Dostoyevsky's " Бесы"(The Possess ed) plus Anna Karenina

[Alexei Kutuzov]

Thank you for your most thoughtful suggestions so far
Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for your most thoughtful suggestions so far.  I have not consulted the 
Maguire / Belknap translation, but will certainly do so now.  Thank you for 
directing my attention to it.

Not to broach a rather sensitive topic on this list, but Professor Goscilo 
touches on a good point.  The husband-wife duo, while very productive, not only 
make mistakes frequently, but also seem to have a difficult time rendering basic 
Russian-language idioms into sensible English.  Saul Morson seems to be one of 
the few people in our profession who have taken a critical look into the Pevear 
and Volokhonsky translations (see, for instance, 
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature-15468),
 and it would be good to see others straying away from the hagiographical 
reception the American academy has given them.  It is a shame, too, that 
what Pevear and Volokhonsky present to students by way of commentaries and 
introductions seems to pass as authoritative, which is truly unfortunate.  The 
introduction to Notes From Underground, for instance, in which Pevear dismisses 
all translations of Dostoevsky written before his own, cites the folkloric 
tradition of the Russian "wicked witch" (злая ведьма) as justification for 
rendering Я злой человек as "I am a wicked man"  (from the opening line of 
Notes).  Surely, if there was ever an instance of bad faith on the part of a 
translator, then this is it:  not only does the wicked with, Baba Yaga, have 
nothing to do with Dostoevsky's Notes, but any native speaker of Russian will 
tell you that one of the primary meanings of злой is "angry," or "spiteful" (for 
better or for worse, Garnett got this right).  "Wicked" is at best a secondary 
meaning.

With warmest regards,

Alexei Kutuzov  




________________________________
From: "greniers at GEORGETOWN.EDU" <greniers at GEORGETOWN.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Sent: Mon, December 13, 2010 10:19:52 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Dostoyevsky's "Бесы" (The Possess ed) plus Anna Karenina

Dear Helena,

Could you please indicate those "flubs in their 'Anna Karenina'," on or off 
list?  I teach the book and think the translation is excellent but I have to 
admit that I have not read the whole thing through in translation.

Thank you!

Svetlana Grenier

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