Crime and Punishment - comparing translations
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2023
- Another simple but dazzling video on translations. This time on 'Crime & Punishment' by Dostoyevsky. Does Raskolnikov live in a garret, a closet-like room, a tiny room, or a closet? Does he suffer from hypochondria or depression? What does poverty do to him? Crush him? Suffocate him? Cause him pain? How does he not feel about it all? Craven and browbeaten? Cowardly and abject? Fearful and cowed? Cowardly and downtrodden? How does he feel about it? Irritable, tense state of mind? Tense and irritable? Irritable and anxious? Irritable and tense? Annoyed and overly tense?
Here are the translations I refer to:
Oliver Ready:
www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishme...
James Hardy:
www.amazon.com/Punishment-Sig...
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky:
www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishme...
Michael R. Katz:
www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishme...
Proud to be your son ♥️
Good lad! Your father is breaking down Russian books into English … from one foreign language into another! And he’s doing it free of charge, for anyone to enjoy and benefit from his knowledge. That’s a noble pursuit.
Of the four, I liked the Katz the best. Thanks for the comparison!
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this video. I adore Dostoyevsky, but when I read Pevear's "Underground", in the *first paragraph* I knew something was wrong. Since then, I have been obsessed w/ translations. I want the CORRECT one, but I don't read Russian! So I very much rely on someone like you, and I am now convinced as to which one I should read, and it isn't Oliver Ready's or certainly Pevear's, amd none of these damn "critical" editions...
Which one then
I enjoy these comparison videos. I've read the garnett, the magarshak (a 1960s penguin classic), and the recent Katz. Hard to pick a favorite, probably the Katz, but still enjoy the Garnett.
Man I just bought garnnett version , and it's my first time reading Dostoyevsky, should i return and buy Katz?
@@Jcactus213 I dont think so. Katz is good, but so is Garnett.
@@davidhall8656 thanks🤟
@@Jcactus213 I'm about halfway thru the new Katz bros k now, and while it's good, i still prefer the avsey.
@@davidhall8656 I have heard Oliver ready version is the best
iam reading Katz now and i love it
I might try Katz, but I also might stick with another Mcduff translation. Thanks for the video!
I enjoy your translation videos and I like how you avoid saying one is the best, but that they are different and may suit different readers. I have read the Magarshack and McDuff and didn’t enjoy the latter. I also have P&V on the shelf but unread. It says something about this book that there are so many translations!
One thing that I have always wondered about is the naming of the places in the first paragraph - some use the full names and some just the initials - what is going on here? Were they named in the original?
Thank you! I have noticed a difference regarding the names of people. As far as I know in Russian the full name in three parts is often mentioned but in some translations they are minimized as just Fyodor or Karamazov. I guess each translator chose what they thought was best.
Which english translation would you recommend for someone who has english as a second language? I've read a lot in my life so proficiency might not be a problem, but I have very little experience with classics.
I enjoyed Oliver Ready a lot but Sidney Monas is just lovely. A translation not talked about that often but which is wonderful. Ready is quite British but Monas has another tone.
@@patrik_bergman I compared the two, and Monas is quite good as well. But I'm probably going to go with Ready, it's been recommended quite a bit and the cover is very interesting. Thank you!
The translation I own is by David McDuff. Any comments on that?
Not for Crime and Punishment but for The Brothers Karamazov. For me, his use of language is just a bit too much in the sense of words chosen etc. But he is an excellent translator so see what you think.