THE BORE

General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 04:07:15 PM

Title: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 04:07:15 PM: So the Eifman Ballet is coming to Orange County and, uh, their performance of Eugene Onegin looks kind of awesome. Yeah, I never thought I'd say that about a ballet, either. I guess I'm getting gayer in my old age.

http://www.ocpac.org/home/Events/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=745

I want to read Eugene Onegin before going, and I want to know what the best translation is!

I know Nabokov translated it, but I hear it's kind of a boring literal dictionary of a translation.

Hofstader also turned around a translation but it could be a bit too sing-songy.

I'd prefer something that at least respects the fact the original's in sonnets.

Help me art-cigarillo it up, Evilbore! :-*
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Van Cruncheon on May 07, 2009, 04:08:04 PM: :supergay
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Tauntaun on May 07, 2009, 04:11:50 PM: This is some hardcore gayness right here. :-*
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 04:12:24 PM: hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 04:18:54 PM: The Falen sounds like the best mix of fidelity and feel: http://www.amazon.com/Eugene-Onegin-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0192838997/

The Nabokov is not only plodding-sounding, it's two volumes and $62 for the lot. I don't care HOW good Pale Fire is, FUCK THAT NOISE. http://www.amazon.com/Eugene-Onegin-Aleksandr-Sergeevich-Pushkin/dp/0691019053/ and http://www.amazon.com/Eugene-Onegin-Novel-Verse-Vol/dp/0691019045/

The Hofstadter translation sounds clever, but it might not be my best first exposure to the work: http://www.amazon.com/Eugene-Onegin-Novel-Alexander-Pushkin/dp/0465020941/
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 07, 2009, 05:03:24 PM: I'd like to see Rite of Spring and the other Stravinsky ballets someday.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Van Cruncheon on May 07, 2009, 05:06:31 PM: Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 07, 2009, 04:12:24 PM
hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork :drool

i hafta go to convention center after i get off the plane, though :'(
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: drohne on May 07, 2009, 05:19:47 PM: if you want some hint of pushkin himself and not a professor's bad versifying of things pushkin never wrote, nabokov's the only choice -- and in any case his commentary is essential. i read nabokov and a couple rhymed versions (johnston and somebody german), and only nabokov's convinced me that there must be a great poet hidden behind that language barrier. hit up a library if you don't want to pay for it

i generally go for prose or blank verse translations of rhymed foreign poems
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 06:14:21 PM: Quote from: Professor Prole on May 07, 2009, 05:06:31 PM
Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 07, 2009, 04:12:24 PM
hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork :drool

i hafta go to convention center after i get off the plane, though :'(

so gay

just know it will take me 75-90 minutes to reach you from the time you call me and say "go"
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 06:16:29 PM: Quote from: drohne on May 07, 2009, 05:19:47 PM
if you want some hint of pushkin himself and not a professor's bad versifying of things pushkin never wrote, nabokov's the only choice -- and in any case his commentary is essential. i read nabokov and a couple rhymed versions (johnston and somebody german), and only nabokov's convinced me that there must be a great poet hidden behind that language barrier. hit up a library if you don't want to pay for it

i generally go for prose or blank verse translations of rhymed foreign poems

I'm thinking I'm gonna read the Falen, first. Then read the Nabokov second. The Nabokov sounds ideal for a deeper second reading but a bit off-putting for a first go.

I also have strong opinions that rhyming metered poems should be translated rhymed and metered.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Kara on May 07, 2009, 07:10:43 PM: I read Johnston's because it was free and on the internets.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: drohne on May 07, 2009, 08:22:48 PM: Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 07, 2009, 06:16:29 PM
I'm thinking I'm gonna read the Falen, first. Then read the Nabokov second. The Nabokov sounds ideal for a deeper second reading but a bit off-putting for a first go.

yeah, i think that's how i did it too. the process might convert you!

just read a prose translation of the divine comedy which had the original text and the translation on facing pages -- i thought that was a good way to get accurate meanings and a sense of the original music, though this wouldn't really work with russian and english
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 08:49:06 PM: have you read Seamus Heaney's Beowulf? :drool
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 07, 2009, 08:57:34 PM: Quote from: Professor Prole on May 07, 2009, 05:06:31 PM
Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 07, 2009, 04:12:24 PM
hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork :drool

this is what it looks like

spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2n73ynb.jpg)
[close]
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 07, 2009, 09:05:50 PM: i believe the topic title would be pronounced something like "yatsssidi-phyaz" but you probably knew that.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Robo on May 07, 2009, 09:09:32 PM: you could probably have that meal arrested for assault.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: drohne on May 07, 2009, 10:01:07 PM: Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 07, 2009, 08:49:06 PM
have you read Seamus Heaney's Beowulf? :drool

i have not, though that's going on the 'who could survive following dante' list
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Boogie on May 07, 2009, 10:42:08 PM: Quote from: recursivelyenumerable on May 07, 2009, 09:05:50 PM
i believe the topic title would be pronounced something like "yatsssidi-phyaz" but you probably knew that.

Ya, that's a godawful attempt at Russian spelling right there.

(Patel, not you, recursive)
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Kara on May 07, 2009, 11:13:30 PM: but it says "russian-bore"
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Robo on May 07, 2009, 11:24:51 PM: de-icon boogie
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Boogie on May 07, 2009, 11:44:06 PM: Quote from: Karakand on May 07, 2009, 11:13:30 PM
but it says "russian-bore"

Shut up. No it doesn't.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 07, 2009, 11:44:26 PM: Knowing Patel though, he probably consulted the handy table in this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_Cyrillic) while making his thread title.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 08, 2009, 12:18:10 AM: guys, I'm not a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow, I know that's not Russian :P

I used http://www.theworldofstuff.com/other/cyrillic.html
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 08, 2009, 12:25:53 AM: suuuuuuuuuuure you do ::)

admit it, boogie laid the SMДCК down on you and now you're backpedaling with the old tired "I meant to do that" routine.
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on May 08, 2009, 01:20:03 AM: maybe if I tell you about the database structures I developed to handle the automated declension of Russian nouns, I can get you over to my side :teehee
Title: Re: ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?
Post by: Kara on May 08, 2009, 02:03:49 AM: Quote from: Boogie on May 07, 2009, 11:44:06 PM
Shut up. No it doesn't.
THДT'S ИФT VЗЯУ ЙICЭ.