See, this is why I say it's impossible to read translations of Akhmatova and enjoy her poetry:
I Don't Like Flowers..."
I don't like flowers - they do remind me often
Of funerals, of weddings and of balls;
Their presence on tables for a dinner calls.
But sub-eternal roses' ever simple charm
Which was my solace when I was a child,
Has stayed - my heritage - a set of years behind,
Like Mozart's ever-living music's hum.
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, December, 2001
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, August, 2001
__________________________
WTF is that? That's a mess. No one could read that (am I wrong?) and be moved by it. I'm sure she's trying to say something here about the difference between experiencing flowers in artificial situations -- like a ball --and experiencing flowers at a primal level, the way a child does, but it gets lost in the shitty translation.
1 comment:
i always make it a point to seek out translations done by poets & novelists as opposed to academics - no slight intended to academics, or implication that academics can't be poets & novelists. it's just that someone approaching the work from an artistic perspective is more likely choose words and phrasings that honor the spirit of the work even if their choices are technically less accurate.
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