Thread: Михаил Лермонтов

Sorry, I couldn't resist. This is a poem written by Михаил Лермонтов (a famous poet). It is just too beautiful to not post. Sorry. THis poem has been sung by many famous russian artists, I like Vladimir Devyatov's the best. I translated it, please check if I did any foul mistakes... Thnx!

Выхожу один я на дорогу,
Сквозь туман кремнистый путь блестит,
Ночь тиха. Пустыня внемлет Богу,
И звезда с звездою говорит.

I go on the road alone,
Through the fog the cobble-stoned road shines,
The night is quiet. The wilderness harks to God,
And the stars are talking to each other


В небесах торжественно и чудно,
Спит земля в сиянье голубом...
Что же мне так больно и так трудно,
Жду ль чего? Жалею ли о чём?

In the heavens triumphently and magically,
Sleeps the earth in a halo of blue...
Why do I hurt so, why is it so hard,
Am I waiting for something? Am I wishing for something?

Уж не жду от жизни ничего я,
И не жаль мне прошлого ничуть,
Я ищу свободы и покоя!
Я б хотел забыться и заснуть!

I already expect nothing from life,
And I am not at all sorry for the past,
I am looking for freedom and peacefulness!
I'd want to forget myself and fall asleep!

Но не тем холодным сном могилы,
Я б желал навеки так заснуть,
Чтоб в груди дремали жизни силы,
Чтоб, дыша, вздымалась тихо грудь.

But the graves aren't made of those cold dreams, [did I translate correct?]
I'd wish to fall asleep for centuries like that,
so that the life forces would dream in my chest,
So that my chest would silently heave, breathing.

Чтоб всю ночь, весь день мой слух лелея,
Про любовь мне сладкий голос пел,
Надо мной чтоб, вечно зеленея,
Тёмный дуб склонялся и шумел.

So that the whole night, the whole day my ear was entertained
By a sweet voice singing to me about love,
Over me so that, evergreen,
the dark oak would bend and rustle.

Translated by Irina Zheleznova

Lone's the mist-cloaked road before me lying;
On and on it winds and draws me far.
Night is still, all earthly sounds are dying;
Nature lists to God; star speaks to star.

Clothed in dark is earth and wrapt in slumber,
And the skies are full of majesty.
Why, then, does reflection, drear and sombre,
Plague my heart and slay felicity?

I await no boons of fate, regretting
Not the past, for that is buried deep.
Ah, to find true freedom, true forgetting
In the calm of everlasting sleep!

Yet I dread the cold and clammy fingers
And the leaden, icy sleep of death.
Would that life within me, dormant, lingered
And I felt its warm and balmy breath;

Would that love's own voice, my ear caressing,
Night and day sang dulcet song to me,
And an ancient oak, my slumber blessing,
Swayed above my head eternally.

Oh Kalinka - I love that one!

Have you heard the Hvorostovsky version (there's even two)? Brings tears to the eyes every time....

Can't comment on the translation, I'm not big enough

BY

Originally Posted by mishau_

Translated by Irina Zheleznova

Lone's the mist-cloaked road before me lying;
On and on it winds and draws me far.
Night is still, all earthly sounds are dying;
Nature lists to God; star speaks to star.

Clothed in dark is earth and wrapt in slumber,
And the skies are full of majesty.
Why, then, does reflection, drear and sombre,
Plague my heart and slay felicity?

I await no boons of fate, regretting
Not the past, for that is buried deep.
Ah, to find true freedom, true forgetting
In the calm of everlasting sleep!

Yet I dread the cold and clammy fingers
And the leaden, icy sleep of death.
Would that life within me, dormant, lingered
And I felt its warm and balmy breath;

Would that love's own voice, my ear caressing,
Night and day sang dulcet song to me,
And an ancient oak, my slumber blessing,
Swayed above my head eternally.

That is an excellent remake of it in English! But not a translation I can compare too

Babayaga, I haven't heard of Хворостовкий before... I'll seek him out!

...

В небесах торжественно и чудно,
Спит земля в сиянье голубом...
Что же мне так больно и так трудно,
Жду ль чего? Жалею ли о чём?

In the heavens triumphently and magically,
Sleeps the earth in a halo of blue...
Why do I hurt so, why is it so hard,
Am I waiting for something? Do I regret for something?

...

Но не тем холодным сном могилы,
Я б желал навеки так заснуть,
Чтоб в груди дремали жизни силы,
Чтоб, дыша, вздымалась тихо грудь.

But not with that cold sleep of a grave
I'd wish to fall asleep for centuries like that,
so that the life forces would dream in my chest,
So that my chest would silently heave, breathing.

