Good beginnigs of the bad

[Senna Jawa]

Here is a quote from wikipedia about great Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov:

Lermontov's poetic development was unusual. His earliest unpublished work that he circulated through his friends in the military was pornographic in the extreme, with elements of sadism. His subsequent reputation was clouded by this, so much so that admission of familiarity with Lermontov's poetry was not permissible for any young upper-class woman for a good part of 19th century. These poems were published only once, in 1924, as part of a scholarly edition of Lermontov's complete works (edited by Irakly Andronikov).​

That's nice. However:

During his lifetime, Lermontov published only one slender collection of poems (1840). Three volumes, much mutilated by censorship, were published a year after his death.​

Lermontov died in a duel, killed by a fellow soldier.

I've checked a few translations of Lermontov's poems into English and gave up. It's too depressing to see how his poems are botched up. It's hard to get their melody and voice in English.

Lermontov paid dearly for his poetry. For his poem about the Pushkin's death (also in a duel), Lermontov was sent into exile, to fight Caucasian tribes--Lermontov was a professional officer. Born in 1814, he died in 1841, well before his 27th birthday.

 

[wildsweetone]

Senna, hello ,

i saw the thread title and was instantly reminded of this which stunningly seems like only yesterday.

i was recently looking at poems in other languages and then their translations into english.

and looking up Mikhail's poems, i am struck anew...

how is it that the translations are keeping to a rhyme scheme when translated into english?

and how is it translations are given and understood as correct? for example, just in the title - 'I Come Out To The Path, [alone]', is translated from 'Alone I Set Out On The Road'. --- to me that instantly says two different things. i do not understand Russian, so what do i use as a measure to know for certain a true translation or a false one?

i studied this country's second official language (Maori) a number of years ago, so i understand a little of the difference between messages in two languages.

i think 'literal' translations in from Maori to English say much more than a translation that is 'fitted' into the English language.

i sometimes wish i had multiple languages in my repertoire, but tend to find myself struggling with my own main language half the time.

i can imagine how enriching it would be to know japanese, italian, russian and many more languages.

so, my question... where can we get truthful translations of poems that are written in languages other than English? - perhaps the only way is to rely on current living people who can give us 'literal' translations? i also think (and perhaps it sounds arrogant) but there are more people in the world today who are multi-lingual than ever before, though i do think english is going to be the world's main language forever.

as for Mikhail's censored poems, i cannot imagine what would happen if in generations to come, the poetry we write today is censored.

i recall there were societal nose snubbings for some english writers/poets, heck i think at one point even Shakespeare'w work was not acceptable to some.


(i hope you are keeping well)