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Has anybody here read anyhting by Vladimir Majakovski? Right know I´m reading "Cloud in trousers" and would like somebody to discuss it with. I hope there is a good english translation, this is the only part I found when doing a quick search.
People sniff -
there's a smell of burnt flesh!
Here come some men.
All shining!
In helmets!
No heavy boots please!
Tell the firemen
to go gently when the heart's on fire.
(from Cloud in Trousers)
oh, yeah...."Demona - the unfortunate one to read it." hopefully, i will not have to do that again. Of course, there are some appealing poems but all in all...*&^$*^#*&^%#*&^$*
But what do you think about it?
Dear Isagel, I'm russian and I must tell you, that your piece of translation of "Cloud in trousers" is so pour, so dull and boring... The only thing I can advise you is to learn russian ("I would learn russian only because, THAT it was spoken by Lenin"). But if seriously, I can't find normal translations in english of russian poetry and even prose. There are some good translations of Pushkin by Nabokov, there are a lot of good translations of Brodsky... But I can tell you, that there are no normal translations of english literature in russian either. The only thing we can try is do it by ourselves. What do you think?
how does your translation go? (not being acquainted with any russianisms except nyet and "shka" i.e., petershka)
Dear Mr Zubrov- Yes, the translation is horrible. Sorry. I´ve read it in swedish and the words sound better.I´m not sure if they are true to the original, though.
Please translate it better for me! Please! I could try and translate from the swedish copy to english but I do not want to slaughter Majakovskis poetry.
I would really like to learn russian,but I just do not have the time.
Maybe when I retire.
It's THE problem of translations. They are always duller than the original. Even the good ones can't help it. But they're necessary, as we can't learn a whole language everytime we want to learn something. (and you need a damn good level to fully understand a poem in a language that it's not yours!!!)
That said, Russian is so rich and -I'd say- peculiar in its word-formation, that it's impossible not to lose something. Pushkin in Italian is so awfully boring, Pushkin in original sounds so good, even if I can't understand much of it without explanation...
I'd like to see the original of this poem, I'll try to look for it on the internet... Peter Zubrov, help us find it, you might be quicker! :)
you can read the thing in Russian
here
as to translation, I think that there still are cases when a translation is better than the original - and i did see that - but of course it is a rather personal style preference thing.
Thanks. Hey, it is SO much longer than that little quote at the start of the thread!!!Quote:
Found this thread to say Happy Birthday! to Peter Zubrov, et al, and was obligated to find a translation in English I could relate to. Appears to be pre-RR (1914)... no, I do not know Russian but it appears to be a better translation than the OP's...
https://russianfuturists.wordpress.c...users-english/
Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor