Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (Author), Vladimir Nabokov (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1991

"In an era of inept and ignorant imitations, whose piped-in background music has hypnotized innocent readers into fearing literality's salutary jolt, some reviewers were upset by the humble fidelity of my version. . . ." Such was Vladimir Nabokov's response to the storm of controversy aroused by the first edition of his literal translation of Eugene Onegin. This bold rendering of the Russian masterpiece, together with Nabokov's detailed and witty commentary, is itself a work of enduring literary interest, and reflects a lifelong admiration for Pushkin on the part of one of this century's most brilliant stylists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mr. Nabokov has not merely rendered the most precious gem of Russia's poetic heritage into limpid, literal poetic translation. He has given Pushkin's wondrous lines the glow and sparkle of their Russian original. -- Harrison E. Salisbury, The New York Times



Perhaps [Nabokov's] ultimate masterpiece. -- J. Thomas Shaw, Slavic and East European Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 362 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691019053
• ISBN-13: 978-0691019055
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Russia with tough love, June 20, 2004

By 

Edward (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

There is an old, politically-incorrect adage regarding the translation of a literary work from one language to another. A translation is like a woman: if it's beautiful, it's not faithul; if it's faithful, it's not beautiful. This saw kept buzzing through my brain while I was reading Vladimir Nabokov's 1964 English translation of Alexander Pushkin's novel-in-verse "Eugene Onegin". The poem has a unique place in Russian literature, required reading in schools -- required memorization, from what I understand. It seems an odd choice for school rooms, being an ironic love story with a sardonic edge; but then American students are required to read "Silas Marner", George Eliot's tale of greed and redemption. Nabokov, the author of the dazzling "Pale Fire", was born in Old Russia in 1899 and became a master of his native language as well as English. His version of Pushkin's masterpiece doesn't attempt to maintain the meter or rhyming scheme of the original, thereby leading to the danger of "piped-in background music", but presents a literal translation of "humble fidelity". There have been several English translations, and Nabokov sternly appraises them all. (Tchaikovsky's opera is dismissed as "slapdash".) He even goes so far as to compare his work with that of other translators. Thus, Onegin's flirtation with a serf in Book Four is translated by Nabokov as: "sometimes a white-skinned, dark-eyed girl's young and fresh kiss". In his notes Nabokov is amused by an earlier translator's "And, if a black-eyed girl permitted, sometimes a kiss as fresh as she" and is positively aghast at this rendering: "A kiss at times from some fair maiden, dark-eyed, with bright and youthful looks". Now, to an English-only reader, these don't really sound that ridiculous; but Nabokov, in his bilingual security, can be a caustic critic. (As evidently are some of his admirers: I've noticed in Amazon.com that "Eugene Onegin" causes some emotional responses.) By the way, the notes alone are worth the price of admission. Ferociously erudite, Nabokov can also be extremely witty, as when he is discussing Byronic heroes: "Judged by a number of early-nineteenth-century English and French novels that I have perused, the four main outlets or cures for ennui found by the characters suffering from it were: (1) making a nuisance of oneself; (2) committing suicide; (3) joining some well-organized religious group; and (4) quietly submitting to the situation." So, you've been alerted. Get out your dictionary (you'll need it), dust off your French (there's lots of it), and settle down to what might be called Nabokov's labor of tough love.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a crib, baby! (horrible title...), January 3, 2004

By 

Jeremy Schoonhoven "Jeremy Schoonhoven" (Portland, Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Most of what you'd want to know before buying this, Vladimir Nabokov's translation of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, has been covered in other reviews on this website: Nabokov's is a literal translation; Nabokov's is a decidedly "un-poetic" translation (two statements that, in my opinion, are more or less equivalent.)

To be clear, a literal translation is the kind that doesn't rhyme, unlike Pushkin's original, which has a rhyme scheme (and unlike translator James E Fallen's version, which I recommend). The literal translation focuses on rendering, as precisely as possible, the original's contextualized meaning, an ambition that Nabokov wrapped his arms around, to the disadvantage of a number of sound effects. (It should be said, though, that he maintains a more or less iambic rhythm throughout, and he also strives to match Pushkin's syntactical word order--and word count--so that his line ends, or breaks, in the same place as Pushkin's: if he truly wanted to focus on literal meaning, these efforts would have to have been abandoned.)

What's been mostly overlooked so far in these Amazon reviews is what Anthony Burgress pointed out, when the translation was first published, back in the sixties:

"If we want to read Omar, then, we must learn a little Persian and ask for a good, very literal, crib. And if we want to read Pushkin, we must learn some Russian and thank god for Nabokov."

If you're unsure about what it is, a crib in the case of Nabokov's translation is a kind of helpmate for the english language speaking student of Russian who'd like to tackle Eugene Onegin in the original, to be consulted on the table beside Pushkin's Russian, beside a Russian to English dictionary. (Or something like that: I didn't read it this way. If you're an ambitious reader, go for it.)

Since poetry is largely a matter of taste, I'm including two versions of stanza number one for you to evaluate, the first Nabokov's, the second James Fallen's. If you're like me, you'll find something indirectly and interestingly poetic about Nabokov's stripped down, literal arrangement.

"My uncle has most honest principles:
when taken ill in earnest,
he has made one respect him
and nothing better could invent.
To others his example is a lesson;
but, good God, what a bore
to stick by a sick man both day and night,
without moving a step away!
What base perfidiousness
the half-alive one to amuse,
adjust for him the pillows,
sadly present the medicine,
sigh -- and think inwardly
when will the devil take you?"

'My uncle, man of firm convictions...
By falling gravely ill, he's won
A due respect for his afflictions --
The only clever thing he's done.
May his example profit others;
But God, what deadly boredom, brothers,
To tend a sick man night and day,
Not daring once to steal away!
And, oh, how base to pamper grossly
And entertain the nearly dead,
To fluff the pillows for his head,
And pass him medicines morosely --
While thinking under every sigh:
The devil take you, Uncle. Die!'

28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refuting D Stephen Heersink's Poshlust* review, January 2, 2004

By 

Zhong Rui (Albert de Albert, Zay-land) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Ignorant Heersink ignobly writes, besides other trite nonsense, "But Nabokov's Pushkin is too literal to be any good. James Falen's trans. is far superior, ... Falen, while also literal, also is metered and rhymes. Nabokov's thuds."

In reply, I quote Nabokov from his Foreword, "Literal: rendering, as closely as the associative and syntactical capacities of another language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Only this is true translation."

Later, Nabokov asks: "can a rhymed poem Like Eugene Onegin Be truly translated with the retention of its rhymes? The answer, of course, is no. To reproduce the rhymes and yet translate the entire poem literally is mathematically impossible. But in losing its rhyme the poem loses its bloom, which neither marginal description nor the alchemy of a scholium can replace. Should one then content oneself with an exact rendering of the subject matter and forget all about form? Or should one still excuse an imitation of the poem's structure to which only twisted bits of sense stick here and there, by convincing oneself and one's public that in mutilating its meaning for the sake of a pleasure-measure rhyme one has the opportunity of prettifying or skipping the dry and difficult passages? I have been always amused by the stereotyped compliment that a reviewer pays the author of a "new translation." He says: "It reads smoothly." In other words, the hack who has never read the original, and does not know its language, praises an imitation as readable because easy platitudes have replaced in it the intricacies of which he is unaware. "Readable," indeed! A schoolboy's boner mocks the ancient masterpiece less than does its commercial poetization, and it is when the translator sets out to render the "spirit," and not the mere sense of the text, that he begins to traduce his author."

If you, like me, agree only with Heersink's sentiment that "it's worth while to read the very best Pushkin", I wholeheartedly endorse Nabokov's sublime Eugene Onegin, but on condition you find the original 4 volume set (vol. 1 Introduction Translation, vol. 2 Commentary One to Five, vol. 3 Commentary Six to End, vol. 4 1837 Russian Text). Nabokov's Commentaries are like the blood to the heart that is his translation, it "thuds" for a reason!

EO is the counterpoint: completing a simplified stylistic publishing triptych of Nabokov the writer, the lepidopterist, the scholar.

* Nabokov writes "Russians have, or had, a special name for smug philistinism -poshlust." From Essay 'Philistines and Philistinism'.