As you may have noticed, the
title of this webpage is a play on words. “Strana Sovetov” can be interpreted
as the “Country of Soviets”, but, in fact we are referring to the other meaning
of the expression. That is, the “Country
of Advice” (or, “Country of Advisers”).
This is the page where practical recommendations
for the participating Vysotsky translators will be posted by individuals who have
some extended experience translating our poet’s work into English. Regardless
of how well you know Russian (and very many of you do know it very well!),
every author has his own unique stylistic traits that the translator should be
aware of. Thus, those with experience
should be able to provide valuable insight top the rest of us.
We have asked several of the well-known
translators of Vysotsky to share their expertise and knowledge of specific
problem areas, and they have kindly agreed to do so! :-)
Our initial post is by Vadim Astrakhan, who recently presented his new album of Vysotsky translations in his brilliant presentation at the “Russkiy Mir” Center in Washington , DC
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Our second adviser is George Tokarev of Tsfat (Israel), an experienced author of over 170 translations of Vladimir Vysotsky texts. You can find many of them on "Vladimir Vysotsky. The Monument" website (or here). Besides appreciating his readable contributions to the field, you may also enjoy listening to the album of his translations of Vysotsky recently recorded by the Swedish rock-singer Michael Ohlsson. (Also available on iTunes).
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Our next adviser is Heinrich Pfandl, an internationally renowned Austrian Slavist, the author of one of the first dissertations on Vysotsky in the West (defended in 1991) and a long-term researcher in Vysotsky poetics. Some of his publications on Vysotsky (in Russian and German) are available on this wonderful website created by Andrey Skobelev and his enthusiastic team of vysotskovians.
While recently attending a conference on Vysotsky in Moscow, he graciously found a few minutes to summarize his extensive experience of balancing several languages and cultures in his interactions with Vladimir Vysotsky's oeuvre. Choosing among the multiple languages he speaks, we decided to stop on Russian as the best one for this post.
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