|
Friday, 23 February 2007
Writers' top ten
 The Times asks whether you have "ever wondered what books your favourite authors would choose as their favourites." No, not really. Anyway, here's more:
Nobody chose Shota Rustaveli's ვეფხისტყაოსანი (The Knight in the Panther's Skin)? That's a shame. No, I haven't read it; it's just that it's strange to look the Georgian and have no idea where Knight ends and Panther begins. Surprisingly, none of the writers chose their own works. I noticed that Margaret Drabble had Chekhov's The [sic] Three Sisters as one of her choices. I don't think this is right. I have only ever seen the title as Three Sisters, without the definite article. The sense without the the is slightly different, although it is hard to explain why. More "take three sisters" rather than "the tale of three sisters", perhaps, and more suggestive of three sisters as individuals rather than a unit. I'm not sure, but I think it's better without the the. "The The" is a band that seems to have been going for ever. It isn't just any old the, it's the The. If it were just any old the, it would be "A The". Posted on 02/23/2007 6:15 AM by Mary Jackson
Comments
23 Feb 2007
 Hugh Fitzgerald
I have Rustaveli's national epic of Georgia, in a Soviet-era edition. But I didn't buy it - it was given to me by a Russian whose fondest memories are of Khvanchkara and Kindzmarauli, and toasts by tamadas, and "Georgian Nights." There is something unusual about this, the Georgian�national epic. Care to try to guess? 23 Feb 2007
Mary Jackson Haven't a clue. Is it anything to do with the Georgians not calling themselves something like Georgians, but Kartveli? 23 Feb 2007
Chris
As there isn't a the, or an a or an, in Russian, those three sisters could in translation be definite, indefinite, or unqualified (except in their desperation to move to Moscow). 23 Feb 2007
Hugh Fitzgerald
""Tiger's" rather than "leopard's" skin is how the Rustaveli title should be rendered. If you want to�drag Shakespeare into�this (and who doesn't?) and offer him a walk-on part, then you might go so far as to emend the second part of Robert Greene's�cutting phrase and use it to translate the second part of Rustaveli's title: "wrapped in a tiger's hide." But I don't want to be critical, corrosively or otherwise, on this occasion. Instead, I wish to thank you for giving us the opportunity to bring the Republic of Georgia and its fine products and tourist-destination possibilities to the attention of the English-speaking world. The producers of the desert-island disque �"Chansons de la Georgie" ("ne pei, krasavitsa, pro mne...")* thank you. The Wine-Makers Association of Georgia thanks you. The Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Tbilisi thanks you. The Fondation Bagration thanks you. The Committee to Elect Salome Zourabachvili thanks you. The heirs and assigns of Paul Chavchavadze thank you. A tamada's toast, a toast now, brat'ya, to....well, let's all,�at least this once,�hail Mary. _____________________________________ *A Pushkin poem beautifully translated into French by Vladimir Nabokov decades ago, and ending, if memory agrees to serve, "ces chansons de la Georgie/Leur amertume me rappelle/Une autre rive, une autre vie." 23 Feb 2007
Chris Oh, and by the way Jane Austen's The Three Sisters ends up in Russian with the same unarticled title as the Chekhov play. 23 Feb 2007
Mary Jackson Didi madloba. Garmajos! Talking of tiger skins, would you like to sin? Chris - I know what you mean, but I'm not happy about the the. Remember that really funny film "Clerks" (pronounced clurrrks, like Americans do, rather than clarks, as we do)? Well anyway, they weren't articled clerks, were they? And all the better for it. 23 Feb 2007
Mary Jackson Perhaps it's a bit like a leading plumber. |