Falen's Evegenii Onegin / khandra

[Deborah Hoffman]

I would also agree that this is not necessarily an
error.  Frequently translators must choose from betwee
several not entirely acceptable options, especially
when translating into English with its plethora of
synonyms, each of which calls to mind its own set of
associations and collocates well or poorly with other
words in a very opaque way.

For example, using "soul" for khandra may work
perfectly well given the particular context - which I
have not seen.  In another context, say a work by
Olesha perhaps it could be "spite," in a work about
Leonid Utesov perhaps "blues," in a work describing a
flighty or temperamental character perhaps "pique"
would work, in doing Sherlock Holmes even "spleen,"
which otherwise sounds archaic and odd, and makes one
think of Greeks.

Beyond that, in reproducing verse, Falen has to take
things like rhyme, assonance, consonance, not to
mention meter into consideration, all of which could
have made "soul" more desirable than other
alternatives.  Nabokov (I really should look this up
and see for myself what he did) would likely have
footnoted whatever choice he made, which interferes
with the flow of the text and any hope of reproducing
the original's effect on the original reader.  To cite
a cliche, things inevitably get lost in translation
and sometimes all you can do is decide which things
they are.
--Deborah


---------------------------------------------------
Date:    Fri, 6 May 2005 06:28:32 +0100
From:    Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Subject: Re: Translations of Pushkin, Tolstoy?

Dear Laura,

I agree entirely with your general praise of Falen.  I
just want to add
that
the line you quote is not an 'unfortunate translation
choice' in the
least.
It conveys Pushkin's meaning and tone very well.  I
appreciate that a
language teacher may find it irritating if students
end up thinking
that
'khandra' = 'soul' - but translators are NOT language
teachers!

Best Wishes,

Robert Chandler

> I just used Falen for the first time in a survey
course and found
that
> it was surprisingly accurate, given how well it
conveys the tone of
the
> original to non-Russian speakers.  One word of
warning: 1:38 contains
> the unfortunate translation choice of rendering
"koroche: russkaia
> khandra" as "We call it simply /Russian soul/."
Students read all
kinds
> of deep meanings into this, something which I plan
to forestall with
> advance warning next time around.
>
> Laura Goering
> Carleton College
>
> pjs wrote:
>
>> Anyone have any strong feelings about the Johnston
vs. the Falen
>> translation of E.O. for a survey course in
19th-century Russian
>> literature?  My sense (after a cursory inspection)
is that the
Johnston
>> hews more closely to the original while the Falen
"reads better."
Other
>> suggestions?
>>
>> How about _Death of Ivan Illich_?  Any suggestions
there? Anyone
seen the
>> Pasternak-Slater translation?
>>
>> Peter Scotto
>> Mount Holyoke College

Deborah Hoffman
Graduate Assistant
Kent State University
Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

http://www.personal.kent.edu/~dhoffma3/index.htm

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