tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4637301705240503132..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Damn books, be silent - some Alexander BlokAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-7908630848750853972017-03-08T09:16:05.045-06:002017-03-08T09:16:05.045-06:00Yes, perfect. As you see in the next post, I thin...Yes, perfect. As you see in the next post, I think non-traditional translations are the way to go. Bold, translator, be bold.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48287889517333840702017-03-08T07:54:15.188-06:002017-03-08T07:54:15.188-06:00He was a wonderful poet, but you can't really ...He was a wonderful poet, but you can't really tell that from translations into English. Fortunately, Hugh MacDiarmid remedies that with his brilliant Scots versions in his epic <i><a href="http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/epochmag/contents4/thistle1.html" rel="nofollow">A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle</a></i> (which I recommend to all and sundry). Scroll down at that link until you get to his version of Blok's "Neznakomka" [the unknown woman], which begins:<br /><br /><i>At darknin hings abune the howff<br />A weet and wild and eisenin air.<br />Spring's spirit wi its waesome sough<br />Rules owre the drucken stramash there<br /><br />And heich abune the vennel's pokiness,<br />Whaur aa the white-weshed cottons lie,<br />The Inn's sign blinters in the mochiness,<br />And lood and shrill the bairnies cry.</i><br /><br />The language takes getting used to, of course, but it should give you a sense of the impact of the original.Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-65074626401489251972017-03-07T10:38:32.278-06:002017-03-07T10:38:32.278-06:00Ha, yes, a great anti-Goethe snarl there. Blok li...Ha, yes, a great anti-Goethe snarl there. Blok likes the Byzantine aspect of Ravenna, presumably because it is almost Russian. But the Renaissance, Romanticism - oh no.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-36222197646127820482017-03-07T00:36:28.790-06:002017-03-07T00:36:28.790-06:00That Florence poem certainly isn't the "y...That Florence poem certainly isn't the "yes" Camus found in Florence in the midst of his general revolt. And there's nothing quite like the profundity of deception that a foreign writer who suddenly turns on Italy can produce. Blok's Florence poem reminds me of Evelyn Waugh's assessment of a visit to Mt. Etna:<br /><br /><i>I do not think I shall ever forget the sight of Etna at sunset; the mountains almost invisible in a blur of pastel grey, glowing on the top and then repeating its shape, as thought reflected, in a wisp of smoke, with the whole horizon behind radiant with pink light, fading gently into a grey pastel sky. Nothing I have ever seen in Art or Nature was quite so revolting.</i>seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.com