Re: Garcia Marquez and translation
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Tue, 27 Jan 1998 15:36:51 -0600
> One last question: I've read three different translations of *Crime and
> Punishment* over the years, including, most recently, an oversize edition
> of a translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky that I found
> strange but engaging. I know no Russian of course and was wondering what
> others thought of the various *Crime...* translations.
I read the Garnett translation in two or three marathon sittings in a comfy
chair at Dartmouth, in the library. Very conducive to intense reading, and
I actually enjoyed Garnett.
I think translations of Kafka are more difficult for me to tolerate, since
I have read the first-generation translations so often, it's hard to see it
through another translator's eyes. The 1950s translations by Willa and
Edwin Muir are it for me.
The same with Proust, except that I believe the newer Kilmartin translation
is much, much finer than the 1930s/1940s translation by Scott-Moncrieff.
--tim