"The Seagull" by A. P. Chekhov in English translations (1909-2019): the experience of comparison

Rudenko Tatiana ORCID: 0000-0002-2672-2648 PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Contrastive Linguistics, Moscow State Pedagogical University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Malaya Pirogovskaya str., 1 ti.rudenko@mpgu.edu

It is well known that the play in four acts by A. P. Chekhov "The Seagull" was written in 1986 and was first published in the magazine "Russian Thought". The premiere of the production took place on October 17, 1896 on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. From 1909 to the present, more than 20 translations of the work into English are known.

The first is believed to be the translation of a 1909 work by George Leslie Calderon, an English playwright, literary critic, linguist, and researcher of the work of A. P. Chekhov. The text is distinguished by its maximum approximation to the original, the desire to accurately convey linguistic and non-linguistic realities, which was expressed, in particular, in the presence of stressed marks in the surnames of the main characters (for example: Arc?dina, Tr?plef, S?rin, Shamr?yef, Trig?rin, Y?kof). This technique can no longer be traced in any of the English translation options. We can explain this phenomenon by the fact that this was the first production of the play in the UK, held at the Royal Theatre (Glasgow), respectively, George Leslie Calderon was tasked with introducing viewers and readers to a completely new work and, we assume, that the translator, having placed accents, decided thus to make it easier for the actors to understand the pronunciation of Russian last names.

The second translation of the work was performed by the American translator of Russian origin Marian Fell in 1912, and is considered the first published translation in the United States. However, in Russia, Marian Fell was severely criticized by many literary critics, and above all K. I. Chukovsky, for distorting the original Russian texts and destroying the authenticity of the works of A. P. Chekhov. The author of the translation was accused of excessively approximating the translation to the norms of English culture, excessive use of the technique of domestication. K. I. Chukovsky was very emotional in his assessment: "I have just read the book "Plays by Anton Tchekoff", "Plays by Anton Chekhov", translated by Miss Marianne Fell, and a lot became clear to me. This is not a transfer, but a criminal act. Some kind of continuous slander. You read it, and you want to shout guard. Chekhov, the soul of our soul, is here slandered and ridiculed in front of everyone, exposed as some kind of vulgar, and if I were an Englishman and read these very Plays, I would also decide that the Russians are cretins, and their literature, which they are so proud of, is the muttering of drunken savages" ^[8].

As an example of excessive domestication, it is possible to note the transfer of the names of the proper main characters, in which the translator tried to replace the Russian names with their English equivalents in cases where it was possible. So, Peter is passed as Peter, Eugene is the English version of Eugene, Semyon is Simon, and Jacob is Jacob ^[10]. At the same time, in cases where it was difficult to find an equivalent (only by distorting the original version of the name) or impossible at all, M. Fell used transcription or transliteration techniques (for example, Masha – Masha, Irina Arkadina – Irina Arkadina, Ilya Afanasievich Shamraev – Ilia Shamraeff). As a result, there was a confusion of variants of the names of the characters of the play, in which some of the characters have English names, and the other – Russian versions transliterated or transcribed into English, which completely distorts the source text (the viewer or reader who was not previously familiar with the work could have a question about what the English-language names of the actors are related to: this is the author's idea, in which some of the names of the characters are foreign, or the interpretation of a specific translator).

During the next four decades of the 20th century (from 1912 to 1950), only a few translations of the play "The Seagull" into English were published, performed in the United States of America, which is most likely due to those tragic historical events that, by their significance, did not allow one to fully immerse oneself in the philosophical depth of Chekhov's plays.

