Two new translations of The Little Golden Calf

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

Dear Will -
Yes, the reference is certainly to Exodus/Iskhod 32, and the term  
there is indeed "calf" without "golden" in the Hebrew original,  
although it is clear in context (32:2) that Aaron has formed this  
object from gold rings which people wear, and it is not clear whether  
the object was made from a mold or was "fashioned from a graving tool"  
- to quote the commentary in the NRSV (which is the most accurate  
translation into English according to contemporary Bible scholars - I  
do not know the Hebrew myself).  In the Synodal Russian we read "i  
sdelal iz nikh litogo tel'tsa" (32:4).  In the Greek Septuagint it is  
"kai epoiēsen auta moskhon khōneuton."

This is a very interesting discussion, and it leads me to ask if  
anyone could supply some information (or bibliographic references)  
about the overall history and availability of translations of the  
Bible into Church Slavonic and Russian.  I am assuming the authors of  
the Russian story in question had some familiarity with the Synodal  
Russian, but did either of them know Hebrew (Fainzilberg?)?   
Nevertheless, since "zolotoi telets" already existed as a fixed  
expression (e.g., used by Dostoevsky), I assume that, since the  
biblical context supplied a reference to the precious metal, gold,  
then at some point the metaphor of worshipping money or worldly goods  
instead of YHWH had to appear, and "zolotoi telets" was easy sailing  
from there.  Perhaps not so easy sailing were the religious waters of  
that early Soviet time.

With regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere



On Feb 1, 2010, at 4:43 PM, William Ryan wrote:

I am delighted that new translations of the splendid "Zolotoi telenok"  
have appeared but I am not convinced by the argument on the Russian  
Life website about the translation of the title "The LITTLE Golden  
Calf" in Anne Fisher's version. Certainly the expression "golden calf"  
in Russian, as in English, is ultimately a reference to Exodus 32 in  
the Bible, and is used metaphorically to mean "money as a god" (even  
though the word gold does not actually appear in the biblical  
expression - it is 'molten calf' in King James Bible and 'telets  
litii' in the Church Slavonic Elizabeth Bible), and presumably Il'f  
and Petrov, in using the modern prosaic diminutive 'telenok', are  
having a little joke with stylistic register - however, introducing  
the word 'little' into the translation does not really convey this  
jokey nuance and must be puzzling to anyone who does not know Russian  
(i.e. those who read translations) because it obscures the meaning of  
the original set phrase and makes it sound like the title of a  
children's book. Surely the straight translation "The Golden Calf" is  
ironical enough? I haven't had a chance to see the book yet, so I  
wonder how the phrase 'zolotoi telenok' and its further diminutive  
'zolotoi telonochek' are translated when they occur in the body of the  
text.

Will Ryan


Paul Richardson wrote:
> Ilf and Petrov's "The Little Golden Calf"
> One satirical novel, two seriously different versions
>
> It is rather unusual for two entirely new translations of a classic  
> novel to be released within a month of one another. Since we have  
> gotten several queries about the differences between our Russian  
> Life Books version, published December 1, 2009, and the Open Letter  
> version, published a month or so later, we have posted on our website:
>
> (1) a list of qualitative points of divergence that we have discerned;
> (2) a comparison of the two translations, based on a paragraph  
> recently selected by a third party reviewer;
> (3) a letter from our translator, Anne O. Fisher;
> (4) some background information on our translation of the novel.
>
> Here is the link:
> http://www.russianlife.com/lgc_divergences.cfm
>
> We have also put up a digital version of our translation, and anyone  
> can read the first 85 pages of the novel free here:
> http://bit.ly/bQLYIC
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Paul E. Richardson
> Publisher
> Russian Life books
> www.russianlife.com
>
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