Thread: Texts in Russian w/ English Tsl.?

Hi again,

somebody here provided the link to the "Daisy-stories" (remember? the texts where there

I don't know too much about online text, but are you aware of dual-readers. Or 'dual-language books'. I just checked for an example, incase you didn't know of these. On amazon.com in the book section, there's a book called Russian Stories (A Dual Language-Book). Or you could look under the author's name Gleb Struve. Each page you open has Russian on one face, English on the other. This particular series I'm sure I have for French, and there are other languages. They're not as easy to find outside of the big names of French, Spanish, Italian, German. Mandarin and Arabic may be accessible, but Russian isn't one I've been able to find in my Language bookstore. But as I said, I don't know about online texts. You just inspired me to check it out, actually. keywords 'dual-language books' (or texts). 'Dual reader' seems to produce computer related entries.

Hey, thanks for the tip! I

Look what I found:

http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenn ... obegin.htm

Russian literature with English translation. I think this is where I

[quote=cm23]Look what I found:
http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenn ... obegin.htm
Russian literature with English translation. I think this is where I

Hey, couldn't you just pick up copies of various Russian classics and then read them alongside the English translation? Might not be the best way to go about doing it, but it's basically the same thing. If you don't mind destroying your books, a little scotch tape here and there and you'd have your very own custom-made Dual Reader!

The problem with that, Pravster, is that because they're not tied to 'teaching' the others' language, they get creative and have semi-tangents in their translations. Is good to get sentence-for-sentence translations. One English book may have as much as a whole paragraph as its translation for the target Russian sentence.
But for the more advanced learner, it's a good idea. I like to read Swedish and French folktales in the bookshops if I already am familiar with its story from years of the story being told on TV, radio, books etc in English.

The Dual Reader that I have is very liberal in its translation of the Russian texts. If they were actually one-to-one translations, maybe that would be a better idea.

Howbout the news side by side--

http://www.erw.uln.ru/old/pdf/PDF-form.htm

Hi Chaika,

thanks for the link! From my first impression, this looks good! I

Has anyone ever looked at www.krime.com
It's Dostoevsky's "Crime & Punishment" in English, and you can click on a word for the Russian translation, or change the whole thing into Russian... Being a beginner, I'm not sure how good it is, any opinions?
-Fantom

Dostoevsky's style is difficult even for me. Try to start with less complicated texts. You can find different English books translated to Russian language. For example take a look at this little text:
http://zhurnal.lib.ru/c/codikowa_a/codikowa6.shtml

For some reason I find Dostoyevsky's style more or less straightforward. What exactly is supposed to be so complicated about him?

Maybe only the subject matter being unusual, rather than the language itself, is what would have a beginner thinking "I can't make any sense of this". Little will they know it's not their linguistic ability that's an issue, but the subject matter itself. The best stories for beginners are teenager books that you wouldn't touchwith a ten foot lingua-pole in your native tongue.

No, I meant even Russians say that he's notoriously complicated. Do they mean that his writing style is complicated and hard to understand(because I did not find it so), or that the concepts and subject matter that he presents are a bit hard to understand?

Sacreligion ahead!

I find so many 'classics' to be over-rated in their brilliance. Some can be outright dull.

Well, hold on there, Brett, I didn't say Dostoyevsky's works aren't brilliant, I'm just saying I did not find his writing style as amazingly complicated as Russians claim it to be.

В начале июля, в чрезвычайно жаркое время, под вечер, один молодой человек вышел из своей каморки, которую нанимал от жильцов в С-м переулке, на улицу и медленно, как бы в нерешимости, отправился к К-ну мосту.

которую нанимал от жильцов - так обычно не говорят
как бы в нерешимости - обычно говорят "как бы нерешительно"

Он благополучно избегнул встречи с своею хозяйкой на лестнице.

обычно говорят "На лестнице он благополучно ИЗБЕЖАЛ встречи с своеЙ хозяйкой."

Каморка его приходилась под самою кровлей высокого пятиэтажного дома и походила более на шкаф, чем на квартиру.

опять же - находилась, больше была похожа

Квартирная же хозяйка его
Он был должен кругом хозяйке и боялся с нею встретиться.
при выходе на улицу
на грани привычного - иногда я могу сказать что я кругом должен, но в таком виде - Он был должен кругом хозяйке - мой мозг понимает с задержками.

я бы не сказал, что данный текст (а это первые предложения) можно читать легко, по крайней мере надо привыкнуть к стилю. В сравнении с обычной речью, конечно - некоторые и позаковыристее рисуют. И советовать по этому тексту учить русский я бы не стал. Слишком сложный стиль.

Vadim, I found these sentences easy to understand, but I guess you have to look from the standpoint of a person who does not speak Russian as a native language. In your case, you found it complicated because people do not ordinarily talk in this way, however, in my case, I found it completely understandable(possibly because I was not aware of the "normal" way to say it).

А что, одна моя знакомая часто говорит приблизительно в следующем духе:

И вот, дражайший Олег Ильич, выходя из собственной квартиры, встретила я мусю [кошку] трёхцветной окраски, каковая муся в ответ на мое приветствие поначалу замерла, а потом тихо зашипела, как бы выражая недоумение моею фамильярностью. Тут на площадку выходит моя соседка, несравненной красоты дева Светольда Борисовна, и вышеозначенную мусю к себе в квартиру ведёт, поелику оказалась оная муся ейным домашним животным, о чём я ранее не догадывалась.

И если привыкнуть к этому, то воспринимать подобный язык можно очень легко. Не всё же среднестатистическое народонаселение слушать, хотя язык этого среднестатистического народонаселения и можно по праву назвать современным стандартным русским языком.