Translating TY-VY; pre-glasnost literary realism

[Kim Braithwaite]

I'd like to request anyone's expert input, not terribly urgent, on two topics. I will be grateful for communication via seelangs or to me personally at kbtrans at cox.net:

 

(1) When translating a short story or a novel, what are some good ways to convey in English the subtleties of familiarity/affection (or over-familiarity or disdain) as expressed by the various uses of ty/tebya..., versus respect/formality (or obsequiousness), as expressed by vy/vas...? I realize that the "subtleties" are on a sliding scale, and in many passages there's no need to spell it out explicitly in the English. In other contexts it makes a big difference, and the difficulties are compounded when one or both parties to a dialogue switch back and forth in a game of one-upmanship (or perhaps just playfulness). Also, what about the nice custom of people agreeing to be friends and switch from vy/vas to ty/tebya...?



(2) I've never read much Russian literature, either the classics or popular contemporary works, but I have read a lot of Georgian stories and novels. And in the 1970s and early 1980s - before the full advent of glasnost - I was struck by what seemed to be an increasing trend toward frank depiction of the bleaker and nastier aspects of life in Soviet Georgia. Many of the protagonists of high or low status, even "sympathetic" ones, were shown to be mean-spirited, tyrannical, ready to stoop to anything for their own gain, material or otherwise. Corruption was shown to be always blatant or lurking just below the surface. My question: Were things being portrayed the same way in Russian stories and novels around that time? My hunch is that they were. How about other languages?

 

Thanks for your comments!

 

Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator

 

                "Good is better than Evil, because it's nicer" - Mammy Yokum (Al Capp)

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