Volkov and the Wizard of OZ -ACKNOWLEDGMENT

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Wed, 8 Nov 1995, ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN wrote:

> > 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.
>
>         Anna Rakityanskaya was gentler in her response to the above comments
> by Edward Dumanis than I would have been.  I do not know very much about
> Volkov (beyond what I reported in an earlier posting and what others have
> added), but I do happen to know Boris Zakhoder personally.  He is well
> respected both as a writer of original children's literature and as a
> translator.  Both aspects of his profession and art have won him
> appropriate "social status."  As a translator he often prefers the
> term _pereskaz_ to _perevod_, but that is probably justified in the case
> of someone who produces works that are sometimes better than the original
> --my judgment of his _Vinni-pukh_.

So, what?
Marshak certainly does not gain anything from my criticism of others
(along with your appreciaton, as well).  He has established his place by his
works.  However, I used his name to compare neither his works nor his
"social status" but his ethical standards with the ethical standards of
others.  It has nothing to do with Boris Zakhoder's achivements as a
writer.  I and many people I know value his mastership and enjoyed reading
his books.  I do not know him personally but he might be a very good
man.  However, it has nothing to do with maintaining certain standards.
In case of Volkov, I can blame the time he happened to live in Russia.
(As you know, it was popular there to consider Russia as the origin of
every invention).  In the case of Zakhoder, I consider it as following
the official Soviet ethical standards, maybe, just by inertia, but I do
not know.

  (After reading Zakhoder's text, I
> went back to Milne's, which I had either never read in childhood or had
> read and forgotten, and was very disappointed.)  Zakhoder's translation/
> _pereskaz_ of _Alice in Wonderland_ is perhaps not better than the
> original, but is, in my judgment, certainly no worse, with Russian
> wordplay corresponding to English wordplay (although not always in the
> exact same place in the text), and parodies of poems known to every
> Russian school child in place of Lewis Carroll's parodies of similar
> English poems.
>         Mr. Dumanis is certainly right to value Marshak, but Marshak
> gains nothing in stature from mean-spirited

Mean-spirited?  I would not characterize it as mean-spirited.  But if
your personal standards allow you not to acknowledge the work of others
when you use them, I wish you change them.
Federico Garcia Lorca wrote once a poem about an infidel wife.  When his
brother told him that a couple of lines he had used were from a folk
song that they had heard together, Lorca refused to beleive it.  He was
absolutely sure that he wrote them himself.  I would not criticize him
because he just did not suspect his borrowing.  However, I do criticize
those who knew when they used the works of others but did not
acknowledge it.

 criticism of other poets
> and translators.
>
>         Concerning Robert Orr's observation about _mokroe delo_:  the
> term is older than the KGB.  That phrase, or _mokraia rabota_ or
> _mokrota_, can be found in dictionaries of underworld slang from
> the beginning of this century.

You are right here, it has nothing to do with the KGB.

>
>                                 Bob Rothstein
>


Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>