several

[ateolf]

yesterday Mary Beth and i went over to Justin's and watched too much tv...we did watch Little Miss Sunshine...the commercials had made me not want to see it, but it was a pleasant surprise...we also went to this nearby pita place (called Pita Wraps, i think, it's on poplar right in front of the clark tower, by smooth moves) it was very good...on my way to work today i had a minor scare...coming off the interstate to the street my workplace is on (it's the first street you cross, a wide-open bit of a stretch with no cross-traffic, etc) i sped up to pass someone before turning and then i look in my rearview and there's a cop right behind me...i turned and he turned but he didn't pull me over or nothing...quite probably wasn't even a traffic cop...but that's a bit of a scare...and on a "special needs" day wouldn't that just be nice? anyway...just came home to a bunch of mail...a couple of orders at once: Petersburg by Andrei Bely, Incidences by Daniil Kharms, Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, and Three Plays by Kōbō Abe...just called my insurace company about my windshiled...they'll be coming by to my home tomorrow while i'm asleep and i don't even have to be there and it don't cost nothin' either...so hopefully by the time i'm awake and on my way it'll be ready...

Comments

[la-musica-pop.livejournal.com]

Did you get the Bely because of Nabokov? That's been on my wish list for a while, but I haven't been able to decide which version to get. One has tons of footnotes, but is supposed to be a poor translation. A better translation exists, but I don't think it has the footnotes (and I'm sure I would need them). Augh! What to do? Which one did you go with?

[ateolf.livejournal.com]

yes, i did get the Bely because of Nabokov...well, that's where its existence was brought to my attention...and then i looked it up and it sounded good (well, and then yeah, it's not many a book Nabokov actually RECOMMENDS...so that does help get your interest...) i got the version on Indiana University Press...it's the version with notes...the only other translation i saw was on Grove Press and it seemed weird 'cuz his name was spelled differently ("Biely"? and it was called "St. Petersburg"...and that seemed weird...i'm pretty sure that's the first english translation, and the one i got is newer...not always means it's better, but often a newer translation makes use of the benefits of having seen previous translations, etc...) but from what i hear the way the book's written there isn't really any translation that's anywhere near perfect 'cuz it's one of those impossible-to-translate books...

[la-musica-pop.livejournal.com]

Well, not that it matters at all, but Biely is a more accurate transliteration of his name.
Maybe someday (never) I won't need a stinkin' translation.
In Soviet Russia, book translates you!

[ateolf.livejournal.com]

interesting...i wasn't sure, but "Bely" is the spelling that comes up more commonly elsewhere...actually, i don't think "Biely" came up anywhere else, not that i did anything more than a superficial gander on the internet out of a moment's curiosity...well, translations can be crazy things anyway...

[la-musica-pop.livejournal.com]

Well, okay. I know this is more information than you care about, but here goes....
In Russian, his name is spelled Белый, so it makes sense to translate that as Bely. However, the Russian letter 'е' is actually pronounced like 'ye,' thus Biely.
I don't know this to be true, but I would bet that the version of the book that spells his name as Biely is a British edition. Those limey jerks always spell Russian stuff different from us.

[ateolf.livejournal.com]

hey, i'm a nerd like that so when it comes to grammar, etc there's never more information than i care to know! it was published by an american company (Grove Press) and the translator was american too (though an emigré who came here from russia when he was 10...) also the "Biely" version is titled "St. Petersburg" instead of "Petersburg"...the original, i'm seeing is "Петербург"...that's something where i could see how it could go either way even though i know nothing about russian...but convention seems to have since gone with "Bely" and "Petersburg" (even if the others might be more correct...) so, to me, "Bely" seems more correct since that's what "everyone else" calls him...so that was party why i leaned that way...

and speaking of translations of titles...it's pretty interesting to look at the revisions of Proust's In Search of Lost Time...where the original translation took liberties and for a long time it was Remembrance of Things Past (one edition still calls it that...) a lot of the volume titles have recently been "updated" too to be more literally accurate...but Swann's Way still stays the same (in the us, not in england) even though The Way By Swann's is more literally accurate...probably just 'cuz that title is so familiar and ingrained or whatever (though, i guess not in england...) but, of course, it's always a fine line as to what's more "accurate" in translation...in being super-literal you can lose a lot too...that's one thing Nabokov was definitely wrong about...but golly i seem to be going off on a tangent...so...

[la-musica-pop.livejournal.com]

This is only kinda related to the topic, but very neat.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alphabets.htm

[la-musica-pop.livejournal.com]

Also, I want to compare this new version of Incidences with my old one. Mine supposedly has all of Kharms' "incidences" in it, but I want to make sure that I don't need to buy it again.

[ateolf.livejournal.com]

i don't THINK there's anything new...just that it went out of print then ended up back in print with a different cover...of course i don't have any means of comparison...but i've seen nothing like "new! never-before-..." about it so...i assume you're safe...but you're more than welcome to scope out the goods...