In 1923, a translation by Constance Clara Garnett was published, an English translator who over the years translated about 70 volumes of Russian literature by such authors as F. M. Dostoevsky, I. S. Turgenev, A. I. Herzen, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, etc. This translation is distinguished by the desire to adapt the text for the understanding of an audience that does not know Russia, and a rather free attitude to details. This was expressed, in particular, in the use of a variant of transliteration of the names of the main characters adopted in the Western tradition, which does not correspond to the semantics of the original: Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina is transferred as “Irina Nikolaevna Arkadin” ^[22]; Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya – “Nina Mihailovna Zaretchny" [Ibid.]. Also, in some cases, the translator used the addition of polite forms of addresses to the characters that were not present in the original. For example, the phrase "Yes. Zarechnaya will play, and the play by Konstantin Gavrilovich" ^[7] translated by K. Garnett looks like this: "Yes. Miss Zaretchny will act: it is Konstantin Gavrilitch’s play” ^[22]. The translator adds the Miss form, and when transliterating the surname does not pay attention to the changed case. We can assume that the lexical addition “Miss” was used by K. Garnett to make mentioning a person by last name, without using the first name, sound more respectful. However, the translator does not use this principle in every such case.

In 1950, a translation by the American educator, playwright, writer, literary critic and translator Stark Young was published. S. Young provides a rather voluminous preface to the translation of the play, in which he explains a number of his translation decisions, explains the transfer of lexemes, to which it is difficult to find an equivalent in English, compares his translation with earlier published ones, a number of of which he criticizes, including K. Garnett's version. For example, S. Young considers controversial the choice of K. Garnett's translation decision to transfer the lexical unit of the "work" into English with the word "books" (literally "books") in the following phrase by Treplev: "And I don't respect it. You want me to consider him a genius too, but I'm sorry, I can't lie, his works disgust me" ^[7] / "And I don't respect him. You want me to think him a genius, too; but forgive me, I can't tell lies, his books make me sick” ^[13]. S. Young notes that in this case the lexical unit “books” was used as a collective noun, serving as a designation for “...productions, compositions, creations, works, but only indirectly books” [Ibid.] / productions, writings, creations, works, but only indirectly books. However, the author does not see a proper argumentation of this translation option. S. Yang himself makes a choice in favor of the word “creations” as the closest in meaning to the lexeme of the "work": "And I don't respect him. You want me too to think he's a genius, but, forgive me, I can't tell lies-his creations make me sick" [Ibid.].

In 1954, a new translation of the play was published in the UK, made by the Russian emigrant, memoirist and translator Elizabeth Zhiburtovich (known in England as Lydia Johnson), who published her works under the pseudonym Elizabeth Fen. In the future, the translation of the work into English begins to be published several times in each decade of the 20th and 21st centuries in both the UK and the USA, among which we can highlight the following options:

1) American actress, teacher and translator of Russian literature of the 19th century Ann Dunnigan in 1964, made according to the liner notes of the American playwright Robert Brustine;

2) the American playwright Jean-Claude van Itally in 1974;

3) the 1986 translation by Michael Frain, an English journalist, playwright, translator;

4) the 1994 translation by Nicholas Saunders, an American actor and director (of Russian origin) and Frank Dwyer, an American poet, playwright, actor, theater director;

5) 2002 translation by Peter Carson, English publisher, editor, translator of Russian literature;

6) the 2015 translation, made by British director, playwright, and theater figure David Ha, based on the liner notes of Helen Rappaport, a British writer specializing in the translation of Russian plays, including works by A. P. Chekhov.

We would like to dwell in more detail on the latest version of the translation of the work, performed in 2017 in the USA, published in 2019, based on the liner notes of Alexandra Chistyakova-Lacombe (as indicated in the preface to the translation, Alexandra Chistyakova-Lacombe is a Russian emigrant, works as a lawyer, travels the world, loves the theater), adapted for the theatrical production of Janice L. Blixt.

As Janice L. Blixt, the play's director, notes, the need for a new translation of the play is due to the following: “When we see his plays produced in English, there's another playwright's voice involved. It's not just Chekhov. It's Chekhov and Bristow, Chekhov and Hampton, Chekhov and Stoppard, Chekhov and Schmidt, Chekhov and Dunnigan...” ^[17] / When we see his plays staged in English, the voice of another playwright sounds in them. It's not just Chekhov. These are Chekhov and Bristow, Chekhov and Hampton, Chekhov and Stoppard, Chekhov and Schmidt, Chekhov and Dunnigan (hereinafter translated by the author – TR). Janice L. Blixt set a goal in translating the work to preserve as much as possible from the original, while recreating a completely new and "fresh" work ("What I will say is that we crafted a version of The Seagull that is brand new, completely fresh, and retains as much of the intentions of the original script as possible” [[Ibid.] / What I will say is that we have created a version of The Seagull that is completely new, absolutely fresh and retains as much of the intentions of the original script as possible). Janice L. Blixt also emphasizes that the resulting work is certainly not devoid of the translator's "voice", however, it is "Chekhov as you've never read him before [Ibid.]" / Chekhov, as you've never read it before.

