yes, great topic.

artappraiser — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 05:22:44 +0000

In reply to On the Art of Translating: Constance Garnett

yes, great topic.

compare his translation of Gogol’s sleighbells in Dead Souls to Garnett’s. Chudnym zvonom zalivayetsya kolokolchik becomes:

Garnett: “The ringing of the bells melts into music.”

Nabokov: “The middle bell trills out in a dream its liquid soliloquy.”

Who, do you think, has the tin ear?

These are too different things and this why revisionism is bad but appropriation is good.

Nabokov was a genius artist of his time, and he's appropriating there. He combines his personality and culture with one from the past.

We should still want the past. And we should want it accurate. We can have both. Nabokov is pulling Gogol into 20th century, adding his own brain, making a new meme. Garnett gives you pure original Gogol.

Nabokov was dismissive because Garnett's work is like a craft and he's into art. But we need craftspeople like her or art would die with the artist.

dagblog - Comments for "On the Art of Translating: Constance Garnett"

yes, great topic.