Literary translation
Our people used to take the first place in reading among other nations. Maybe it is true – in the country which published thousands of editions of the domestic writers’ works: novels, small prose, poems…
We read them before and we read now, both classical authors and modern writers. We do not understand some of them and are carried away by other books.
Does it mean what foreign literature is not worth our attention?
Not at all!
Tens and hundreds of foreign authors’ works are published in our country – and they are mainly published in Russian.
We enjoy reading these novels, stories, poems…
But do we ever think about who translated them?
Hardly ever.
We usually do it only if the translation is awkward, careless and contains lots of mistakes which offend the eye and distract from the story and enjoy reading.
Indeed, doing good translations is generally a hard task. And if the translation needs to be proof-read literary in order to preserve both the general idea and implied sense, mood, shades of humour, sorrow or irony, the task becomes twice or even three times more difficult.
Isn’t it unfair: the better the translation is, the more accurately the smallest details were presented, the more unnoticed the translator’s work is?
Here is the example.
A great many people read Song of Hiawatha by Henry Longfellow. In Russian they read it in Ivan Bunin's translation. He was able to translate the poem so that the reader, completely bewitched by a slow recitative, watches the story change fancifully without thinking about the author or the translator…
Those who know English say, not without reason, that artistically this translation is much better than the original.
If you need to get a literary translation, do not hesitate to contact us – you will make the right choice.
Our translators who specialize in literary translation are writers themselves. Most of them are both perfect at translating showing excellent artistic skills and write prose or poems publishing them in periodicals or own books.
Surely, there is no Ivan Bunin among them. Such genius is only born once a century, and not even every century.
But we are sure that your readers, when reading the works translated by our artists, will never think about who did the translation completely engrossed by the story, fascinated by the beauty and wonderful force of the lines, watching closely the author’s thoughts and feelings…
