Fortochka

[Peirce, Gina M]

In response to William Kerr's posting:  I checked Chapter 14 in my copy of "The Master and Margarita" when I first began following this thread as well (I have the 1995 translation by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor). They did not translate "fortochka" at all, but simply used the transliterated Russian word in italics.

***********************************
Gina M. Peirce
Assistant Director
Center for Russian and East European Studies
University of Pittsburgh
4414 Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: 412-648-2290
Fax: 412-648-7002




[From William Kerr's message:]  In Book 1 Chap. 14 of  "Master and Margarita", Bulgakov uses "fortochka" ....





It is interesting to note various translations of this text:



Michael Glenny (Harvill, 1967):  "The  girl increased her efforts,  pushed her auburn head  through  the *little upper pane*, stretched out  her arm as  far as she could and began to pluck at the lower catch with her fingernails and shake the frame."



Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Penguin, 1997):  "She began to hurry, stuck her red-haired head through the *vent*, reached her arm down a= s far as she could, her nails clawing at the lower latch and shaking the frame."



In the extensive end notes to the P&V translation, no mention is made of fortochka/vent.



To my mind, especially in the context of the action in this part of Chapter 14, neither of these does service to the Russian "fortochka", especially without footnote. The Glenny translation does at least give the reader the sense of  "small higher window".



And of course there are other translations/versions available.


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