Parallel texts...

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Does anybody know where I could find some parallel texts of Russian poetry (ie English and Russian side-by side), and does anybody have any suggestions as to which poets would be good to read, bearing in mind it's for a learner?
Thanks!

Comments

[liz-brujah.livejournal.com]

I don't know abot sites, but I can tell my opinion about poets. Moyakovsky, and Lermontov are best choices. Pushkin is genius, but he used too many neologisms in his poems.

[arrestthisman.livejournal.com]

Анна Ахматова wrote a lot of short poems that are very economical in their wording -- powerful, and definitely something a newbie can approach. I'd heartiy recommend her.

[arrestthisman.livejournal.com]

This is a little different from what you asked, but this site- http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/abvn.htm - has audio files of Nabokov reading some famous Russian poems, and they're lovely. My favorite is Tiutchev's "Silentium," which he reads both in English and in Russian.

[liz-brujah.livejournal.com]

Correction - Mayakovky.
Their names in russian: Маяковский, Лермонтов, Пушкин.

[nale.livejournal.com]

Neologisms? Pushkin?! 8) Where?

2sudentka_hb: strangely enough, the first that comes to mind is Shakespeare - that is, his sonnets translated by S.Marshak (http://poetarium.narod.ru/sheakspear/index.htm). Yes, I know! *LOL* But the thing is that these are beautiful translations and it is really good Russian, IMHO. So, just as an option... :)

[nale.livejournal.com]

Misprinted your nickname, very sorry! :(

[liz-brujah.livejournal.com]

And achaisms too.
Господи, "Зевеса" например. Поэтическая рифма требует иногда неправильного написания слов. Поэтических неологизмов.
For God's sake, "Зевеса", for exaple. Pothic rhyme sometimes demands incorrectly used words.
Poethic neologisms.

[nale.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's right. But compared to neologisms of Mayakovsky... come on! ;)

[liz-brujah.livejournal.com]

Oh, but Mayakovsky wrote this immortal lines:
"В скверах, где харкает туберкулез
Где блядь с хулиганом и сифилис". Isn't it good for learning?
And his later works are good exples of communist's argo. And it's necessary topic for stundends of Russian.

[nale.livejournal.com]

If you would make a table in MS Word and cut and paste :))) from here (http://www.lib.ru/LITRA/PUSHKIN/ENGLISH/onegin_j.txt) and here (http://www.lib.ru/LITRA/PUSHKIN/p4.txt), you'd have parallel text of "Evgenii Onegin" by Pushkin. :) The translation has its faults, and yet it's not that bad.

[rainbowbubble19.livejournal.com]

I tried an online search on Amazon.com for the words "Russian Poetry" and I found some helpful books... Look for books that say "Bilingual Edition"- such as this anthology...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/025320769X/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-3269299-8247038?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

I agree with comments that Akhmatova is a good poet to read in Russian and English. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, which collected works I have... I think the translators are Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward. It was suggested by my Russian professor as very good translations of her work.

Another good collection that was just published in 2003 was Marina Tsvetaeva's "Milestones" translated by Robin Kemball... I went through many of the poems in that edition with my Russian professor who commented it was a very good translation.

[raeyn.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that I own a book of Pushkin with the translations right there, but I'm about to go to bed, so I don't feel like riffling through all my bookcases to find it.. Mebbe I'll look in the morning and get back to you on that :D

xox

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I will keep an eye out for them... :)

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

No probs, and thanks for the link, they look good and I'm printing a load off now... All I've got to do now it train myself to look at the Russian not the English!
Thankyou!

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! Everyone seems to tell me to read Axmatova, I'll definitely have to look some out. I can't seem to find the audio files you linked me to, whereabouts on the site might they be?
Thanks!

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I've done similar searches on Amazon, but my only problem is that they often don't say if they are parallel texts or just translations, and what I really want are side-by-side translations so I can read the Russian but understand the tricky bits via the English!

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Thankyou!

[rainbowbubble19.livejournal.com]

the collections (by those particular translators) i cited are published with the translations parallel to the text... those kind of books are the only books i buy... they're not uncommon; many publishers prefer to have the translations side by side.

[arrestthisman.livejournal.com]

Whoops- it seems like when you link directly, it messes up the frames or something.
Try this- http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/ - and go to "works." The first or second link on the page, about "Nabokov's readings at Harvard," will take you there.

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's cool I didn't realise :) I will have a look on the uk version and hopefully they'll have some of them,
thanks again!

[studentka-hb.livejournal.com]

Amazon is my friend :) Have just bought a couple of the ones you mentioned, now all I've got to do is wait for a week for them to turn up... ;)
Thankyou!

[rainbowbubble19.livejournal.com]

hehe :)

[mesh007.livejournal.com]

http://www.learningrussian.com/library/authors.htm or maybe you already know this link?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Зевес is the correct 18th and 19th century Russian word for Zeus (Greek supreme goddess,) which now we know as Зевс. By no means was it invented by Pushkin.