Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy the following conditions”

Re:Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy th... by kbenson on Tuesday March 14, 2017 @01:23PM (#13869528)

I wonder how much of that has to do with it having been translated by people of that period into a classical style of that period. For recent history, maybe that yields "official" translations that are into an older English form that is harder for modern people to read.

For example, is a 19th century translation of an ancient Greek text also somewhat impenetrable compared to a more contemporary translation? How much of the problem is that the translation may not target English as we expect it in its current common form?

Is it common (possible?) to find "from scratch" translations from the last 30-40 years of classical Russian literature?

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Re:Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy th... by frandroid on Tuesday March 14, 2017 @05:28PM (#13871632)

Apparently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pevear_and_Larissa_Vol... have made translations of Dostoyevsky which are eminently more readable than the rest. I've started reading their translation of The Master and Margarita and I'm enjoying it a lot.

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Re:Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy th... by defen on Tuesday March 14, 2017 @06:26PM (#13872054)

> I've started reading their translation of The Master and Margarita and I'm enjoying it a lot.

I'll have to check that out - I enjoyed their War & Peace. I found Ginsburg's translation of The Master and Margarita to be unreadably bad. There was just no joy in it whatsoever, to the point where I was wondering why it was such a famous book. It's been a while, but I recall the adjective use being terribly wooden. So many sentences with the basic structure "X walked down the long broad beautiful street. He spoke with the tall bespectacled bearded man" etc. It was quite tiresome.

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Re:Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy th... by frandroid on Wednesday March 15, 2017 @01:51PM (#13878203)

It has a ton of footnotes explaining the background and in-jokes on the specific names and characters invoked. They really enrich the novel in ways that a non-religiously educated person like me would miss. The preface is really excellent too.

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Re:Chekhov: “Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy th... by makmanalp on Tuesday March 14, 2017 @01:40PM (#13869679)

Well, there for sure are rows over the best translation of, say, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Hays for the enthusiasts, Long for the classicists.

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