Discovering Russian Literature discussion

The attached article, "Done with Tolstoy," by Kevin Mahnken, in journal Humanities, surveys the translations of Pevear-Volokhonsky in the broader context of English translations of Russian Lit. Some interesting comments on various approaches to translation, especially the old question of "accuracy" vs. "readability," a debate most famously carried out between Nabokov and just about everyone else who disagreed with him. Whether you prefer work of P-V or someone else, this piece provides good background on the larger issues facing all translators. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/ma...

Thank you for this article, Tom. It's very interesting and something I fuss about.

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly:
“The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase.”

It's nice to see this couple produce a new work. I have to look into it.
I think people often judge a work of the translator when they read and not, let's say, Tolstoy. For when I open that Garnett translation, it is, indeed, something else. It can either elevate original tremendouosly (Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, imo) or make it fall (Master and Margarita; not sure who's translated it). I'd love to read books as they are––feel authors' styles instead of a pretty phrase.

thanks again for the article.

PV and Louise and Aylmer Maude (when it comes to Tolstoy) are to my mind as good as it gets for Russian translations. Both husband and wife teams undertood that you have to present your author not yourself in any translation. The Maudes worked directly with Tolstoy and wanted to bring Tolstoy's message, pure, to the English-speaking world. PV did not have the benefit of working with the authors, but knew how to research and as the article says, they have a very unique method to ensure accuracy.

I’m too new to this website to know how to do an adequate search to see if these articles have already been posted somewhere else. Nonetheless, I thought they were interesting additions to the great debate on translations so I will go ahead and post them up here.

From the NY Times:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...

I have enjoyed the PV translations I have read and appreciate their approach in bringing the English reader closer to the author, as opposed to bringing the author to the reader. I also really like the wealth of information in their footnotes.

Because I was mostly pleased with the PV translations, I naturally considered their translation of Doctor Zhivago over the Hayward-Harari translation, but then came across this criticism from Pasternak’s niece:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010...

I will probably still go with the PV translation, but the Guardian article definitely gives me pause, especially coming from someone related to Pasternak.

That New Yorker article was very good, thanks for sharing it.

Such an interesting article in the New Yorker and it answered my questions about how a translation team like PV work. As I've nearly finished their version of Anna Karenina and it got me thinking about the role of a translator in interpreting the original text.

Also a good all round piece on the history of translation as well with Garnett and Nabokov. Thanks for sharing.

I won't lie, since I first commented here I've grown relatively more accepting of Garret when it comes to Anton Chekhov only because she is pretty much unchallenged when it comes to the number Chekhov's work she has translated into English. I still read the PV translations first, but if I hear of a particular Chekhov story that is only translated by Garret I'll read it--though it seems PV are starting to catch-up.

Tom! Thanks for sharing this article. I’m new in this group (hi, all!), but I am a massive fan of Russian lit. I long worshipped PV, but upon reading some criticism (sort of the nabokovian style camp), I decided to read some of the same works in other translations. I will note that I speak very little Russian and am a native English speaker, so my viewpoint is limited of course. I’m a hundred pages from finishing BK, so withholding any comments, but it’s been enjoyable to compare the overall “feeling” of one translation vs another.