translators of Tsvetaeva

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear June,

This is my list of translations that are worth reading:

A Captive Spirit: Selected Prose. by J. Marina Tsvetaeva, J. Marin King.
Lebedinyi Stan/The Demesne of the Swans. by Marina Tsvetaeva, Robin  
Kemball. (Kemball's translation is excellent)
Marina Tsvetaeva's "After Russia" (1992) - by Michael Nydan: these  
translations are not poetic but they are good for understanding  
Tsvetaeva's semantic games and formal devices.
Markov, Vladimir and Merrill Sparks, eds. Modern Russian Poetry.  New  
York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. (this volume contains a few poems by  
Tsvetaeva that are very well rendered into English).
Art in the Light of Conscience, Eight Essays on Poetry by Marina  
Tsvetaeva, translated with Introduction and Notes, Bristol Classical  
Press, 1992 (214pp).
The Ratcatcher, a Lyrical Satire  by MarinaTsvetaeva (poem of 2000  
lines), translated into English verse, with Introduction and Notes,  
Angel Books, London, 1999.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen Alyssa Dinega's translations but I'm  
sure that they are very good: one can see in  her book on Tsvetaeva a  
distinct poetic trait...
Catriona Kelly's translation of one of Tsvetaeva's long poem (I think  
it's Poema lestnitsy) included into her anthology of women's writing  
in Russia is good, too.

PS. I've tried to translate a few poems, too, but of course it's  
extremely difficult  to render Tsvetaeva into another language, so I'm  
not happy with them but it was an attempt to reproduce Tsvetaeva's  
intonation more than anything else ... (5 of my translations are  
located here, including the translation of her last poem dedicated to  
Tarkovsky: http://ars-interpres-2.nm.ru/m_ts_an_2.html)
E. Feinstein's poems contain a lot of errors but funnily enough some  
poems capture Tsvetaeva's spirit well and English students like them...


All very best,
Alexandra

=====================================
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk




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