When ПушкинComes to Shove

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Inna Caron wrote:

> Jud, I am sure no one wants you to feel ostracized and ganged up on.
> 
> It seems that when you enter the discussion with a statement such as
> "I, too, could do X if I chose to, but I choose not to for the
> following reasons," it is a perfectly welcome self-introduction. It's
> when those reasons boil down to the assertion that those who do
> choose to do X are self-indulgent frauds, liable for doing disservice
> to the classics and misleading the reader, you can't be surprised
> that some will find your statement as judgmental as it appears
> misinformed.

Returning to the subject, it seems to me that a central issue in the 
difference between translating poetry and translating prose is that 
prose is primarily (though not entirely) about the content, whereas 
poetry is primarily (though not entirely) about the form. So an artist 
who wishes to render a foreign poem must somehow convey the beauty of 
the form with an entirely different tool set (palette, if you will). The 
result, if s/he is successful, is an entirely different beauty from the 
original beauty. At best, such an author can claim to be "inspired by" 
the original, and should give credit where credit is due, but he can't 
really claim to be "translating" it.

Imagine if Metallica produced a work titled "Variations on a theme by 
Mozart." No matter how inspired they were, this is not Mozart.

-- 
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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