ЯЦSSIДИ-ЬФЯЗ: What's the best translation of Eugene Onegin?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

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!

[Van Cruncheon]

[Tauntaun]

This is some hardcore gayness right here.   

[Howard Alan Treesong]

hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

[Howard Alan Treesong]

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/

[recursivelyenumerable]

I'd like to see Rite of Spring and the other Stravinsky ballets someday.

[Van Cruncheon]

hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork

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

[drohne]

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

[Howard Alan Treesong]

hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork

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"

[Howard Alan Treesong]

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.

[Kara]

I read Johnston's because it was free and on the internets.

[drohne]

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

[Howard Alan Treesong]

have you read Seamus Heaney's Beowulf?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

hey prole do you want Mexican mole or Cuban pulled pork

cuban pulled pork

this is what it looks like

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[recursivelyenumerable]

i believe the topic title would be pronounced something like "yatsssidi-phyaz" but you probably knew that.

[Robo]

you could probably have that meal arrested for assault.

[drohne]

have you read Seamus Heaney's Beowulf?

i have not, though that's going on the 'who could survive following dante' list

[Boogie]

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)

[Kara]

but it says "russian-bore"

[Robo]

de-icon boogie

[Boogie]

but it says "russian-bore"

Shut up.  No it doesn't.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Knowing Patel though, he probably consulted the handy table in this article while making his thread title.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

guys, I'm not a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow, I know that's not Russian

I used http://www.theworldofstuff.com/other/cyrillic.html

[recursivelyenumerable]

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.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

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

[Kara]

Shut up.  No it doesn't.

THДT'S ИФT VЗЯУ ЙICЭ.