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8 The Linguist AUGUST/SEPTEMBER www.ciol.org.uk RUSSIAN IN THE UK than a British reader will – after all, this story is set in post-perestroika Russia – but this doesn't detract from the story as a whole. in other instances, a brief footnote is insufficient. i'm currently editing some stories and a novel by a writer who leans heavily on Uzbek culture and proverbs, so in this case i am recommending an introductory essay. i would shy away from too much adaptation; after all, we are dealing with the literature of another land, so many aspects cannot simply be transposed/morphed into something more palatable for our culture. i think one of the joys of reading literature in translation is that it can take you on a journey beyond your own backyard, so to speak, and open new horizons. however, there are instances where adaption is the only sensible approach. i worked on a fantasy novel and the protagonist kept breaking into songs from the Russian 'dark rock' scene. this meant nothing to the American audience for which i was translating, so the only sensible thing to do was to try to find familiar US equivalents. Were there any words that were particularly tricky to translate? CE: We puzzled over телеснаяоболочка. Literally it means 'corporeal membrane', but we felt this didn't work in the context and tried out several variations: cape, shell, sheath etc. i can't remember how we hit upon 'bodily casing', but we both agreed it conveyed the idea of something temporary yet protective. one of Anatoly's unusual extended metaphors is the idea that we live within a reality drawn by Someone Else. Generally, it works well in English, but in Russian they have the verb нарисовалась, which literally means 'to draw oneself in'. Sadly, i had to let that one go in English, but tried to compensate by including other references to painting throughout that whole passage: Вокругбылнарисованныйпейзаж: раскрашеннаяфломастеромтрава, кривые яблониснеестественнояркимиплодами; светилонарисованноезеленоесолнце… «А дверьздесьесть?» – сталгадатьАрефьев, итут женарисоваласьдверь He found himself in the midst of a painted landscape: the grass was coloured in with felt-tip pen, the crooked apple trees were festooned with unrealistically bright fruit, and a painted green sun hung in the sky… Arefiev had just begun to wonder whether there was a door when one materialised AK: i remember discussing the phrase: чтозавреднаяпривычкаестьунекоторых людей – расставлятьточкинадвсемибуквами, чтобыоднаизнихоказаласьинад «i» the usual 'dot your i's and cross your t's' couldn't be used there. So we came up with 'Some people have the bad habit of dotting every letter just to make sure they dot their i's.' Did names pose any problems? AK: there was only one Russian name, ivan ivanov, for which we had to find equivalents – English and irish – as in the Russian original. carol came up with John Johnson and i with Séan Shaughnessy; we used both. CE: there is only one pun on a name in Shadowplay but luckily it works equally well in Russian and English: German Romanovich Sikofantov is nicknamed Romeovich. there is also reference to a boot factory, Скороход (lit. 'Messenger', 'Fast Runner'), which i translated as 'Quickmarch' – i liked the Soviet military implications. You are both experienced literary translators. What are some of the general challenges in translating from Russian to English? CE: An English translation will inevitably be at least 25% longer than the Russian original because of the respective grammatical structures. Russian does not use auxiliary verbs or articles, pronouns can often be omitted, and there are no separable verbs. So sentences tend to be far less wordy, even though the individual words may be longer and more cumbersome. this gives a different rhythm to prose so it can sometimes be tricky to reproduce an author's style in English. Ибакалейныйфургон, такойславный, тупорылый, сунылонисходящимхоботом приставныхступенек. And the grocery van, cutely parked there with its piggy snout and its despondent elephant's trunk of doleful little steps trailing down to the ground. [Approximate additions in bold] Since we have a very good working relationship, i have always consulted him at an early stage, asked for clarifications if necessary, then run a few versions by him and taken it from there. We have only met via the internet but Anatoly always replies promptly, so it was a lively exchange. AK: We had unlimited access to the internet, so emailing back and forth seemed the right thing to do. it was much easier for us to tune the final text this way. And we kept working on it until we were completely satisfied with the outcome. My advice for my translators is don't be afraid to ask me anything. communication is the key to solving problems. Translators often don't have access to the writer. How important is it to you to have a good working relationship? CE: it makes a huge difference, otherwise translating a novel can be quite a solitary affair; it really helps to have someone you can bounce your ideas off. Last year, i translated a collection of short stories by a kazakh writer who was not at all approachable, so i felt i was working in a vacuum. A good working relationship helps morale, but also enables the translator to get to know the author, to read between the lines, and that, in turn, makes for a more full-bodied translation which is true to the spirit of the piece and the intentions/message of the author. AK: it is extremely important. of course, it is easier when my works are rendered into the languages i understand (the main European languages). i was unable to comment on the translations of my poems into Finnish, hungarian, hebrew and Japanese, although i could answer the translators' questions. Estimating the quality of foreign-language versions doesn't seem to be possible, even if you partly understand the language. You just have to trust your translator. How do you deal with cultural and historical references? CE: in some instances, i felt the need to add a brief explanatory footnote to explain the relevance of, say, a historical personage. the Russian reader will inevitably understand some asides and references more profoundly I would have been the worst possible translator of my own novels