Henzin answers “Best translations : The resurruction”

Eden asked this question about Resurrection:

Best translations : The resurruction

Henzin I keep running into those plaudits about the Maude translations of Tolstoy works, and especially the bit about how Tolstoy himself rated the translati…moreI keep running into those plaudits about the Maude translations of Tolstoy works, and especially the bit about how Tolstoy himself rated the translation, and let's just say I've got some doubts.

First of all, there's the problem of time. Tolstoy died in 1910. The Maude translation of Anna Karenina was completed in 1918, and their translation of War and Peace was completed in 1923. How could Tolstoy recommend that?

And even if they completed it before Tolstoy's death and for some strange reason sat on it for a couple of decades, what could Tolstoy recommend it in comparison with?

Well, a handful of forgettable translations, the best of which was Constance Garnett, who taught herself Russian and was known for her habit of omitting passages she didn't quite understand well. That's the yardstick for Tolstoy translations at the time of Tolstoy's death. One-eyed king of the blind...

So, even if he somehow read the Maude translation and recommended it, it can't be used as an argument vs. the more modern translations, such as Briggs, P&V, Bartlett, Zinovieff+Hughes, etc.

Gibian and Mandelker revisited some of the Maude translations of War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, and corrected factual errors there, so if they (or someone else) did the same for the Resurrection, it would definitely be better, than the original Maudes. Otherwise I'd go with Briggs.(less)

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