Diabolical gramophones in Belyi's Petersburg

[beyer]

The John Elsworth translation (2009) on page 284 gives the following:

The animal howls of the machine filled the air: the cry of an immense  
bull being butchered: tambourines were bursting, bursting, bursting.

Notice how Elsworth captures the Russian plosives in English.  I  
highly recommend his translation for students and scholars alike.

Tom Beyer
Middlebury College



On Mar 31, 2010, at 7:36 PM, Mieka Erley wrote:

> Dear SEELANGS list members--
>
>
> I am currently preparing a manuscript for publication and am seeking
> advice about how to translate a passage in Andrei Belyi's Petersburg
> (1913 edition) that refers to a bull-killing musical "machine"
> (presumably a gramophone).
>
> The scene is at a tavern with Nikolai Apollonovich and Morkovin.  
> Here is
> the sentence (from p 212 in the 1981 Nauka edition):
>
> Слышались животные вопли машины:  
> крик исполинского зарезаемого на  
> бойне
> быка: бубны -- лопались, лопались,  
> лопались.
>
> I initially translated this as: "The animal wail of a machine could be
> heard: the cry of a gigantic bull whose throat is being cut at the
> slaughterhouse: tambourines—broken, broken, broken."
>
> As far as I understand, "lopat'sia" can mean "to devour" or "to  
> break."
> I assume that Belyi is playing with both meanings, and wouldn't be
> surprised if there were more layers of word-play than I've  
> identified. I
> haven't found any English translations, and wonder if anyone may have
> advice or comments.
>
> Many thanks to you in advance for any ideas!
>
> Mieka Erley
> UC-Berkeley
> Please feel free to reply off-list to merley at berkeley.edu.
>
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