"What's in my name for you?
By Alexander Pushkin
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Russian
What’s in my name for you? What good?
It will just die like the sad sound
of waves that splash their last on ground,
like a night noise in toneless wood.
Lifeless its marks will lie among
these album pages: the design
of someone's epitaphic line
in some unfathomable tongue.
What's in it then? Lost to the past
in new emotions' wild infection,
upon your soul it will not cast
the tender rays of recollection.
But one day, sorrowful and still,
pronounce it with a sigh and say
"There is a memory of me still,
a heart I live in to this day!”
By Alexander Pushkin
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Russian
What’s in my name for you? What good?
It will just die like the sad sound
of waves that splash their last on ground,
like a night noise in toneless wood.
Lifeless its marks will lie among
these album pages: the design
of someone's epitaphic line
in some unfathomable tongue.
What's in it then? Lost to the past
in new emotions' wild infection,
upon your soul it will not cast
the tender rays of recollection.
But one day, sorrowful and still,
pronounce it with a sigh and say
"There is a memory of me still,
a heart I live in to this day!”
The Original:
Что в имени тебе моём? Оно умрёт, как шум печальный Волны, плеснувшей в берег дальный, Как звук ночной в лесу глухом. Оно на памятном листке Оставит мёртвый след, подобный Узору надписи надгробной На непонятном языке. Что в нём? Забытое давно В волненьях новых и мятежных, Твоей душе не даст оно Воспоминаний чистых, нежных. Но в день печали, в тишине, Произнеси его тоскуя; Скажи: есть память обо мне, Есть в мире сердце, где живу я… | Čto v ímeni tebé mojëm? Onó umrët, kak šum pečáľnyj Volný, pľesnúvšej v béreg dáľnyj, Kak zvuk nočnój v ľesú gluhóm. Onó na pámjatnom listké Ostávit mërtvyj sled, podóbnyj Uzóru nádpisi nadgróbnoj na neponjátnom jazyké. Čto v nëm? Zabýtoje davnó V volnénjah nóvyh i mjatéžnyh, Tvojéj dušé ne dast onó Vospominánij čístyh, néžnyh. No v denj pečáli v tišiné, Proiznesí jegó toskúja; Skaží: jestj pámjatj óbo mne, Jestj v míre sérdce gde živú ja... |
Posts
Thank you for this. I used this translation and sound file (beautifully read, by the way) in a high school English class I teach. Most of my students are Russian and Ukrainian Americans, by the way.
ReplyDeleteBut on a day of hushed regret
ReplyDeletepronounce it with a sigh of pain,
and tell the cold: “There's memory yet!
There is one heart where I remain.”
Why is this bad? 'Hushed regret' is Auden, its a suburban English Doctor's son's English, not Russian.
Also you dont rhyme regret with yet. They don't have equal valency.
But, look at whom I'm talking to!
Yo, blood, drink my cum. You're shit and you know it.
You could do- but you can't, you're crap- do you actually understand what Venuti was saying you risible purveyor of but your own rancid smegma?
ReplyDeleteOn a snow muffled day of frost and fire
All breath, smoke, and smoke but ire
Memory is yet its tree
In the lungs or Regret, yet we.
That's English. What you wrote aint. It's shite.
Bet you don't understand why.
The only way to translate a poem is by writing a poem. You can't do that. Why? Coz u don't know English.
Most excellent! Вам удалось сохранить не только ритм, рифму и размер, но и возвышенный слог, и изящество стиля, и романтическую грусть. СУПЕР!
ReplyDeleteLulz. You actually think languages have essences. "All Indo-Aryan languages.." Jesus H Christ. What can I say to someone who transforms language mythology into language religion without even realizing what an idiot he sounds like in so doing? Polysemy can be fostered by a transparent enough etymology. It's the reason why "a journeyman from far away" means something slightly more than "an apprentice from far away" as a line of tetrameter. Were you a reader, instead of valiantly pretending to be one, you might actually realize the true possibilities of this. Were you literate in either of the two languages involved, you'd know why I went for *this* particular instance of it.
ReplyDelete