Arguments about translators and translation

[Cathy Popkin]

Olga, on a slightly cheerier note--

Norton is allowing me to bring translation to the foreground of the new 
Norton Critical Edition of Anton Chekhov's Short Stories, which 
showcases the work of a number of gifted translators (Robert Chandler 
included), both new and existing translations, and explicit commentary 
about the translations and translators themselves.  I'm pretty excited 
about it, and I'm grateful: 1) to Norton for their willingness to 
acknowledge that, in delivering Chekhov (or any other foreign language 
author) in English they are supplying not the thing itself but the 
original with a certain value added; and 2) the fabulous translators 
from among our ranks who are producing truly beautiful works of art for 
the volume.

On a slightly different topic--the poetry of Pushkin's prose in 
Kapitanskaia dochka--wait till you see what Radislav Lapushin's 
forthcoming book reveals about Chekhov's poetic texts!

Cheers,
Cathy

Olga Meerson wrote:
> I am appalled by what Robert Chandler has said about the use of his translation of Grossman in the Opera. Having worked with him for years, I naturally do become "effusive" in my praise! But as researchers and scholars, we all at least exist if we publish something. As I have been a translator also, I have managed to "exist" only in Russian, as such. In English, people take it for granted that everything they CONSUME intellectually is conveniently prepackaged for their consumption! I have first encountered this invisibility in a case that, oddly enough, seemed relatively visible: with the Pevears, at the time of their struggles for the publication of their first (excellent!) translation, of The Brothers Karamazov -- back when they were just beginning their work together in New York, both our parishioners and close friends. They have made it, but to an extent because people started at least disputing the relative merits and drawbacks of DIFFERENT translations, including the!
 ir!
>  s!!
>  This is a symptom of a consumerist society -- to notice a trade only as long as something, among its pre-packaged goods, seems to go wrong! A Russian senses the subtle differences between the translations of Shakespeare by Lozinsky or Pasternak, or, some exemplary ones, for the Sonnets, by Marshak. An English speaker assumes that he or she is entitled to consume things written in other languages. As for Vadim, I do not know him personally but would love to examine him for his interest or/and expertise on something he, most likely, does not know but is likely to have "consumed" at least in translation--namely Biblical poetics. As usual, our main Patron Saint -- not merely in translation but in hermeneutics, which means the same thing! -- is St, Jerome. What matters now is that he is indeed our patron, i.e., provides arguments for our apologia. Robert, I know, venerates him, and with a good cause. 
> Thank you, Robert, bless you all.
> o.m.
>
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