well... now.
Have a look at this! A damn good online literary mag... www.archipelago.org...
... and this post especially... http://www.archipelago.org/vol10-34/chernyi.htm .
Translations of a turn of the (last) century Russian poet-- Sasha Chernyi, by Kevin Kinsella.
... I love Russian poetry. It's gritty and bitter and hilarious and grand. Which, I've heard from people who think they know, is a bit how Russians are anyway. Well... my great-grandfather was Russian-- he was a contractor who built skyscrapers after the First World War-- and he used get up early so that he could ride to the top of whatever project he was working on and dance folk-dances on the exposed beams, hundreds of feet over the city.
... so, yeah, maybe they're right. But don't take my word for it, and head on over to see for yourself. As a sidenote-- right now I'm reading a collection of poems by Soviet dissident poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko about the metaphysical implications informing the construction of an exceptionally large hydroelectric power station in Siberia.
... it's really, actually pretty good.
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6 comments:
when I was really young.. I had read some Russian poetry/literature translated in Hindi (my mother tongue). I haven't read much recently .. I'll check out that link .. nice to know about great-granpa :D sweet.
wow... it'd be interesting to see what a Hindi translation looked like vs. an English one... I heard somewhere (a bit smug, but illustrative, anyway) that translations of poetry are "like young wives-- either beautiful or faithful, never both".
... not a very good insight on marital relations, but I think spot-on, literarily speaking. How is going between Hindi and English? Do they sync up well, or are they more askew?
... yeah, he was a bit of a nut.
hehe thats apt @ young wife.. I do agree.
I haven't compared the Russian translations but I did compare some Hindi and English translation of others esp Omar Khayyam. Hindi translations read far better :)
In fact we can tell for sure only if we know all three languages. I am hampered coz I know only two. How many do you know?
I have read some English translation of Hindi poetry and usually find them pathetic.. rather askew..
and.. Hindi translation of English that I've managed to read - is by far readable...
bowever don't trust me . .I could be biased :D
I speak English (hai-duh!), functional Mandarin, and I'm decent with Latin.
... and I definitely agree about the difficulty of translating certain things into English... it comes up with Chinese, often (Chinese poetry tends to be "coded"-- when four syllables-- due to homophones, connotations and references to 5,000 years of literary tradition-- have to be translated into a paragraph. Neat in a post-modern way, but practically it just eats my brain...)
were you reading the "Fitzgerald" Omar Khayyam?-- because if so-- no wonder. Gah.
I wonder if it's because English is so damn colloquial... (I figure it doesn't have grammar... it has "un"grammar)... or the way it handles verbs (with all the "helpers"?). I dunno. But as I'm messing around with it, I keep seeing where the holes are...
... do you also write in Hindi?
hehe un grammar. probably thats why I prefer writing in English. My grammar is pathetic. I 'just know' that the sentence is right or wrong by the sound of it. I often fumble.. I know that too. :D
you know Latin.. thats so awesome. and Mandarin aah impressive.
No I don't write anymore in Hindi. such a shame I know.. I wish I could .. I used to when I was a kiddo .. just lost it as I 'grew up' ..
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