eugene onegin

[chasestalling]

i saw the film, starring liv tyler and ralph fiennes and am presently skimming through nabokov's translation. the film i thought was first rate. any thoughts on what i should expect from nabokov's translation? a cursory glance of volume 2 (nabokov's notes and commentary) seems to suggest that the reader ought to make every effort to learn russian which makes me think that perhaps i should've obtained a less learned version.

[Wild Apple]

Eugene Onegin is a popular example to give when discussing why one should learn the original language of a book. I didn't read Nabokov's translation, but my translator also mentioned the futility of his task. But I think its OK if you arent familiar with the Russian while reading Nabokov. Otherwise, why would he have translated it into English if you had to also read the Russian to even understand his translation.

That being said, it's not at all a waste to read the translation. I enjoyed it a lot. It's also pretty short, so you aren't going to take up days and days reading it.

[Kurtz]

I just finished this book a few days ago. I ended up reading a translation by James Falen. It is similiar to the Nabakov translation but preserves the original onegin stanzas. On a side, I do not know a lick of Russian. Better to read it in English than not at all!

[Idril]

Eugene Onegin is a popular example to give when discussing why one should learn the original language of a book.

I never feel the need to learn Russian as much as I do when reading Pushkin. I know there is a lot lost in translation, even with prose novels but I think that loss is magnified when you're talking about poetry of Pushkin's caliber.

[chasestalling]

i just read the last four or six stanzas to chapter 4, the stanzas that describe the rake's method of coping with russia's bleak northern winters. it seems clear to me now why pushkin would have chosen a duel to end his life. is anyone privy to pushkin's last known published poetry? was he as sick of life then as he was at the time of composing eugene onegin?

[chasestalling]

must've been a loaded question, my previous post. i'll empty the chambers therefore.

bleak russian northern winters are in chapter 5 something altogether different. the contrast is striking. the details are the thing of course and as of this moment the former makes a more indelible impression. evidently pushkin himself thought as i when composing eugene onegin.

those witty asides speak volumes. such disdain is not possible to dissemble. something other than bleak we may construe our winters to be, but we've heard them all you prating knave....

[Alley]

i've read Onegin in both Russian and English. Though, I suppose, it is true that there are things lost in the translation yet I found the English version quite enjoyable.

As for the movie...the differences between the movie and the book are jarring, at least if you've read the book. Though the Tatiana/Onegin romance line was held out quite well, everything that touched upon Lensky and the Lensky/Onegin dynamic was screwed up because of the little changes they made. They may seem as small changes but they tend to effect characters as a whole. Plus I think Toby was a miss-cast for the role of Vladimir.

[Etienne]

I've bought it recently (as I've never liked reading verse poetry in translation) and afterwards I glanced in the book and I couldn't find the poetry in it (it was basically prose separated in verse). I learned afterwards that there weren't any good French translation, I did know about an English translation by Nabokov and wanted to check it out, I had hopes, but it seems like Pushkin's verse are quite untranslatable as, from what I've read they have poetry while being easy going and flow very naturally, so translation always looses the poetry or the carefree feeling, it seems.

After Biely's works that gave me a second heavy motivation to learn Russian, but as I'm learning German right now, it's something I have to push back and i don't like that.


i've read Onegin in both Russian and English. Though, I suppose, it is true that there are things lost in the translation yet I found the English version quite enjoyable.

Which translation have you read?

[Henry Hoyt]

I'm about to self-publish my own translation of Onegin, unrhymed, but in the EO meter. My intention is to present a version that's truer to the language of the original than is possible when (like most translations to date) it's rhymed, but has more of the spirit of the original than when (like Nabokov's version) it's in prose. When it's available to purchase I'll make another posting in case any member wants to see it. It is bilingual, with the original text printed in parallel with my translation.

[Patrick_Bateman]

i saw the film, starring liv tyler and ralph fiennes and am presently skimming through nabokov's translation. the film i thought was first rate. any thoughts on what i should expect from nabokov's translation? a cursory glance of volume 2 (nabokov's notes and commentary) seems to suggest that the reader ought to make every effort to learn russian which makes me think that perhaps i should've obtained a less learned version.

Liv Tyler??

Oh dear

[Patrick_Bateman]

Lensky's Aria sung by Vladimir Grishko (in the Opera by Tchaikovsky) in great