Book review: Tsvetayeva's "autobiography"

[David Powelstock]

Dear Robert,

Good for you to call Todorov on his self-promoting bullshit.  He's
brilliant, but like you I hate to see the hard work of translators go
unacknowledged.

On that topic, I think your translations of Pushkin's "Queen of Spades" and
Gogol's "The Greatcoat" are superb.  I think I mentioned that I was teaching
these texts in the context of Bely's Petersburg, in a course on Russian
Modernism.  Nevertheless, my students were quite taken by these older texts
in your translations.  Quite remarkably, I think, one of my students, quite
ignorant of Russian lit before this course, fell in love with Pushkin after
reading your "Queen."  That's high praise indeed.

Thank you so very much for sharing your translations with my class prior to
publication.  I congratulate you on the anthology's publication, look
forward to seeing it, and wish it and you the greatest of successes.

Cheers,
David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Chandler
> Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:08 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Book review: Tsvetayeva's "autobiography"
>
> Dear Paul and others,
>
> > The volume has an additional appeal. While Tsvetayeva gained some
> > literary renown, first in Russia, then among Russian exiles, her poetry
> > has always been considered difficult to translate. Indeed, it was the
> > publication of her 1926 correspondence with Pasternak and Rainer Maria
> > Rilke that finally won her broad recognition in the West in the 1980's.
> > Now, with "Living in Fire" -- her metaphor for the sacrificial ritual of
> > writing -- still more of her prose has become available outside Russia
> > though not in English.
> I'm grateful for the information about this new book.  Nevertheless, a
> paragraph like the above is irritating.  There are a number of good
> translations of Tsvetaeva in English, and they deserve to be mentioned in
> an
> article like this.  To name only a few: Angela Livingstone and Jamey
> Gambrell have both  published excellent translations of her prose, and
> Angela Livingstone's translation of 'The Ratcatcher' is one of the finest
> English translations of Russian poetry that I know.  Elaine Feinstein's
> translations also capture much of Tsvetaeva's tone of voice.
>
> Robert
>
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