Polyphonic Pushkin

A Work in Progress! 

The files embedded below present poems by Alexander Pushkin in multiple versions: the original Russian (highlighted in yellow), a literal translation, and a translation that preserves, more or less, the poetic form of the original. Sometimes more than one formal translation is provided. This approach to translation is nothing new; Walter Arndt did something similar with Pushkin's work, and the recent Penguin Book of Russian Poetry (2015) gives multiple translations of a few individual poems. Because the poems below all have concrete sources in European literature, I have gone a step further and included these source texts in a single sprawling table with the translations. When the sources are not in English, English translations are provided.*

The idea behind the project is twofold: to provide information useful to critics and scholars of literature in a compact, accessible format and to expand readers' notions of what a translation is and does. My goals are as follows:  

1. To find the optimal format and medium, visually and functionally, to present this material.

2. To expand to other poems and poets.

3. To crowdsource contributions to each translational nexus, allowing readers everywhere to add and translate source materials, later poems inspired by the original, etc. The possibilities here are nearly endless and would likely have to be reined in somehow.

4. To incorporate audio files in various languages and create something truly polyphonic. 

If you would like to contribute to the project and have ideas on how to achieve any of these goals, from a technical or conceptual standpoint, please don't hesitate to contact me.

*The project as it stands is greatly indebted to Michael Wachtel of Princeton University, whose Commentary to Pushkin's Lyric Poetry, 1826-1836 (2011) provides most of the source texts included in the files below. Others I found in the wilds of the internet, and I cannot necessarily vouch for their accuracy.