[ 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

View post   
File: 123 KB, 274x184, Russian Literature.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13784698 No.13784698 [Reply] [Original]

In your opinion what are the best translations of Classic Russian novels? I read the Pevear, Volokhonsky version of Crime and Punishment for a class last year and it touched me like no other book has. I'm reading War and Peace right now. I made my first attempt with the Garnett version, but gave up because of how dull it got. I'm now reading the P+V version and it feels so much more alive and enjoyable. But, alas I've heard some people criticize the P+V translations heavily, I'm planning to read rest of Dostoevsky's novels after this and just wanted some opinions and discussion.

>> No.13784768

нe читaйтe пepeвoды, пoжaлyйcтa

>> No.13784786

>>13784768
I'm learning Russian, but it's going to be a while before I'm fluent enough to read War and Peace.

>> No.13784791

Read Oxford's Revised Maude for War and Peace and stop shilling your P&V shite, no, I won't read them

>> No.13784845

Just read samples for each book before you start

For Brothers Karamazov I used Avsey

Anna Karenina I used Bartlett

Crime and Punishment I'm using Ready

>> No.13785185

>>13784791
>P&V shite
>no, I won't read them
Fucking typical, strong options based on no knowledge of the subject.

>> No.13785195

>>13785185
I've read their War and Peace, it's fucking shite. The most pathetic awkward and clunky translation of War in Peace in English ever shat in the publishing industry.

>> No.13785203

>>13784698
Most people are going to read the classics multiple times so get multiple translations and try all of them.

>> No.13785206

>>13785195
Name a good translation then

>> No.13785211

>>13785195
That's not the consensus among people whose opinions I respect.

>> No.13785224

>>13785195
>awkward and clunky
There is an argument that that's because the writing is (deliberately) awkward and clunky in the original Russian and the P&V translation is just more faithful to that style.

>> No.13785260

>>13785206
Oxford's Revised Maude
>>13785211
Whoever they are they have shit opinions.
>>13785224
Giga cope.

>> No.13785349

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n10/michael-wood/crabby-prickly-bitter-harsh
An interesting review of the P&V translation which touches on why it's worthwhile to read more than one translation.

>> No.13785390

>reading translations instead of producing them

Lazy bastard

>> No.13785393

Most English novels from the 18th and early 19th century are clunky and awkward too.

>> No.13785551

>>13785260
Shut up fag, you've already admitted to not even having read the book so your opinion is worthless.

>> No.13785675

>>13784698
Best translator of Dostoevsky is somewhat debatable but it’s definitely not P&V. There is some nostalgia around Garnett because that is the translation many in the English speaking world first read, but I don’t think it’s really true to Dosto. I personally think McDuff is the best.

For Tolstoy it’s really much more simple. Maude is the best translation. There is a revised version, but I didn’t notice any really change even comparing them a little bit, the revisions must be few and far between.

P&V is a modern translation, so obviously it will be advertised and promoted, people want you to buy the new book, not a used copy of the Maude translation you found in a second hand bookstore. They can’t make money off that.

>> No.13785685

>>13785185
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/

>> No.13785689

The best way is to translate it yourself one word at a time using Google translate. It takes a while but it’s worth it.

>> No.13785749

>>13785685
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on religion, Judaism, and politics, as well as social and cultural issues.

Founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945 under the editorship of Elliot E. Cohen

>> No.13785793

>>13785689
i'd love to see someone actually try this and how confused they'd get because google translate is awful and routinely produces random nonsense.

>> No.13785879

>>13785793
>not trusting infallible computers over human translators

>> No.13785928

>>13785879
my favorite part of the infallible google machine is when it replaces words with other words at random. it used to be that machine translation would translate each word correctly but fail on idioms but now with muh machine learning you can't even rely on any of the words being correct because it's just something a black box shits out based on god knows what. i can't wait for it to cause an international incident because it decided to translate "your help is appreciated" as "your face is revolting".

>> No.13786128

>>13785928
When I was in Japan a few folk communicated with me via Google translate, it was actually surprisingly not that bad for short questions and answers.

>> No.13786650

>>13785928
Weirdest for me is when it translates currencies into other currencies, eg yen into dollars, or language names into other language names (so 'Norkse' becomes 'English'). Assuming it works by people 'correcting' its translations, who are the idiots feeding it this idiocy ?

>> No.13787706

>>13784768
> lack of capital letters
Opinion discarded.

>> No.13787780

>>13785685
Paastin more links.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/
http://www.thinkaloud.ru/feature/berdy-lan-PandV-e.html
https://www.librarything.com/topic/260074
https://readingroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/the-art-of-translation/#comment-206
http://languagehat.com/the-translation-wars/
http://languagehat.com/more-translation-wars/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/06/23/socks-translating-anna-karenina/
http://languagehat.com/janet-malcolm-vs-pv/
https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/why-i-dont-read-pevear-and-volokhonsky-vtranslations/
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-pevearvolokhonsky-hype-machine-and-how-it-could-have-been-stopped-or-at-least-slowed-down/

>>/lit/?task=search&ghost=&search_text=pevearsion

>>13786128
This is the most complex task for which it can be used with languages not closely related to English. Try translating some Japanese websites and see if they make any sense (without guessing things you've already absorbed from annie mays).

Most people don't understand that their opinion about quality of machine translation is formed by promotional and semi-promotional media stories.