A fact that you probably already know: Pushkin was Afro-Russian — descended from someone who came to Russia as part of the East African slave trade.
In the West, we think of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky as the greatest Russian authors. But in Russia, it’s Pushkin.
I know that your method of translation doesn’t always involve a close knowledge of the original language, but I wonder if you know Russian. I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned from Mr. Pap in high school but am now trying to refurbish my command of the language, chiefly to read “Eugene Onegin.” Nabokov says that no translation can do it justice.
I don't know Russian. I use translation tools and consult other translations before I attempt a translation. I did work with a Russian poet on the third of my translations of "I Loved You." And I know other Russian poet-translators that I can consult as needed.
The linguists are often pretty far apart in their more literal translations, while I'm more of an interpreter working from a composite understanding of the poem.
Yes, I was aware of Pushkin's ancestry. A noble African captured and enslaved by the Ottomans, if I remember things correctly.
A fact that you probably already know: Pushkin was Afro-Russian — descended from someone who came to Russia as part of the East African slave trade.
In the West, we think of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky as the greatest Russian authors. But in Russia, it’s Pushkin.
I know that your method of translation doesn’t always involve a close knowledge of the original language, but I wonder if you know Russian. I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned from Mr. Pap in high school but am now trying to refurbish my command of the language, chiefly to read “Eugene Onegin.” Nabokov says that no translation can do it justice.
I don't know Russian. I use translation tools and consult other translations before I attempt a translation. I did work with a Russian poet on the third of my translations of "I Loved You." And I know other Russian poet-translators that I can consult as needed.
The linguists are often pretty far apart in their more literal translations, while I'm more of an interpreter working from a composite understanding of the poem.
Yes, I was aware of Pushkin's ancestry. A noble African captured and enslaved by the Ottomans, if I remember things correctly.
And yet you have complimented a number of my translations over the years.