What's the best translation for this, is the P&V hate just a meme?

What's the best translation for this, is the P&V hate just a meme?

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commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/
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gogol is not translatable

How do I learn russian then? I live in the American Midwest, where schools didn't offer language classes besides spanish.

All I can say is the hate is not a meme. Disregard any translation done by them.

I think their translations are great. I emailed Harold Bloom a couple of months ago for his opinion on P&V and he responded that "they are a remarkable couple." Ignore the hate.

Yes, they are a remarkable couple for their ass-backwards translation paradigm.

I just emailed my good friend Bloom & he said you never emailed him about it.

I'd not risk honestly. They surely aren't getting memed because they're too good.

P&V have a problem of severely reducing the lexicon of any text they translate. They invariably end up re-using stock phrases where the original text didn't, and they are frankly far too literal.

I'd draw attention to the translation of Brothers Karamazov, where on the first page they constantly call Fyodor "muddleheaded" with no regard for that sounding fucking terrible, and they do that all the time. Anyone but P&V or Garnett desu

commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/
>When Chichikov first arrives in town, we are told that “there was something substantial about the ways of this gentleman, and when he blew his nose he did so exceedingly loudly,” as if somehow the loud nose-blowing was proof of substantiality. P&V put it this way: “The gentleman’s manners had something solid about them, and he blew his nose with exceeding loudness.” Not only is the connection between the two clauses weakened, but “solid manners” is too earnest a notion for the author. Gogol does something inventive and strange in almost every sentence, and that’s where this book’s real energy lies. To be flat-footed and literal as if that were enough is to make a lively masterpiece into a dead soul.

No translation is perfect, but I'd avoid theirs.

When in doubt go for P&V. Although I've decided to go for different translators for different authors to avoid getting the same feel for them all.(Went P&V for all of Dosto)

I read Donald Rayfield translation of Dead Souls, haven't read any other translation of the book though so I got nothing to compare with but I sure liked it. Anyone knows how his stacks up against other translations?

Also I never read female translators for male authors. ;^) So i'll never read Garnett.

They're getting memed because they're so popular. Veeky Forums hipsterism shouldn't be underestimated.

I don't hate them generally, but P&V are awful for Gogol. They make it far too stiff, stifle his humor, spoil his atmosphere, and they're too inconsistent with when they do or don't translate a local term he uses. Use any other. Gogol's too good to be completely spoiled by a lackluster translation, but don't use p&v.

Even Garnett is sometimes fine when there's an edited and corrected version. P&V have no excuse.

Any narrative novel is translatable.

>I never read female translators for male authors
Well you clearly did so for all of dostoevsky

There is a reason why the P comes first

Because the woman does all the translating and the man just makes it grammatically correct?

Yes, he turns it into English.

There's nothing wrong with Garnett

Has anyone read Nabokov's translation of Gogol/Pushkin?

The pushkin is shit, don't bother. Gogol probably came out the same too.

Pushkin is largely untranslatable save for the short stories. His turn of phrase and verbiage ""in Russian"" is what really makes you cum.

What about gogol translate?