Dictionaries on line

[Igor Silantev]

>From the point of teaching practice, an interesting and effective
solution of the problem of footnotes is to include them straight into
the main text. Dmitry Likhachev once used this method in making his
so called 'explanatory translation' (ob'iasnitel'nyj perevod) of the
Slovo o Polku Igoreve into the modern Russian (I hope that this
mention of the Slovo will not provoke one more discussion on its
origin). Large and detailed comments of historical and linguistic
character were included into the commented parts of the text. It was
'the common reader' for whom that translation was published in 1983,
in the mass Soviet series 'Classics and Contemporaries', but it turned
out to be a good teaching aid for students, especially for our first
year undergaduates who knew practically nothing about the epoch. Of
course, including notes (comments, 'glossy') into a primary text is
based on the tradition of medieval textuality, and Likhachev's
'explanatory translation' is probably an intentional reflection of it.
But this is truly a good method to hide footnotes from publishers
which are the same in their oddities and manias all over the world,
and even in Siberia.

Sincerely,
Igor Silantev

Novosibirsk State University
Pirogova 11, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
tel. +7 3832 397451; fax. +7 3832 303011
email silantev at sscadm.nsu.ru
web http://www.nsu.ru/ssc/siv/english



Edward M Dumanis wrote:
...translator's footnote/endnote is a very good tool to facilitate reading
without doing any adaptation.

Dear Edward,
I agree, more or less, on all points, especially on footnotes, an endangered
species. We should establish a Society for the Protection of the Footnote from
Ignorant and Rapacious Publishers. Modern publishers all hate footnotes and
claim, with no evidence at all, that they deter 'the common reader' from
reading. I see that almost all publishers in the US and UK now insist on
endnotes, if they let you have notes at all. Publishers in continental Europe
seem less hostile. Personally I regard the footnote as an essential in serious
scholarly writing and at its elegant best a minor literary genre and an
indispensible adjunct to gentlemanly literature.
Regards,
Will Ryan

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