Translations

[sadeyes]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if there are translations out there that I should avoid? I read somewhere that some translators try to Americanize his novels when they translate them, but I don't want an Americanized Russian novel, it kinda defeats the purpose, ya know? So, I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out. Thanks!

[Secret Smile]

I think it depends on what you mean by Americanize. There are a few standard translations, but I'll focus on two since I know the most about them:

Constance Garnett: one of the standard Dostoevsky translators. She was British, and sometimes she uses words that you wouldn't understand unless you were British. On the good side, she uses more poetic words than Pevear and Volokhonsky.

Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky: this wife/husband team are the newest Dostoevsky translators. They try to reproduce the original as accurately as possible while making the novels readable, and Volokhonsky is a native Russian. You can learn about how they translate here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pevear.

[sadeyes]

Thanks Secret Smile! I'll watch for those two, but what I meant by Americanized is they change names from, say, "Aleksey" to "Alex" and stuff like that. But thanks again for the info!

[Secret Smile]

I don't know of any translations like that offhand. You'll occasionally get different spellings of the names in English (i.e. Aleksei and Alexey), but not americanized like plain old Alex. Sometimes sites like amazon will let you read part of a book online, so you can test it that way, and if you're at the bookstore, you can see if the book is like that.

[Dori]

I read Constance Garnett's translations but I will be buying the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations once I have finished the others.

[Worm]

I don't know of any translations like that offhand. You'll occasionally get different spellings of the names in English (i.e. Aleksei and Alexey), but not americanized like plain old Alex. Sometimes sites like amazon will let you read part of a book online, so you can test it that way, and if you're at the bookstore, you can see if the book is like that.

Hi Secret smile,
It's also interesting to note how Russians seem to have different versions of the same name, to express a certain sentiment they have towards the person.  I noticed this in TBK, with many of the characters, esp. Aljosha...
... has anybody else noticed this?

I wondered if there are others languages where they also do this....

[Zissou]

A quick question about the David McDuff translation of The Bros. K.

Is it any good or should I avoid like the proverbial?

Cheers

[Scoundrel]

I enjoy the David Magarshack translation of 'The Idiot', although I haven't seen his translations on any of D's other works---also, his introduction was rather insightful, although , if you haven't yet read the book, I would wait until you have, before reading the translators introduction, in this case.