Great translation! :D Just a slight correction -- the other "translation" was posted on the Lucy Lawless fan list on Yahoo, by a Russian girl who said it was her "gift" to LL. Poor Lucy...
I think the grand, epic last stanza is my favourite. What a disturbing yet amusing poem. Thanks a lot for posting it.
And clearly my Russian is progressing, because I understood a good deal of the original, and your translation helped me piece together most of the remainder. This is exciting. :D On that note, could you recommend me a couple of poets or authors I could look for that use relatively simple language? I really want to try my hand at reading some poetry, but I wasn't sure where to start. If there's translations around I can use as a back-up, even better -- but that's not absolutely necessary.
My favourite is the "...FATE!" line. And I'm very impressed by how your Russian is going!
I'm not sure how easy you'll find her poems, but Anna Akhmatova has some fantastic poetry and it's modern so no problems with extinct poetic language. Otherwise -- Mayakovsky? (Lots of short words, doesn't mean the poems are simple, though). Have you tried Pushkin? I know that's 19th century, but I don't think he's all that difficult to understand. Actually most Russian poetry is fairly comprehensible, compared with English at least -- that's what happens when a language has a flexible grammar.
Well, it's going in the sense that I know a lot more grammar than when I saw you last year. And I can read and write to a decent, but hardly fluent, standard. But I can't speak too well, I pretty much go one or two words at a time as I figure out what case it needs to be in, etc. When I progress to complete sentences and a decent speed, it will be a great day. :D But we'll see... I can definitely sense that it's improving, but there's a *long* way to go.
I've tried a little Pushkin, actually, and I understood it with the help of my dictionary, my teacher and some studious brow-furrowing. :D I read a little Akhmatova in translation a couple of years ago -- liked it a lot, but I haven't tried in Russian. And I don't know Mayakovsky at all. If you have time to find a couple of links, it would be fabulous and I would love you forever! :-)
Ohh, I forgot Yunna Moritz! How could I have forgotten one of my favourite poets of all time, I'm getting old and amnesiac... She is amazing. She is popular with all ages (including children) because of the tremendous variety of subject matter and her direct language. I can't imagine a better choice, actually.
The sad thing is that millions of Russian women do. *shudder*
Sorry about the lack of emails and other communication (and Carly will kill me after you're through with me) -- I just can't manage to write anything about myself when I'm this exhausted... After next week things should ease up a bit.
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Solicitor
DEVOURING FATE!!!(mwahahahaha)
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And clearly my Russian is progressing, because I understood a good deal of the original, and your translation helped me piece together most of the remainder. This is exciting. :D On that note, could you recommend me a couple of poets or authors I could look for that use relatively simple language? I really want to try my hand at reading some poetry, but I wasn't sure where to start. If there's translations around I can use as a back-up, even better -- but that's not absolutely necessary.
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I'm not sure how easy you'll find her poems, but Anna Akhmatova has some fantastic poetry and it's modern so no problems with extinct poetic language. Otherwise -- Mayakovsky? (Lots of short words, doesn't mean the poems are simple, though). Have you tried Pushkin? I know that's 19th century, but I don't think he's all that difficult to understand. Actually most Russian poetry is fairly comprehensible, compared with English at least -- that's what happens when a language has a flexible grammar.
Do you want me to find you some links?
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I've tried a little Pushkin, actually, and I understood it with the help of my dictionary, my teacher and some studious brow-furrowing. :D I read a little Akhmatova in translation a couple of years ago -- liked it a lot, but I haven't tried in Russian. And I don't know Mayakovsky at all. If you have time to find a couple of links, it would be fabulous and I would love you forever! :-)
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Here's a (sadly limited) selection: http://litera.ru/stixiya/authors/moric.html Or you can get all these poems on one page: http://litera.ru/stixiya/authors/moric/all.html Or here: http://lib.ru/POEZIQ/MORIC/stihi.txt
My favourite is this one: Birth of a WingAlso Tzvetaeva, of course -- http://lib.ru/POEZIQ/CWETAEWA/stihi.txt (I don't know if you remember, but I once translated a poem of hers, "I like it..." -- I can repost that ( ... )
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Sorry about the lack of emails and other communication (and Carly will kill me after you're through with me) -- I just can't manage to write anything about myself when I'm this exhausted... After next week things should ease up a bit.
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