscht, I decided to drive over to Drew's and take Huntur for another "round the block walk." It went well. During the home stretch of that walk, we stopped and tried to find some ducks to feed, but the birds in the lake across the street from the kids' apartment are wild, and would no sooner remain near people than they would voluntarily fly into a lit stove.

Anyway, I feel refreshed and rested, with 70% of today's self-imposed quota under my belt (210 segments to go!).

And so ends my two hour break.

Cheers...

Done for the day...

The rest of the day's quota went quickly, and I even managed to get a leg up on later work (I estimate about150 segments, but about 100 of those didn't involve translation, but consolidating material that doesn't get translated anyway, like section numbers).

I have to stop talking like this. I'm scaring myself.

In any event, I got some feedback on my SlavFile column (and on my response to the e-mail that arrived about my translation). To be frank, I've been so busy, I have yet to look at any of it. But it did remind me of that e-mail again, so I've decided to include it in my journal.

The e-mail I received said basically this:

"There is no question that Alex did an admirable job by managing to skillfully convey the feelings expressed in the Russian original. The problem is that the character singing this song is an uneducated peasant returning home on foot from the war, and the stylistics of the English translation are absolutely different from that of the Russian original, not to mention the fact that this character would never use Russian equivalents of 'my compliments', 'favor', 'passion', etc. As a result, what makes this song precious to native Russian speakers is mainly lost in the translation. Also, the letter mentioned by this character is from his beloved (he dreams of her and the viewer sees her a number of times through his eyes); therefore, I'll fall in love instead is outright incorrect."

My response was this:

Thanks for conveying X's note to me. It raises some interesting points and underscores the fact that few, if any, translations of a literary character can "connect" on all the many levels and shadings that one can identify in linguistic expression.

My goals in translating the lyrics were (a) to convey the feelings expressed in the Russian original, and (b) to do so in a way that the translated lyrics could actually be sung to the original music. In my opinion, any serious attempt to express the nuances X points out would be wiped out by the suspension of disbelief that is a prerequisite for enjoying any kind of entertaining tale.

I look forward to someday sitting down with X to discuss this, or any other points he may have, further (preferably, accompanied by a liquid libation and zakuska).

X made an interesting point, in that the language used in the song is certainly not that of a literary snob. I have enough of a feel for the language to detect that. And I must admit, I didn't really pay attention to replicating this aspect of the lyrics because it didn't occur to me.

On the other hand, if we take a look at the broader picture, the translation is not really all that far off (in fact, I still think it's pretty good, but I'm biased...).

Long-time readers of my journal will recall that I tried the "literal" translation of the Russian - "Your Honor" - in my first draft. However, since Americans have no recent history of addressing nobility by title, there is no real corresponding way of saying "Your Honor" and have it make sense in American English in the context of the poem. On the other hand, the formulation "convey my compliments" would be familiar to many former military types, as it is (or was) a common mode of expression among officers ("Orderly! Please convey my compliments to Lt. Smith and let him know I would like to see him in my office.")

While on the subject, I would maintain that words such as "favor" and "passion" would - presumably - be as easily comprehended by your average E-1, if for no other reason than because the former word is associated with gambling, and the latter, with pornography. (I say "presumably" because such a characterization proffers the stereotype of the average G.I. Joe as being marginally smarter than a chimpanzee and interested only in gambling and sex, which is a base canard.)

But all this is beside the point, because we're not talking about real life, here... we're talking about a story. It all boils down to this: If the singer is really illiterate, how the heck does he end up singing a song with professional-quality lyrics that just happen to reflect events in his recent past?

If we are to somehow mistake the movie for reality, then our hero really would have walked home singing Katyusha and we'd all have filed out of the theater without having missed a beat. (Sorry, for some reason, Semagic won't let me type in Cyrillic).

My mind is fried... Maybe I'll pick this up later. Maybe I won't.

Cheers...