When the Universe tries to know itself, it sends round a billion and a dozen of life-hungry couriers with just three things to do: to taste, to touch and to experience. Sensorizm and ever-lasting thirst for everything new and unknown are two perfect guides in this short trip, the purpose of which is to enjoy life in its very bloom.
Natalia L. Trauberg: "Translation helps to get rid of egomania..."
Posted 04-19-2010 at 10:05 AM by Helen Agaf
Natalia L. Trauberg, translator of prose and poetry (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese - Russian).
"A translator devotes his energies to an author, as if dissolving completely in a book. Figuratively speaking, if a translator doesn't kill himself in himself, just as an icon painter kills the artist in himself, he wouldn't be able to work. Few manage doing this; when I translate something, I do more writing than translating. There are several kinds of translators. For example, there are those who assert themselves rather than an author in a translation; such was the late Andrei Kistyakovsky*, such is presently Vladimir Muravyov to some extent. Andrei used to say, "I am an adherent of the Zhukovsky** school; I write." There are those who translate literally. And there are the ones whom I talked about before, those who dissolve in the books they translate: Anatoly Geleskul, Boris Dubin, Grigory Dashevsky..., perhaps Viktor Golyshev. When one reads Nabokov translated by Golyshev, one can't believe this was originally written in English, not in Russian. Lately I like the young translator Katya Dobrokhotova-Maikova; she has an amazingly gentle hand for translation.
*Andrei A. Kistyakovsky - famous Soviet human rights activist and translator of prose and poetry
**Vasily A. Zhukovsky - foremost Russian poet of the XIX century, translator, critic and founder of Russian romanticism. Most part of his poems includes free translations covering a wide range of foreign poets from Thomas Gray to Friedrich Shiller.
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Translation is a craft, it can be compared to playing piano: if you work with interruptions, you lose much by it. Translation is beneficial for spirit, it helps to get rid of egomania and solve the "wild word" problem.'
<...>ideally speaking, I regard translation as being equal to an original writing."
From interview by Yelena Kalashnikova. Translated from Russian by Olga Yurchenko. Full version can be seen here: http://english.russ.ru/krug/20010428.html
"A translator devotes his energies to an author, as if dissolving completely in a book. Figuratively speaking, if a translator doesn't kill himself in himself, just as an icon painter kills the artist in himself, he wouldn't be able to work. Few manage doing this; when I translate something, I do more writing than translating. There are several kinds of translators. For example, there are those who assert themselves rather than an author in a translation; such was the late Andrei Kistyakovsky*, such is presently Vladimir Muravyov to some extent. Andrei used to say, "I am an adherent of the Zhukovsky** school; I write." There are those who translate literally. And there are the ones whom I talked about before, those who dissolve in the books they translate: Anatoly Geleskul, Boris Dubin, Grigory Dashevsky..., perhaps Viktor Golyshev. When one reads Nabokov translated by Golyshev, one can't believe this was originally written in English, not in Russian. Lately I like the young translator Katya Dobrokhotova-Maikova; she has an amazingly gentle hand for translation.
*Andrei A. Kistyakovsky - famous Soviet human rights activist and translator of prose and poetry
**Vasily A. Zhukovsky - foremost Russian poet of the XIX century, translator, critic and founder of Russian romanticism. Most part of his poems includes free translations covering a wide range of foreign poets from Thomas Gray to Friedrich Shiller.
<...>
Translation is a craft, it can be compared to playing piano: if you work with interruptions, you lose much by it. Translation is beneficial for spirit, it helps to get rid of egomania and solve the "wild word" problem.'
<...>ideally speaking, I regard translation as being equal to an original writing."
From interview by Yelena Kalashnikova. Translated from Russian by Olga Yurchenko. Full version can be seen here: http://english.russ.ru/krug/20010428.html
Tags: mem, translators, wisdom, workshop
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