[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]

2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

File: 28 KB, 820x461, B67EA7B6-50B9-44BD-A60D-2EAF136F5AB0.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

13993501

Translation Questions Anonymous Mon Oct 14 17:39:28 2019 No.13993501 [Reply] [Original]

Hey everybody - I’ve got some translated (yeah yeah) books by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky and I was wondering if anyone could let me know which translators/versions are preferred or considered the best of the bunch. I’ve picked these up over the past couple years (for cheap/without taking into account the translator) and finally want to dive in to these two authors.
Dostoyevsky
>The Brothers Karamazov - Garnett
>Crime And Punishment - Monas (this is the only one I have already read and I loved it, although I was in high school at the time)
>The Idiots - Garnett
>Notes From Underground (and other selected stories) (Signet version, not sure who translated this one)
>The Possessed - MacAndrew
Tolstoy
>Anna Karenina - Carmichael
>The Death Of Ivan Ilyich - Solotaroff
>War And Peace - Edmonds
Any help is very much appreciated

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 17:42:06 2019 No.13993515 >>13993501 Overall, you did alright, lad. Stay way from P&V and avoid them like the plague. They're cancer.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 17:44:25 2019 No.13993534 >>13993515 Interesting - my brief google search had me thinking that not having the P&V versions meant I was missing out. Good to know.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 17:50:33 2019 No.13993578 >>13993515 >They're cancer. please qualify

>>

Anonymous Mon Oct 14 17:56:12 2019 No.13993624

>>13993501
Yeah, these are all good. My personal favorite translations are:
>Ready's C&P
>Avsey's Karamazov / Idiot
>Garnett's Anna Karenina (revised by Kent/Berberova)

>>13993578
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:27:15 2019 No.13993835 P&V GANG

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:28:33 2019 No.13993843 >>13993578 They're fine. /lit is filled with contrarians, so they won't like them. Any translation is fine as long as you read the book.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:29:16 2019 No.13993850 File: 314 KB, 500x324, 1344809316352.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>13993843 >Any translation is fine

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:29:55 2019 No.13993858 >>13993850 Grow up

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:37:48 2019 No.13993910 >>13993858 He's right. P&V aren't "cancer" though. They just prefer literal accuracy over elegant language, which is a valid translation paradigm. Cancer is like Wilson's Odyssey

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:43:16 2019 No.13993952 >>13993534 Nah, quite the opposite, lad. You did great. P&V are literally cancer that only plebbitors and women like. Their translations are Google Translate tier and perhaps even worse.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:45:31 2019 No.13993966 >>13993910 Alright fair enough. That translation should never be read.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 18:59:31 2019 No.13994056 File: 878 KB, 2048x1536, 438AA984-DE21-4B65-AE45-43DD807318B0.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 21:56:19 2019 No.13995101 >>13993910 >P&V aren't "cancer" Calling them "cancer" is hyperbolic, it's much more accurate to say that their translations are subpar because better translations exist for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 21:58:52 2019 No.13995112 >>13995101 Who for Tolstoy? War and peace and Anna Karenina specifically

>>

Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:07:39 2019 No.13995154
File: 34 KB, 395x600, 9780199536061_p0_v1_s1200x630.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>13995112
>War and Peace
Louise and Aylmer Maude

>Anna Karenina
Rosamund Bartlett or Maude

Basically just read the Oxford World's Classics editions of those books and you'll be fine.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:10:09 2019 No.13995164 >>13995154 and for Dostoevsky?

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:12:18 2019 No.13995176 >>13995154 also, these are the canonical translations since Tolstoy himself approved of them.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:18:06 2019 No.13995201 >>13995176 How did Tolstoy approve of translations that weren't published until years after his death?

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:21:16 2019 No.13995218 >>13995201 WB Dostoevsky?

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:27:14 2019 No.13995238 >>13995201 The Maudes were buddies with Tolstoy and he personally approved of the work in progress.

>>

Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:29:31 2019 No.13995245
File: 85 KB, 652x1000, Crime-and-Punishment-cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>13993501
>The Brothers Karamazov
David McDuff or Ignat Avsey

>Crime and Punishment
David McDuff or Jessie Coulson

>The Idiot
David McDuff or Alan Myers

>Notes from Underground
Jessie Coulson or Michael Katz

>The Possessed
Michael Katz

>>

Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:36:37 2019 No.13995277

>>13993515
Oh get fucked. P & V are "convoluted" and "inelegant" because they translate a slavic language into english with a slavic paradigm. Given /lit/'s boner for literalism we should be supporting them as we will never know Dosty in the russian form.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 22:40:18 2019 No.13995293 >>13995277 Wach your language. Your fetish translations don't stand on their own, they're Google Translate tier and hardly even literature.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 23:33:50 2019 No.13995507 Ahh, a translation thread with some heated arguments? And how many of you can utter a sentence in Russian? If you cannot do that, how the fuck can you pretend to judge translations?

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 14 23:35:03 2019 No.13995514 >>13995507 You don't have to speak Russian in order to read it.