Dostoyevsky's " Бе сы"plus Anna Karenina plus amour-propre

[greniers at GEORGETOWN.EDU]

Dear Robert, Sarah, Alexei and others,

I wish I had had the time to focus my attention on Alexei's remark (about Robert's questions to the list) and respond to it earlier. Not only is sarcasm inappropriate but the whole idea does not make sense. What we were talking about was the quality of translations, not the process by which that quality was ultimately achieved.  It is not a matter of who can do a perfect translation single-handedly but who has the meticulousness and the "sense of one's own limitations", a.k.a. humility, to ask questions in order to make the translation perfect.  The Pevear and Volokhonsky team have the built-in capacity of two native speakers who can ask each other questions in order to achieve  perfect understanding of the text, and their process of reading each other's versions and asking more questions assures the ultimate accuracy and letting any silly mistakes slip. Robert does it by addressing an even wider group--more glory to him! Whether every choice Pevear and Volokhonsky make is t!
 he!
 most effective rendition of the original can be debated but the idea of using other people's expertise to get something right is the most indispensable principle a translator should have.  I have to say that in my years of teaching Russian literature in English I have seen a number of most amazing "flubs", but I have not run into any in the P and V "Anna Karenina" yet.  
By the way, I am now puzzled by the word "amour-propre".  I first heard it, I believe, in one of Prof. Robert Belknap's courses when I was a graduate student, and as far as I remember he did use it to talk about the Underground Man.  I just looked it up in Webster and it was translated as "self-esteem".  If anyone knows French and English well enough, could you please comment on whether the meaning is the same or different in the two languages?
Incidentally, Robert, how did you translate it in the "Queen of Spades", where it is said about Lizaveta Ivanovna: "Ona byla samoliubiva".  I remember that in the translation I used to teach it was "she was proud".  My impression is that in contemporary American English, at least, "pride" has more positive connotations than "samoliubie" has in Russian, although I think it is an adequate translation in a broader cultural context (say, Christian context). 

Sorry for such a long message!

Best to all, 
Svetlana

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