Pride and Prejudice opening sentence in Russian

[Terry Moran]

Уважаемые новые коллеги!

I share the view that Gurova has done a far better job. "все знают" comes
nowhere near "it is a truth universally acknowledged", and after reading
Marshak's opening sentence - if I were at all familiar with the original,
that is - I'd be disinclined to read any further.

The only fault I can find with the Gurova rendering is its use of должен as
commented on by Philippe Frison - must/должен is a common source of error
in translations in both directions. There's no duty, debt or obligation
involved here, so должен is simply wrong. How would it be if we replaced

должен настоятельно нуждаться в жене


by

обязательно нуждаeтся в жене


or

(холостяку...) обязательно нужна жена


? In colloquial speech обязательно has lost the sense of obligation
that обязанность,
for example, still has.

One alternative might be

нуждаeтся, должно быть, в жене


but on balance I prefer my second variant: нужна жена.

Just a thought. Feel free to shoot me down!

Greeetings -

Terry Moran


On 12 September 2013 10:09, Sarah Hurst <sarahnhurst at gmail.com> wrote:

> I also agree. "Everyone knows" in Russian is hardly comparable to "It is a
> truth universally acknowledged."
>
> Sarah Hurst
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 12:41 AM, William Ryan <wfr at sas.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> I'm inclined to agree. Also, Marshak's translation of this sentence is
>> poor is several respects and entirely misses the jocular note of the
>> original. The Gurova version is better.
>>
>> Will Ryan
>>
>>
>> On 11/09/2013 21:19, Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
>>
>>> FRISON Philippe wrote:
>>>
>>>  Here is Marshak's translation :
>>>>
>>>> Все знают, что молодой человек, располагающий средствами, должен
>>>> подыскивать себе жену.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Fascinating. I took the "must" in that sentence as speculative ("I'm
>>> sure he will do this") and not imperative ("He has to do this").
>>>
>>> I know that Russian "должен" can sometimes have this sense, but I'm not
>>> convinced it works that way here.
>>>
>>> Agree or disagree with these two points?
>>>
>>>
>>
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