No writer understood loneliness better than Chekhov

Post by dazzawazza » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

machello13 wrote: post #16

dazzawazza wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew a translator who worked for the EU high commission as a live translator. I asked her about translating books: "Knowing two cultures and languages in such intimate detail that you can know a book and translate it in any meaningful way for the princely sum of ten thousand pounds...no". She compared it to poetry, you agonise over certain phrases and the thousands of years of history that phrase has and all its cu…

I see your point, but I don't think saying that "any translation is better than none" invalidates criticism of any specific translation. It's still possible for a translation to be better or worse than other translations.

Post by JAlexoid » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 4:59 PM UTC

olah_1 wrote: post #18

arjunvpaul wrote: post #10

:-) Interesting to read many describe that feeling you get when you read Chekhov. A Russian friend once told me it is тоска (toska) - an unbearable, inescapable anguish - "Really you have to be Russian to understand it. toska is rent for being Russian. More Vodka?"

I don’t remember the exact quote, but I think it was Fr Seraphim Rose that said Russian people don’t know what the word “fun” is. They don’t understand “fun” as a general sense or feeling of ease / levity. I don’t know if this is accurate but I asked some Russians what they like to do for fun and they didn’t actually understand. They asked if I meant hobbies and said they only have fun when they go out to a club or s…