Volkov and the Wizard of OZ -ACKNOWLEDGMENT

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Tue, 7 Nov 1995, David W. Mayberry wrote:

> Another interesting set of works with the same sort of genesis is the Russian
> translation/reworking of A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories  (Vinni Pukh, of
> course, in Russian.)  My wife, who is Russian, kept assuring me that Vinni was
> an original Russian work, and when she saw the Disney film (whose artwork is
> based upon the illustrations published in Milne's collections), she laughed at
> how poorly the Americans had copied the Russian cartoon series, in which Vinni
> looks quite different.  I cannot remember offhand who translated/rewrote the
> Russian version, but the forward accompanying the publications I have
> seen  also
> speaks of the author's intent to write *po motivam Milna*.  Of course,
> it feels
> like a word-for -word translation to me, although a very adept one.
> David Mayberry
> mayberry at ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
>

S. Ya. Marshak much more deserved to claim his translations of Robert
Burns as his poetry; nevertheless he did not do it. I am sure that he
would feel uncomfortable doing that.  So, those in Russia who love poetry
can proclaim their love of Robert Burns even they do not read English
(never mind, Scottish).  Meanwhile, some others (like Volkov and
Zakhoder) do not have this ethics, and are more concerned not to diminish
their social status.  They rather prefer to be called writers than
translators.  I do not mind if they do this.  However, it is wrong to keep
silence about their sources.  Moreover, as one can see from above,
it spreads ignorance.  By the way, Aleksey Tolstoy's "Buratino" was
inspired by Collodi's "Pinocchio" and in spite of that only the idea
and few episodes were borrowed, it cannot justify complete silence about
the original work.

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>