Teffi - theatrical terminology

Tue Feb 25 16:06:44 UTC 2014

I would like to join Robert in thanking Edythe Haber in a more general way
for her work with translators.  Her comments and suggestions were crucial
to my translation of Bulgakov's White Guard.  Those of us who translate
literature are indebted to the scholars who know these texts and subjects
so well and are so generous with their time.

Marian Schwartz

On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Robert Chandler <kcf19 at dial.pipex.com>wrote:

> Dear Edythe,
>
> You are wonderful.  I can't wait for you to publish more.  Without that,
> and your help, I feel a bumbling amateur.
>
> But I must apologize for several recent posts to the list that I hadn't
> thought through properly.  I am sorry - I have had a rather fraught few
> days and have been doing things in too much of a hurry.
>
> Thanks to you, Edythe, and to everyone else who has helped with this
> passage.
>
> All the best,
>
> Robert
>
> On 24 Feb 2014, at 19:17, Edythe Haber <Edythe.Haber at UMB.EDU> wrote:
>
> > Dear  Robert:
> >
> > A little bit of biographical background:  In 1906 (perhaps beginning in
> 1905), Teffi attended meetings of the "Fakely" theater group, which grew
> out of Ivanov's Wednesdays, and in which Meyerhold, as far as I understand,
> played the central role.  Teffi wrote in a Mar. 17 (30), 1913 feuilleton in
> "Russkoe slovo" (in my translation -- I can find the original and scan it
> for you if you like:
> >
> > "Several years ago, when the extremely talented V.E. Meyerhold was not
> yet a director on the imperial stage, but only burned and dreamed, he often
> spoke within a circle of sympathizers about the theater of the future.
>  About a 'real' theater.
> > He had his own theory.  I don't remember too well what it was about, but
> I remember that it was founded somehow mathematically, geometrically, all
> on a single theorem known in the community by the name Pythagorean trousers.
> > . . . .
> > 'Down with the footlights!' squealed some.
> > 'Down with the stage!' another recommended.
> > 'Collective action!' someone in the corner hooted.
> > We burned!"
> >
> > In a late memoir of Meyerhold, published only after her death, Teffi
> wrote:  "Meyerhold sketched a magic triangle.  The author, director, and
> actor were placed in the corners of the triangle.  Each in his own corner.
>  They communicated through the sides [katety] and the hypotenuse.  The
> hypotenuse -- the longest route -- unites the author and actor."  Etc.  The
> article was originally published in "Vozrozhdenie," !955, no. 42.  Repr. in
> Teffi, "Moia letopis'," (M: Vagrius, 2004) and probably elsewhere.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Edythe
> > ________________________________________
> > From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list <
> SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Robert Chandler <
> kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
> > Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 5:23 AM
> > To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> > Subject: [SEELANGS] Teffi - theatrical terminology
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I am sure there are many improvements that can be made here, and I'll be
> grateful for all suggestions, but I'll be especially grateful to anyone who
> can point out anything I have got wrong as regards the theatrical terms.
>  There may be standard translations of some of these phrases that I do not
> know.  Am I right to shorten the Meyerhold phrase?
> >
> > Мы растерялись, но не все. Молоденькая наша актриса, как полковая
> лошадь, услышавшая звуки трубы, сорвалась и понесла — кругами, прыжками,
> поворотами. Замелькал Мейерхольд, с «треугольниками соотношения сил»,
> Евреинов, с «театром для себя», Commedia dell'arte, актеро-творчество,
> «долой рампу», соборное действо и тра-та-ра-ра-та-ра-та.
> >
> > This floored nearly all of us – but not our youngest actress.  Like a
> war horse at the sound of the bugle, she leaped to her feet and began
> careering around – circling, jumping and spinning.  There were flashes of
> Meyerhold and his ‘theatre-triangle’,  Evreinov’s 'The Theatre for
> Oneself', of Comedia dell’Arte, Stanislavsky’s 'Building a Character', of
> calls to ‘Do away with the Footlights!’, and heaven knows what else.
> >
> > All the best, and thanks,
> >
> > Robert
> >
> > Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
> >
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>
>
>
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
>
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