...

thanks! I always mix up жалеть and желать

Kalinka_vinnie,

I hope you will apologize to mishau_ for dissing his wonderful contribution. You should be experienced enough to know that you absolutely cannot "translate" poetry or song, it always has to be a "rendering."

>In the heavens triumphently and magically,

This doesn't make sense, we can't say this in English, so I would have to call it a foul mistake. (should mishau_ yell at you for this?) You have forgotten that neuter short-form adjectives are not always "translated" into adverbs. You can't translate this and at the same time keep the grammatical attributes. It is something like "In the heavens there is triumph and wonder." I have to change the two words to nouns, and Zheleznova combines the two nouns into one, "majesty," which personally I think is a good word for Solemnity+Wonder, plus it keeps the meter.

You would not translate холодно in this context as "coldly" I am sure, but "it is cold."

But I have to add here that this is a wonderful poem of Lermontov's, one that I learned many, many years ago, in the 60s. I even have a пластинка with this song on it. I'd guess that nobody else here has пластинки but instead tape, CD or DVD.

mischau_ - огромное спасибо за то, что вы предложили нам (мне) английский «перевод» известных стихов Лермонтова.

У меня сохранилась (то-есть до сих пор не выбросил) книга сочинений Лермонтова. Величайший писатель!

Когда я впервые занимался русским языком, это было в high school, мы читали некоторые его рассказы, не точно помню названий (книга у меня не при себя), но первый рассказ начался (помню до сих пор!) "Тамань - маленкий городок на берегу моря." (вариант написан упрощенным русским).

Очень вам благодарен.

Давид

I'd guess that nobody else here has пластинки but instead tape, CD or DVD.

I have a lot. Still.

Originally Posted by mishau_

I'd guess that nobody else here has пластинки but instead tape, CD or DVD.

I have a lot. Still.

Me too, my recordplayer is broken though. And I assume that there are more of us

Originally Posted by chaika

Kalinka_vinnie,

I hope you will apologize to mishau_ for dissing his wonderful contribution.

Right. Will do that right now. Sorry, mishau, if you felt your contribution was being dissed by me, I really didn't mean it that way (that is why I said it was excellent). I was just saying, and chaika also misunderstood, that I wanted to check my literal translation of the poem, regardless of the resultant poeticness of the translation. I am deeply sorry, and it was an excellent rendering!

Originally Posted by chaika

You should be experienced enough to know that you absolutely cannot "translate" poetry or song, it always has to be a "rendering."

Believe me, I know. It is just that the "rendering" had used words that weren't in the original poem, and I really wanted to know if I got the concepts right. "Cold and clammy fingers" is fine and all, but the sentence I wanted to understand was "тем холодным сном могилы"

Originally Posted by chaika

>In the heavens triumphently and magically,

This doesn't make sense, we can't say this in English, so I would have to call it a foul mistake. (should mishau_ yell at you for this?) You have forgotten that neuter short-form adjectives are not always "translated" into adverbs. You can't translate this and at the same time keep the grammatical attributes. It is something like "In the heavens there is triumph and wonder." I have to change the two words to nouns, and Zheleznova combines the two nouns into one, "majesty," which personally I think is a good word for Solemnity+Wonder, plus it keeps the meter.

Acutally, I am glad you brought that up, because that was a question I had. My translation was:

В небесах торжественно и чудно,
Спит земля в сиянье голубом...

In the heavens triumphently and magically,
Sleeps the earth in a halo of blue.

where the adverbs were pertaining to "Sleeps" and not to "the heavens", cause that would made little sense. Now in the russian poem Lermentov split it into two lines like I did. Or am I thinking of it wrong? isn't торжественно и чудно connected to спит?

THANKS!

...Сквозь туман кремнистый путь блестит, ...


http://feb-web.ru/feb/lermont/music/com ... gul-01.mp3
Поёт Юрий Гуляев

Загружается долго, так что наберитесь терпения.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

В небесах торжественно и чудно,
Спит земля в сиянье голубом...

In the heavens triumphently and magically,
Sleeps the earth in a halo of blue.

where the adverbs were pertaining to "Sleeps" and not to "the heavens", cause that would made little sense. Now in the russian poem Lermentov split it into two lines like I did. Or am I thinking of it wrong? isn't торжественно и чудно connected to спит?

The way I always understood is as follows:

"The sky is ( or looks/feels) solemn and wonderful;
The earth is sleeping in the blue light"

А не лучше сияние - radiance?

mischau_ - огромное спасибо за то, что вы предложили нам (мне) английский «перевод» известных стихов Лермонтова.

Right. Will do that right now. Sorry, mishau, if you felt your contribution was being dissed by me, I really didn't mean it that way (that is why I said it was excellent).

Ух ты, я и не ожидал, что Лермонтов так дорог для вас. Это радует. Очень радует. Особенно потому что это не Северный Блинск.

