FW: "What is the art of translation?"

[Alexander Etkind]

In Vasilii Kliuchevskii’s course of Russian 
history there is a famous aphorism: “Государство 
пухло, а народ хирел.”  It was translated as “the 
state grew swollen, and the people fat” 
(V.O.Kluchevsky, A History of Russia, trans. by 
C.J.Hogarth. London: Dent and Sons, 1913, v.3, 
p.8; the same in several re-publications.) 
Evidently, the translator misread ‘хирел’ as 
‘жирел’. It seems that nobody has noticed the mistake.

Alexander Etkind





Valentino, Russell wrote:
> Yes, that may be, too, but that wasn't the question that the dozen or so people in the video are attempting to answer.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of serge tyuli
> Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 12:47 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] FW: "What is the art of translation?"
> 
> Translation is a profession
> 
> On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 7:41 PM, Valentino, Russell <
> russell-valentino at uiowa.edu> wrote:
> 
>> As we've touched on this topic from time to time here, I thought some might
>> be interested in this piece, which Will Firth let me know about. Some of you
>> will know Will from one or another of his many fine translations (from
>> German, Russian, and BCS). I believe he also did the subtitles for the film
>> Russian Ark.
>>
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKikFUcoEww<
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKikFUcoEww>
>>
>> It's in German and BCS / Macedonian.
>>
>> Russell
>>
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