On March 25, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky discussed Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. The couple earned a PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize prize for their version of the novel. We asked Richard and Larissa a few questions about their collaborative process. Plus, if this installment of the Leonard Lopate Show Book Club has piqued your interest in Russian literature, they've provided a few recommendations, both for lovers of the genre, and for people who are still new to it.
What (and who) do you like to read?
Larissa: I have now lost interest in fiction and read mostly memoirs, journals, correspondences. I also like to reread my old favorites: Dickens, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov, some murder mysteries by Dorothy Sayers. And there are always the Russians: Pushkin (both poetry and prose), Nikolai Leskov, Gogol. I would like to read more of Garcia Marquez. I only read “Hundred Years of Solitude” many years ago. I would like to reread it and read more of his writings. I reread Shakespeare every once in a while. I avoid discussing living authors.
Richard: I, too, have come to prefer essays, memoirs, journals. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been rereading the prose of the Irish playwright John Millington Synge, his writings about the Aran Islands, the hill country of County Wicklow, and Connemara – wonderfully vivid, simple, alive. I had forgotten how good it is. For several years now I’ve also been delightedly reading the works of Alberto Savinio, one of the major twentieth-century Italian writers. I’ve published translations of two of his books – Childhood of Nivasio Dolcemare and Signor Dido. There are excellent translations by John Shepley of several others, published by Marlboro Press, including the superb Operatic Lives. But there is a great deal yet to be done.
Are there any lesser-known novelists that you’d recommend?
I don’t know whether she is “lesser-known,” but I like very much Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). She is not a novelist, rather a wonderful story-teller. Among the lesser-known Russians we particularly recommend Nikolai Leskov. He is also a story-teller, and his stories are pure joy.
How do you choose which books to translate?
We choose a book that we love and if our publisher is interested in publishing it, we translate it.
What is your translation process like?
1. Larissa prepares the first draft. She tries to be as close to the original as possible, and makes notes on the linguistic and stylistic peculiarities of the text. 2. Then Richard works with this draft and writes the second version, raising questions on the margins. 3. Larissa reads this version against the original, trying to respond to Richard’s questions and raising her own. 4. Together, Richard and Larissa discuss all these questions and work out solutions that satisfy them both. 5. Richard writes the third version based on the results of these discussions. 6. Richard reads this third version aloud with Larissa following with the Russian original. Final adjustments are made at this stage. The resulting version goes to the publisher. When the first set of proofs comes, Larissa reads it one more time against the original. At this stage very few last changes are made.
Needless to say, all the while we “live with the author”, thinking about various ways of translating this or that word or phrase. We discuss it endlessly, we do research, we consult friends, -- both literary scholars and simply native speakers of Russian or English, etcetera.
Is there any bit of text that you’ve translated that you’re particularly proud of?
Yes, the children’s poem “Hail to Mail” by Samuil Marshak, and the song “Paradise” by Larissa’s brother Henri Volokhonsky, which came out perfectly in English, rhymes and all, and can be sung to the original tune.
Any translation that might still haunt you, or that you argued over?
It may be hard to believe, but we never really argue. The hauntings are too many to list.
What would you suggest someone just getting into Russian literature start reading?
This is a very general question. It all depends on the person: his/her previous reading experience, taste, mood, intellectual level. On the very basic level, Chekhov’s stories are the surest bet.
How about someone who’s read some of the more major classics?
Nikolai Leskov, whom we mentioned earlier, would be a very good choice. And there are the twentieth century classics by Evgeny Zamyatin, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha, Boris Pasternak, Andrei Platonov, Nina Berberova, Ivan Bunin, and so on – a very rich body of work, and all of it available in English. Also, of course, Nabokov; his novel The Gift is a masterpiece.