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silkm0ths's review
3.0
A bit hit or miss, some I really loved some I found a bit silly but i havent read poetry in a little while.... I read this in English so perhaps it's better in Russian....
spacestationtrustfund's review
3.0
Jon Stallworthy and Peter France are both excellent writers, as is evidenced in how beautiful their translations of Aleksandr Blok's poems are. In terms of pure poeticism, this translation is nonpareil, and I'd highly recommend it. But that could easily be determined from reading a preview, or something, so instead I'll focus on the translation. Here is the first poem in the book:
You probably noticed that this poem rhymes. This is a red flag in any translation of poetry, because it's almost impossible for a poem to have the same metre and rhyme scheme in multiple different languages; in this case, the Russian original does rhyme, but is a bit different. Here's the original poem, written on 10 June 1900 and titled after its incipit:A RED GLOW IN THE SKYA red glow in the sky, the dead night underground.
The pine trees imprison me in their dark destiny,
but unmistakably there comes the sound
of a far distant, undiscovered city.
You will make out houses in heavy rows,
and towers, and the silhouette of buttresses,
and gardens behind stone walls sombre with shadows,
and arrogant ramparts of ancient fortresses.
Unmistakeably from submerged centuries
The piercing mind makes ready for dawning
the long forgotten roar of silted cities
and the rhythm of life returning.
For purposes of comparison, here's a rather hasty translation of my own, trying to preserve as much of the syntax and word order as possible:На небе зарево. Глухая ночь мертва...На небе зарево. Глухая ночь мертва.
Толпится вкруг меня лесных дерев громада,
Но явственно доносится молва
Далекого, неведомого града.
Ты различишь домов тяжелый ряд,
И башни, и зубцы бойниц его суровых,
И темные сады за камнями оград,
И стены гордые твердынь многовековых.
Так явственно из глубины веков
Пытливый ум готовит к возрожденью
Забытый гул погибших городов
И бытия возвратное движенье.
In the sky is a glow. The deaf night is dead.Many of these words have multiple meanings depending on context; I picked the first ones that came to mind, to be honest. The vocative is the second-person singular familiar (ты not вы). This more literal translation is nowhere near as poetic as Stallworthy's and France's, and certainly nothing compared to the original poem, but I hope it demonstrates the discrepancies between the original poems and the translators' versions. The rest of the poems included in this collection have suffered very similar treatment. As I mentioned at the beginning, I'd recommend this book as its own distinct book of poetry, but in terms of accuracy to Blok's original poetry... I don't think so.
Clustering around me is the forest trees' mass,
But distinctly is heard the rumour
A distant, unknown city.
You will make out houses in a heavy row,
And towers, and battlements of its embrasures austere,
And dark gardens beyond stone fences,
And proud walls of citadels centuries old.
So distinctly from the depths of centuries
An inquisitive mind prepares for rebirth
Forgotten boom of perished cities
And existence is a recurrent motion.
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