Month: December 2024

A Bit of Rudy Panko

While teaching this semester’s graduate seminar on Nikolai Gogol/Mykola Hohol, I noticed how inadequate all the existing translations of the earlier works are. The author’s distinctive style barely peeks through what often feels like basically explanatory prose in all the English versions. I also came to the conclusion that Gogol’s very first book is his… Continue reading A Bit of Rudy Panko

Over on Bluesky and Bandcamp

I discontinued my TwiXter account many months ago, but when people on FB mentioned joining Bluesky, I decided to give it a try. So I’m over there @russellv.bsky.social. I post occasionally. It’s fine. But I did notice quite a few writers and musicians, and writers includes translators and musicians includes amateur composers. That part is… Continue reading Over on Bluesky and Bandcamp

Translating “meanwhile”

I put that in quotes because it’s a silly idea really, for translators at least. Translating is always its own thing, you concentrate on it, do it almost for its own sake. Or rather, strike the almost. This is my experience anyway, even when one is just trying something out, it turns out to be… Continue reading Translating “meanwhile”

Adriatic book

The title has shifted here just a bit, but not the main one, which is still Sea of Intimacy, still from the same Predrag Matvejević line in his (I think more and more exquisite) Mediterranean Breviary: “The Atlantic and Pacific are seas of distance, the Mediterranean a sea of propinquity, the Adriatic a sea of… Continue reading Adriatic book