Kalinka_vinnie, при точном переводе с одного языка на другой, теряется вся значимость произведения, ибо что является важным и поэтичным в одном языке, есть обыденно и прозаично в другом. И наоборот.

Вот стихотворение-перевод Веры Тарзаевой.

Когда в тиши, в раздумья погружен,
Я к прошлому взываю, безутешен,
Грущу о том, чего я был лишен,
Горюю вновь о времени истекшем,
Бесслезный, слезы лью я о друзьях,
Настигнутых безвременьем могилы,
О муках страсти, обращенной в прах,
О тех мечтах, что время схоронило.
И скорбь за скорбью по моим пятам
Опять идут дорогою земною,
И я опять плачу по всем счетам,
Сполна уже оплаченным судьбою.
Но только образ милый воскрешен –
Печаль проходит, возмещен урон.

Мой примерный перевод на английский.

When in silence I'm immersed in my thoughts,
being inconsolable I appeal to the past
I get sad about the things I never had.
And once again I grieve for the time gone
Although I'm strong-willed, I shed a tear about my friends
Who were caught by eternity of a grave
About sorrows of passion that turned into dust
About the dreams that the time buried
And grief by grief right after me
Go again that earthly way
And once again I pay for all my bills
Which have been fully paid already by my fate
But scarcely the lovely character is recalled
the grief is gone, losses are compensated


А теперь сравним перевод на английский с оригналом Шекспира:

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye (unused to flow)
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee (dear friend)
All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

На десерт посмотрите перевод С.Маршака

Когда на суд безмолвных, тайных дум
Я вызываю голоса былого, -
Утраты все приходят мне на ум,
И старой болью я болею снова.
Из глаз, не знавших слез, я слезы лью
О тех, кого во тьме таит могила,
Ищу любовь погибшую мою
И все, что в жизни мне казалось мило.
Веду я счет потерянному мной
И ужасаюсь вновь потере каждой,
И вновь плачу я дорогой ценой
За то, за что платил уже однажды
Но прошлое я нахожу в тебе
И все готов простить своей судьбе.

А теперь сравните его с переводом Веры Тарзаевой, который я привел в самом начале.


В довершение хочу представить стихотворение Лермонтова "Два великана", которое я люблю с детства. Здесь противопоставляются Наполеон и Кутузов (старая Россия и новая Франция) в образе двух великанов, как в форме типичного эпоса, так присущего русскому фольклору.


В шапке золота литого
Старый русский великан
Поджидал к себе другого
Из далеких чуждых стран.

За горами, за долами
Уж гремел об нем рассказ,
И померятся главами
Захотелось им хоть раз.

И пришел с грозой военной
Трехнедельный удалец, -
И рукою дерзновенной
Хвать за вражеский венец.

Но улыбкой роковою
Русский витязь отвечал:
Посмотрел - тряхнул главою...
Ахнул дерзкий - и упал!

Но упал он в дальнем море
На неведомый гранит,
Там, где буря на просторе
Над пучиною шумит.

http://www.artint.ru/cfrl/texts/poetry/ ... l1/361.htm


P.S. Переводы сонетов Шекспира на русский см.

http://poetclub.chat.ru/sonet30.html
http://www.sonnets.ru/sonnets_rus.html?id=30

Kalinka - here you go:
http://www.geocities.com/yeletsky_new/8.ram

(I hope this works, first time I'm posting a link..... )

There's another, better version (it's gentler) but I couldn't find it on the net, sowwy...


Enjoy

BY

Cool! Very nice. However, I prefer Vladimir Devyatov Every one to his own, I guess Listen to his version:

http://www.docteurevil.com/files/Vladim ... dorogu.wma

Ooooooh, yes, that's beautiful (too )!!
The sweetness of some of these Russian tenors.......

In my younger days, I used to be a baritone-only gal - tenors made me cringe. No offence to any Italian tenors there may be on this board , it's just the singing technique I dislike - I want to hear masculinity in a male voice, no matter how high it goes. Imagine my joy when I found out about the Russian tenors - and their totally different (and gorgeous!) singing technique.

Oops. Gone off topic here.

OK, back to Лерментов

Thanks for the link!

"...В 1995 году международное признание его таланта было отмечено званием "Почетный магистр искусств Международной академии наук Сан-Марино", и он единственный представитель русской народной певческой школы, удостоенный этого звания. ..."
Девятов

Да, Владимир Девятов мне понравился, но Гуляева я люблю.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Cool! Very nice. However, I prefer Vladimir Devyatov Every one to his own, I guess Listen to his version:

http://www.docteurevil.com/files/Vladim ... dorogu.wma

Amazing voice.