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/lit/ - Literature

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6029496 No.6029496 [Reply] [Original]

which is the best translation

>> No.6029509

David Magarschack

>> No.6029513

>>6029496
>translation

>> No.6029539

LEARN RUSSIAN, OR DO NOT READ IT AT ALL.

>> No.6029541

>>6029539
You aren't the real rei, there's no tumblr link in your name, fuck off.

>> No.6029552
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6029552

>>6029541

>> No.6029611

>>6029496
I like the mcduff translations tbh

>> No.6029612
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6029612

I read the Ronald Wilks translation and I thought it was great.

You can compare the major translations here: http://comparetranslations.com/index.php?page=2&id=241

>> No.6029651

>>6029496
Nabokov's translation. Most famous translation is the P & V one, but it's full of gaffes, slip-ups, and shitty Bowdlerisms; in parts it seems like they literally just transcribed it from Russian to English using a Russian-to-English dictionary, whereas Nabokov was a fantastic writer in both English and Russian and grew up speaking and writing both.

P&V
>I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts. However, I don't know a fig about my sickness, and am not sure what it is that hurts me. I am not being treated and never have been, though I respect medicine and doctors. What’s more, I am also superstitious in the extreme; well, at least enough to respect medicine.

Nabokov
>The reader may wish to know, before we embark on this story, that I am a sick, wicked, unattractive man with a diseased liver. Of course, I've never been medicinally minded, so this statement may not even be true, but I am superstitionally minded: I respect the medicine-men in much the same way an old native of the Tooru tribe may have respected his shaman . . .

The only drawback is that halfway through the book he inserts a short note explaining that Dostoevski is a bad writer, therefore he's going to completely rewrite the story using his own words without even caring about Dostoevski's original intentions, the he gets into some weird overly flowery plot where The Underground Man starts talking to the ghost of Hamlet.

>> No.6029694

>>6029651
Jesus christ, really? Nabokov really is insufferable.

>> No.6029701

>>6029651
lmao

more posts like this /lit/ please

>> No.6029703

>>6029694
In the words of the equally insufferable James Joyce

>Kékkek Kékkek Kékkek Kékkek!

>> No.6030189

>>6029703
I've been rused, haven't I? The Nabokov meme strikes again.

>> No.6030198

>>6029651
how borgesian of you. wonderful invention. i love you

>> No.6030229

>>6029651
9.5/10

>> No.6030242

there are so many conflicting responses here. Is there a consensus?

>> No.6030282

>>6030242
No. The Dostoyevsky translation comparison topic comes up often, and there's never a consensus here, nor elsewhere as far as I can tell.

Mostly because it's rare for anyone to actually be able to contribute. Anyone on this board who tells you they are fluent in russian, read the original, and have also read all or even most of the english translations is a liar, and anyone who hasn't won't have a particularly helpful contribution. The best you're going to get is a couple of people who read part way through one translation, didn't like it, and then tried another that worked better for them. All other opinions and asessments you find here are secondhand and unlikely to be from anywhere authorative.

>> No.6030308

>>6030242
Learn Russian.

>> No.6030324

>>6030308
how

>> No.6030334

>>6030324
Start with the Greeks.

>> No.6030353

>>6030324
Pirate Rosetta, read russian YA lit and news websites. Once you're fluent in russian start learning Ancient Greek because you shouldn't be reading Dostoyevsky until you've started with the Greeks.

>> No.6030389

>>6030334
>>6030353
holy shit Greekmind. is /lit/ just a big meme now or

>> No.6030395

>>6030389
that start with the greeks has been a meme for a while

>> No.6030411

>>6030389
No, it's just that the "must read in the original language" meme is the second biggest, so using /lit/'s biggest meme to signal the fact that you should stop taking the advice seriously is a pretty natural reaction.

People start saying "start with the greeks" whenever anyone asks what ridiculous prepwork they should do first because famous books intimidate them as much as men who dress like Freud.

>> No.6032192

THE single most important consideration here is how the word злой from the very beginning of the book ('I am a sick man/I am a *злой* man') is treated. Is the Underground Man 'evil'? 'Spiteful'? 'Wicked'? Something else? The translation of this word is an immediate commentary on the character of the Underground Man and the focus of his pathology, whether it be spiritual, moral, psychological, etc.

This issue is discussed in the Intro of the pic related translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky (actually by Pevear, the one who insists on not learning Russian). Their translation seeks to emphasize the moral dimension over the psychological. As they usually do, P&V get this major decision completely wrong.

Summary: Look at the beginning of the book. If you see the word 'spiteful' as the second adjective the UM uses to describe himself, you're better off than if you see 'wicked' or 'evil'.

>> No.6032209

>>6029651
well, my edition actually had at the end the Nabokov's essay where he shits on this book

>> No.6032282

I read the old Constance Garnett translation and really enjoyed it even. Most of them are good, I don't think you can go wrong as long as you stay away from P&V translation which is awful like everything they do. Those fuckers damn near ruined Master and Margarita for me.