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/lit/ - Literature

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15045943 No.15045943 [Reply] [Original]

How do you pick a translation?

I'm trying to find a decent translation of pic related and apparently every translation is shit and the only way to properly enjoy it is to either kys or learn Russian. So how do you pick a translation for a book?

>> No.15045954

>>15045943
Just don't read Garnett and you'll be fine. Then when you reread you can worry about the translation

>> No.15045962

I pick them randomly because I don't expect to read good books just once.

>> No.15045967

>>15045954
Garnett seems to split people down the middle. Half say her Victorian style compliments the book whereas the others say she ruins it. Which is annoying since her version seems to be the most readily available

>> No.15046038

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/gary-morson/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/
Avoid P&V. You can look at Amazon previews and compare to other translations to see their stilted, awkward prose yourself.
Avsey, McDuff, (revised) Garnett all read fine to me.

>> No.15046048

>>15045954
>Garnett: I am a spiteful man
>Others: I am a wicked man
On this basis alone I refuse to read a non-Garnett translation of Notes.

>> No.15046049

>>15045943
just learn how to read Russian should not take more than a year and half

>> No.15046066

>>15046048
i thought they all said spiteful and only p&v said wicked

>> No.15046112

C&P and Brothers K have the best translations available, but you aren't wrong the others fucked it up there

>> No.15046313

I have really enjoyed the David McDuff translations of Dosto. I think he is Penguin Classics' go-to guy for Dosot.

>> No.15046416

>>15046038
>Avoid P&V
is there a unanimous consensus on this? i accidentally bought all p&v

>> No.15046542

McDuff is best.

>>15046416
Yeah, you fucked up.

>> No.15046550

>>15045943
None, Dostoievsky SUCKS.

>> No.15046556

The English translations are all fucking bad. I'd recommend looking into the French.

>> No.15046613
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15046613

this is a book that was hailed as a masterpiece by non-russian speakers on the first available translation - pedantic translation discussions are just that: pedantic

just read the fucking books

>> No.15046666

>>15046416
it’s a meme. don’t worry

>> No.15046758

>>15046048
based retard

>> No.15046890

>>15046038
That article is retarded, it’s clear Morson just had an ax to grind. P/V is the most literal which automatically makes them the best.

>> No.15046910
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15046910

>>15045943
It's simple, you look at various translations, and decide which one is best. What other fucking way can there be?

>> No.15046917

>>15046910
>that first paragraph in the p&v version
holy shit I cannot believe this was published

>> No.15046922

>>15046910
>Garnett version is unironically the best despite being published 100+ years before the others
This is fascinating, even the revised version reads like shit in many spots and totally lacks the cohesiveness and smoothness of the Garnett. I'd say McDuff is a close 2nd but the others are really quite crap.

>> No.15046979

>>15046416
i read P&V of crime and punishment and it was fine. loved the book.

>> No.15048045

>translations

>> No.15048057

>>15045943
Read the new Oliver Ready translation, anon.

>> No.15048099

>>15045943
I really hope you're the anon from yesterday who was told something like "Why ask for the translation if you aren't going to read it anyway?"

I hope you get your answer this time and still don't read it.

>> No.15048127

Penguin and oxford are usually fine only spergs care (aka look up the opinions of other spergs and base it on that instead of just trusting the fucking scholar who actually translated it)

>> No.15048374
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15048374

>>15048099
I'm not the anon from yesterday but that still made me laugh, so thank you.

>>15048127
That was my line of thinking. So I came to the spergs I trust the most.