Feb 2, 2025 1:42 PM
Going into this blind, skipping the introduction and being greeted by verse was one of my biggest joys on my commute to work. As soon as i read the final stanza i wanted to return to the first page and read it all again, absolutely charming and enthralling. The images and emotions Pushkin can create with such "simple", for lack of a better term, vocabulary is incredible. If any author manages to stand at Pushkins knee it would render them a superb writer, yet Eugene Onegin stands above all.
I read the Oxford Worlds Classics edition translated by James E. Falen.
2 Comments
10 months ago
I can't remember what translation I read, but it kind of sucked. I'll get hold of the Falen. Thanks.
10 months ago
It's the only translation i have ever read and i am by no means an expert in russian translations, i'll type out some stanza examples and you can judge for yourself if you find it boring or not: 11 And what an awesome dream she's dreaming: She walks upon a snowy dale, And all around her, dully gleaming, Sad mist and murky gloom prevail; Amid the drifting, snowbound spaces A dark and seething torrent races, A hoary frothing wave that strains And tears asunder winter's chains; Two slender, icebound poles lie linking The chasm's banks atop the ridge: A perilous and shaky bridge; And full of doubt, her spirits sinking, Tatyana stopped in sudden dread Before the raging gulf ahead. 12 As at a vexing separation, Tatyana murmured, at a loss; She saw no friendly soul on station To lend a hand to help her cross. But suddenly a snowbank shifted, And who emerged when it was lifted? A huge and matted bear appeared! Tatyana screamed! He growled and reared, Then stretched a paw . . . sharp claws abhorrent To Tanya, who could barely stand; She took it with a trembling hand And worked her way across the torrent With apprehensive step . . . then fled! The bear just followed where she led.
