Dr. Zhivago Translation Options

[DTLA]

Anyone have any idea what translation USAD is intending to use?

[Widget!]

We won't know until the outlines are posted, unfortunately.

[Cody]

According to the CAD Facebook page, "USAD is using the Hayward and Harari translation of Doctor Zhivago published by Pantheon Books, ISBN 0-679-77438-6."

[acadecker]

We have some serious issues here in regards to the novel. According to USAD:

2012–2013 CURRICULUM
Information regarding Doctor Zhivago Translation
The featured novel for 2012–2013 will be Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. The novel translation is the version published by Pantheon Press in 1997, Hayward and Harari translation:

ISBN-10: 0679774386

ISBN-13: 978-0679774389

USAD’s 2012–13 Language and Literature Resource Guide has been written based on the Hayward and Harari translation of Doctor Zhivago published by Pantheon Books. It has come to USAD’s attention that this version of the novel has recently been taken out of print. USAD has a limited quantity of the novel available for purchase. The Hayward and Harari translation is also used in the Everyman’s Library version of Doctor Zhivago published by Random House (ISBN-13: 9780679407591, ISBN-10: 0679407596). While the pagination of the Random House/ Everyman’s Library version of Doctor Zhivago differs from that of the Pantheon Books version, the content is the same.

So . . .

The problem is, the USAD Lang Lit Guide is already written, and you know USAD--they're not going to pay to rewrite it. Meaning, the tests are going to be based upon the earlier H&H translation. So, if you try to get the current (2010) translation, there will be numerous differences, as the follwing article by Pasternak's neice clearly points out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/0...nak-translation

Here is an excerpt from her article, which compares the two translations:

BEGIN QUOTE

"Volokhonsky-Pevear are ruled by the principle of literal fidelity, Hayward-Harari by the imperatives of clarity, elegance and euphony. Take Pasternak's description of a moonlit night rich with suppressed passion. In Hayward-Harari's version it begins:

"An enormous crimson moon rose behind the rooks' nests in the Countess's garden. At first it was the colour of the new brick mill in Zybushino; then it turned yellow like the water-tower at Biryuchi."

The unauthorised, italicised words clarify the implicit chromatic scale of the brightening moon.

Volokhonsky-Pevear have:

"Beyond the crows' nests of the countess's garden appeared a blackish purple moon of monstrous dimensions. At first it looked like the brick steam mill in Zybushino; then it turned yellow like the Biriuchi railway pump house."

Tiny things undermine the effect here – the irrelevant nautical associations of crows' nests; the ugly improbability of a bruised, "monstrous", "blackish purple moon" (the translators have chosen the wrong dictionary alternatives between enormous and monstrous, and crimson and purple). It's hard to see how the moon can look like a "brick steam mill". Instead of Hayward-Harari's soaring "water-tower", Volokhonsky-Pevear plump for the (equally correct but bathetic) "railway pump house". The sentence flops onto its bottom like a toddler. Hayward-Harari suggest colours sumptuous as a Goncharova, and convey Pasternak's fascination for nature fused with mechanised modernity.

END QUOTE

Can't you just see the USAD Lang Lit test writer asking about whether the moon was crimson or purple, and/or if it was enormous or monstrous??

These are just a FEW of the differences in the translations.

USAD says that they have a LIMITED quantity of the correct version on hand. So . . . if USAD runs out of the correct version, what then? I've already had a lot of fun trying to figure this out. Right now, Walmart has the correct trasnlation, but not official USAD version at the cheapest price. HOWEVER, what if the official version has an introduction and/or a biography of Pasternak--things that have ALWAYS been used as test question material--what then? If only some teams have those versions, what then?

[Widget!]

I really don't agree with Slater on...anything. Hahaha, at all. I liked the excerpts of Nabokov's Onegin that I read, and I agree with his view that translations should necessarily read like translations. But all that aside; holy smurf was this an oversight. Seriously, USAD?

I honestly don't even know what they could do about keeping questions like that out of the tests, other than to have a control group of people who've only read the P&V translation to throw out the bad questions...

EDIT: Also, WTF is she talking about with the line about a "Goncharova"? Is she making a reference to Anna Goncharova?

This post has been edited by Widget!: Mar 20 2012, 07:41 PM

[swaswa]

I think they can still be purchased online.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010KL2V...me=&seller=

[acadecker]

I think they can still be purchased online.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010KL2V...me=&seller=

The problem with this link (and many others like it) is . . . in this case, it lists 70 used books, all in various conditions, and all from separate vendors. So, If I want a class set of 30 books, using this link I have to get 30 different books from 30 different vendors, and pay shipping each time. And, they are not going to all be the same version, which makes teaching a class difficult: "please turn to page 48 and . . . oops, everyone's page 48 is different."

I can live with that; it's the intro/biography differences, etc. Plus, trying to purchase a class set by trying to do a purchase requisition for 30 different sellers? Don't even get me started on that.

[swaswa]

I think they can still be purchased online.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010KL2V...me=&seller=

The problem with this link (and many others like it) is . . . in this case, it lists 70 used books, all in various conditions, and all from separate vendors. So, If I want a class set of 30 books, using this link I have to get 30 different books from 30 different vendors, and pay shipping each time. And, they are not going to all be the same version, which makes teaching a class difficult: "please turn to page 48 and . . . oops, everyone's page 48 is different."

I can live with that; it's the intro/biography differences, etc. Plus, trying to purchase a class set by trying to do a purchase requisition for 30 different sellers? Don't even get me started on that.

Yeah, that's definitely a pain :/. USAD seems to be slipping up a lot lately.

[swaswa]

Anyone manage to find a good audiobook of the specific translation?

[Sean Lev]

Just a heads up, it appears that all of the copies on barnes and noble have been dropping like flies lately, The last time I checked, barnes and noble had 23 copies of the right translation, but now they have 15(14 in a few minutes)

[the_crazy_honors]

Gahh. My team took a little field trip to Borders two hours after we found out the theme and bought every copy they had...of the wrong translation. I personally think DemiDec could make a lot of money selling a guide that goes over important differences between the translations... *nudge, wink*

[Herohito]

Gahh. My team took a little field trip to Borders two hours after we found out the theme and bought every copy they had...of the wrong translation. I personally think DemiDec could make a lot of money selling a guide that goes over important differences between the translations... *nudge, wink*

The non-USAD translation is more detailed, but more of a pain to read because it more closely follows Russian grammar.
If that doesn't bother you, there probably aren't many more significant differences.

[the_crazy_honors]

Gahh. My team took a little field trip to Borders two hours after we found out the theme and bought every copy they had...of the wrong translation. I personally think DemiDec could make a lot of money selling a guide that goes over important differences between the translations... *nudge, wink*

The non-USAD translation is more detailed, but more of a pain to read because it more closely follows Russian grammar.
If that doesn't bother you, there probably aren't many more significant differences.

Ah, good to know. Thanks.

[Herohito]

Gahh. My team took a little field trip to Borders two hours after we found out the theme and bought every copy they had...of the wrong translation. I personally think DemiDec could make a lot of money selling a guide that goes over important differences between the translations... *nudge, wink*

The non-USAD translation is more detailed, but more of a pain to read because it more closely follows Russian grammar.
If that doesn't bother you, there probably aren't many more significant differences.

Ah, good to know. Thanks.

Make sure to look up any unfamiliar phrases. Proverbs are huge in Russian (used commonly in conversation), and their meaning could easily be lost on the reader.