gender of Dolly's sixth child?

[Svetlana Grenier]

Dear Romy and all,

Although Tolstoy mixes a few things up as he goes along, I think it is possible
that Dolly is referring to her "grudnoi (rebenok)"/"devochka" as "on".  Thus the
translation should be "she" (or "it"= child?)  In pt. IV, ch. 20, Anna says about
her daughter:  "Ona rebenok, i ego umoriat".  I wonder if other Tolstoyans have
any insights.

Sincerely,
Svetlana Grenier

Romy Taylor wrote:

> Dear Seelangers,
>
> Reading Anna Karenina, an attentive student asked why Dolly's sixth child, a
> girl born in Part II, is suddenly a boy in Part III?
>
> Here are the passages in Russian:
>
> II. 2. "(ona rodila devochku v kontse zimy)"
>
> III. 8. Dolly talking with peasant women as her children bathe --
> "-Vish' ty, znat' tozhe kupali, govorila drugaia na grudnogo.
> -Net, emu tol'ko tri mesiaca, - otvechala s gordost'iu Dar'ia Aleksandrovna."
>
> In the English translation, the peasant woman asks about "him," and Dolly
> answers "he's only three months," but in the Russian the only motivation for
> Dolly to answer "emu" is the word "grudnoi" (= "rebenok").
>
> Is it natural for Dolly to call a female baby "emu"?  If so, should the
> translation render "emu" as "She's only three months"?
>
> Very gratefully,
> Romy Taylor
>
> *********************************************
> Romy Taylor
> Dept. of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
> and Dept. of Comparative Literature
> University of California at Santa Barbara
> Santa Barbara, CA  93106
> rtaylor at gss.ucsb.edu
> Phone: (805) 893-8177
> Fax: (805) 893-2374
>
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--
Svetlana Slavskaya Grenier
Associate Professor, Slavic Languages
PO Box 571050
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1050
202-687-6108, fax 687-2408

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