When ПушкинComes to Shove

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Judson, Inna and all,

In regard to the moral probity of translators, here are the last paragraphs
of an article I once wrote about translating The Captain's Daughter.  The
full text has been published by the excellent journal Cardinal Points:
http://www.stosvet.net/12/chandler/

There is one last thread to hold up to the light.  As an epigraph to this
essay I chose a sentence quoted in the complete Oxford English Dictionary as
an example of the use of the word 'turncoated'.  This scornful view of
translations, this feeling that they are 'turncoated things at best', has
persisted over the centuries ­ and not only in the English-speaking world.
[...]  My hunch is that this hostility towards translators and their work
arises not from the entirely justified view that most translations are
imperfect but from a suspicion of translators per se.  Translators are, by
definition, at least relatively at home in two or more cultures and their
loyalty to any single culture is therefore questionable. It is interesting
that Pushkin, apparently somewhat irrelevantly, tells us that Pyotr Grinyov
is himself something of a translator.  Not only does he, as a child, teach
Beaupré to speak Russian; not only does he mediate between the world of the
aristocracy and that of the Cossacks and peasants; he even, while serving in
a remote steppe fortress, studies French and ­ most surprisingly of all ­
does regular translation exercises.

 Translators are always vulnerable to criticism.  If they do not make full
use of their creative imagination, they will betray not only themselves but
also the life and spirit of the original.  If they do let their imaginations
play, they are likely to be accused of presumption.  Fidelity, however, is
never simply a mechanical matter; to be faithful to a person, a belief, a
cause or a work of literature, we must do more than simply obey a set of
rules.  There will always be times when we need to think more deeply, to ask
ourselves questions about what it is we want to be faithful to and why.  The
best I can do by way of being faithful to Pushkin's P-L-T logogram is to use
the word 'turncoat' at two significant moments. Like Pyotr Grinyov, we may
sometimes need to be tricksters; perhaps, rather than worrying about being
called turncoats, we should simply try to be more accomplished tricksters.

Vsego dobrogo,

Robert



> As I said, I'll respond this weekend to the substantive remarks that have
> been made in response to my own comments, since I think the issues are
> important and a vigorous discussion of them may have value.
> 
> But I'd rather not reply, other than this once, to the sort of personal
> remarks that were just made, with their crude characterization of my
> arguments.   
> 
> If that's going to be the approach, then perhaps it will indeed be better
> left off-list or simply not pursued at all.
> 
> JR
> 
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