Analyzing the resulting translation, it can be concluded that this is rather a free interpretation of A. P. Chekhov than the actual translation of the text. In the description of the actors in this version, the characteristics of the characters were added, which are not just absent from the text of the work, but also do not always and do not fully correspond to the factual content of the original. Not only the age of each character of the work is indicated (although they are not in the original text), their type of activity adapted to modern American realities, but also personal characteristics that are rather subjective in nature, and perhaps intended for the performers of the play as a clue how to interpret the characters.

Here are some examples:

1)            Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina, by husband Trepleva, actress referred to as “ARKADINA (Dina) / Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina, 45 – a famous stage actress, beautiful, clever”;

2)            Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, her son, a young man – “Konstantin – Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, 25 / Arkadina's son, an aspiring playwright, a dreamer”;

3) Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, a young girl, the daughter of a rich landowner – “NINA – Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, 20 / Constantine's love, neighbor girl, aspiring actress, scattered, flakey, but kind and hopeful”;

4) Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev, retired lieutenant, manager at Sorin / “SHAMRAYEV – Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev - Sorin's estate manager. A "townie" – respected, but disapproving of the "artist" lifestyle”;

5)            Polina Andreevna, his wife / “POLINA – Polina Andreyevna Shamrayeva – Shamraev's wife. Townie girl, had ambitions, settled for life. Loves Dorn”;

6) Masha, his daughter / “MASHA – Ilya and Polina's daughter. Smart, biting, resigned. Would love for Constantine to notice her, doesn't expect it to ever happen”;

7) Boris Alekseevich Trigorin, fiction writer / “TRIGORIN – Boris Alekseevich Trigorin, 40 - Arkadina's lover, a famous writer, brilliant, impractical”;

8) Evgeny Sergeevich Dorn, doctor / “DR. DORN – Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn - local doctor, friend of the family. 55. Educated, well traveled, flirts with the women, has an affair with Polina, can't be tied down”;

9)            Semyon Semenovich Medvedenko, teacher / “MEDVEDENKO – Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko – local townie schoolteacher, loves Masha, supports his family, a good, yet boring man”;

10)        Yakov, an employee / “YAKOV – works on the estate – neighborhood guy, not the brightest" ^[17].

It should be noted that "The Cook" and "The Maid" in this interpretation were completely excluded from the list of actors.

In the text of the play itself, various realities were also freely interpreted. For example, Medvedchenko's phrase addressed to Masha, containing the reality-money is transmitted as follows: "I get only 23 rubles a month..." ^[7] / "I get only twenty-two cents an hour..." ^[17]. Probably, here we are talking not so much about the equivalence of the transfer of reality, as about the transfer of the semantic component "paltry salary".

Thus, based on our research, we come to the conclusion that translations of A. P. Chekhov's play "The Seagull" into English can be divided into actual translations of the literary text that preserve the semantic content (these include, for example, the versions of J. P. Chekhov. Calderon, S. Yang, David Ha), and interpretative variants (the most striking example is the translation by A. Lacombe), the purpose of which is to adapt not only linguistic, but also cultural, for the viewer who is not at all familiar or unfamiliar with the original source. Russian Russian authors, who are native speakers of the Russian language, but who are guided by a different, more or less alien, one should note that excessive domestication and attempts to bring the translation of a work closer to the realities of another culture are peculiar not so much to English-speaking translators, who nevertheless tried to convey the author's style of A. P. Chekhov and explain certain realities to a foreign reader, as to authors of Russian origin, who are native speakers of the Russian language, but who are guided by another, more or less alien them, a cultural tradition.