another translation question

[Valentino, Russell]

Style, sound, and voice are all a little too straightforward for Stravinsky's line, it seems to me. He's referring to music through a linguistic prism. I think "idiom" captures this pretty well. My idiom is Russian.

Russell Valentino


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher
Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 10:57 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] another translation question

Resending because I hadn't noticed that Mr. Robinson was diverting all 
replies to his private mailbox.

Harlow Robinson wrote:

> Igor Stravinsky is reported to have once said:
> 
> "U menya slog russkii."
> 
> How would you translate "slog" in this case?

Any first-year student will immediately answer, "I have a Russian
syllable," but that obviously doesn't work.

My four-volume Russian dictionary offers the following two additional
senses (examples beneath each):

Способ, манера словесного изложения; стиль.
	-- Высокий слог
	-- Все письмо написано деловым, канцелярским слогом
	-- Он останавливал прохожих
		и слогом Марлинского просил вспоможения

/Устар./ Умение ярко и правильно выражать свои мысли
	-- Гоголь вполне владеет слогом
	-- Почему бы вам не заняться журналистикой?
		У вас есть слог, есть прекрасные мысли

Of these two additional senses, I would say the former is closer to the
intended meaning (ranked from pedestrian to poetic):
	I have a Russian style.
	I have a Russian sound.
	I have a Russian voice.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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