Lament of the skies

Posted by Janine on 08 Nov 2005 in blog

I haven't seen it rain this much since I was in New York. And oh how it rains! I had to walk down a hill, water also likes to go down hills, it felt like I was walking in a stream, it really did.
'Soaked to the bone' would be an apt phrase to use. Oh, now I regret going back up to uni for that optional seminar, that I do.

*is wet*

As it is, I had a nice weekend at home with my parents, not doing much bar reading up on local history.
I also finished reading Samuel Pepys, and what a note of dispair the diary finishes in, poor guy. That in turn means that I was able to begin reading Anna Karenin. I'm quite excited about that, I've never read any Tolstoy before. It seems good so far, the story is engaging and I quite like the way he writes, everyone seems so animated, it's quite nice.

The other thing of note is that I watched the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse yesterday. Sadly it wasn't as funny as it could have been (some of the humour seemed to have been replaced with action and plot) but it was by no means bad. I want a watch like Tubbs' one.

You know, the opening song from Paradise Kiss is growing on me.

4 comments

Comment from: Janine Member

Hmmm…I wonder if my transation is as bad as that….
But I’m pretty sure that my book was printed before 1998, so it won’t have anything to do with that good translation.
Not that I’ve read any of it for ages though, no time ._.

Comment from: Mariya Visitor

This translator was not mentioned in the article, but one of the major translators Constance Garnett had problems with her texts. She would quite often skip a word or a phrase if she could not translate it. (grrr) On the other hand, Pevera and Volokhonsky’s 1998 translation of “Anna Karenina” is considered quite good.

Comment from: Janine Member

My translation is by one Rosemary Edmonds. Translated in 1954 and revised in 1978. I have no idea if the translation is a good one or not, but it reads well. Although I very much doubt that it will be as good as the original language version. Ah, I would learn Russian if I had the aptitude for languages.

Moo is er…on holiday…or maybe…busy? Somewhere? I’m sure she’s around somewhere…

Comment from: mariya Visitor

So you’re reading Tolstoy now? Whose translation do you have?I read Anna Karenina a while back and found it to be one of the most amazing books, but I did read it in Russian, and so much of Tolstoy’s magic is in the language. I think I heard that Joyce (or it could have been another English writer) learned Italian so that he could read Dante’s works in their origial language, so how about taking up Russian ;) Actually, last week I read a fascinating article in the New Yorker about various translations of Russian classics into English and it would be so interesting to know whose translation you have.
P.S. What happened to Moo? Have not seen her here in a while

Form is loading...