I am reading Dostoevsky's "The Idiot". I am really enjoying reading this old book published by Random House under their "THE MODERN LIBRARY", collection.
It says the book was translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett. The book reads well and I assumed that Random House would employ only the best of translators.
I came across an expression that I wasn't sure of (a little embarrassed here) it's meaning: Rira bien qui rira le dernier. The phrase was printed in italics in my book, and, my eyes being less than adequate these days, I thought the verb was spelled, "riva", my eyesight mistaking the italicized r for a v. Of course, this didn't have any meaning, even on the Internet.
I became more interested.
I did what I often do, in times of agitation and doubtfulness (apparently, not a word) went to The Literature Network, online-literature.com. I was astounded to find the translation was markedly different, in fact, the famous French expression does not even appear at all in the online text version!
My head swam! Could Constance Garnett have decided to use this French expression meaning: "he laughs best who laughs last", to convey some meaning set down by Dostoevsky??!! I imagined, Dostoevsky quoted the French expression directly in his work, right?
All throughout his work here, and other works I have read, idiomatic expressions in other languages are used to convey meanings.
An example of this, was his earlier use of the Italian, "se non e vero...", which I did understand actually, an expression meaning, "if it isn't true...", where the implication is, "if it isn't true, it ought to be", kind of thing.
I don't even dare to go look that one up. MY POINT IS: do translators have this level of license? Would they purport to know when to use some foreign language idiom, ALL ON THEIR OWN??
I don't mind telling you that one of the reasons I'm reading this great classic is for the very reason that it is a great classic. Must, or should I learn Russian and suffer through the original work in order to grasp Dostoevsky's real secret?
I don't suppose this means the sky is falling or anything, it just kind of let the air out of my balloon a little. Any thoughts?