The Master and Margarita: What edition are you reading?

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The Master and Margarita: What edition are you reading?

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1hemlokgang
Lug 16, 2009, 4:36 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

2theaelizabet
Lug 18, 2009, 5:08 pm

I bought the Burgin/O'Connor translation with the Ellendea Proffer annotations and afterword. It will be a week or so before I begin reading.

3billiejean
Lug 22, 2009, 1:39 am

I have the Vintage Books edition, which is the same translation as above. Hope its a good one. I am still reading The Woman in White and will start this one after I finish that one.
--BJ

4socialpages
Lug 22, 2009, 4:40 am

I have a Penguin edition with the translation by Pevear & Volokhosky. Sadly, there is no introduction, notes or afterward. I might start tonight.

5geneg
Lug 22, 2009, 10:31 am

Mine comes from the local library and is a 1992 Knopf Everyman's Library edition translated by Michael Glenny. I hope it's a good one. I look forward to starting it as soon as I finish Neuromancer which is taking a while. I am just not into it, but do wish to finish it. I'm looking forward to this one very much.

6unlucky
Lug 23, 2009, 1:29 pm

I have the same as billiejean since it was the only one I could find (at four bookstores, stupid chapters) but I have quite a few from that publisher so I'm happy because now it looks nice and pretty on the shelf.

7WilfGehlen
Modificato: Lug 26, 2009, 4:31 pm

I'm sure any edition you find will be just fine for a first read. I have both the Burgin and Pevear editions, the latter does have introduction and notes in my copy. I find the Burgin text easier to read, but the Pevear may be closer to the flavor of the original. Below are the first two paragraphs from each edition for comparison.

Pevear:

At the hour of the hot spring sunset two citizens appeared at the Patriarch's Ponds. One of them, approximately forty years old, dressed in a grey summer suit, was short, dark-haired, plump, bald, and carried his respectable fedora hat in his hand. His neatly shaven face was adorned with black horn-rimmed glasses of a supernatural size. The other, a broad-shouldered young man with tousled reddish hair, his checkered cap cocked back on his head, was wearing a cowboy shirt, wrinkled white trousers and black sneakers.

The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, [2] editor of a fat literary journal and chairman of the board of one of the major Moscow literary associations, called Massolit [3] for short, and his young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev, who wrote under the pseudonym of Homeless. [4]

Burgin:

One hot spring evening, just as the sun was going down, two men appeared at Patriarch's Ponds. One of them—fortyish, wearing a gray summer suit—was short, dark-haired, bald on top, paunchy, and held his proper fedora in his hand; black hornrimmed glasses of supernatural proportions adorned his well-shaven face. The other one—a broad-shouldered, reddish-haired, shaggy young man with a checked cap cocked on the back of his head—was wearing a cowboy shirt, crumpled white trousers, and black sneakers.

The first man was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, editor of a literary magazine and charman of the board of one of Moscow's largest literary associations, known by its acronym, MASSOLIT, and his young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov, who wrote under the pen name Bezdomny.

ETA typo correction.

8geneg
Modificato: Lug 26, 2009, 5:41 pm

Glenny:

At the sunset hour of one warm spring day two men were to be seen at Patriarch's Ponds. The first of them - aged about forty, dressed in a greyish summer suit - was short, dark-haired, well-fed and bald. He carried his decorous pork-pie hat by the brim and his neatly shaven face was embellished by black horn-rimmed specatcles of preternatural dimensions. The other, a broad-shouldered young man with curly reddish hair and a check cap pushed back to the nape of his neck, was wearing a tartan shirt, chewed white trousers and black sneakers.

The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, editor of a high-brow literary magazine and chairman of the management committee of one of the biggest Moscow literary clubs, known by its abbreviation as MASSOLIT; his young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayich Poniryov who wrote under the pseudonym of Bezdomny.


chewed white trousers?

Another point of interest: a fedora is not the same as a pork-pie. The pork-pie is similar too, but not the same as the fedora.

This little exercise makes me marvel at people who can take a book that is between 3,000, and 1,700 years old, that has been translated from one dead language to another dead language and again into living languages over and over again, who have no knowledge of any of the original languages, and argue over every jot and tittle as if the life of the world depended on it. What fools we must seem to God.

9polutropos
Lug 26, 2009, 5:34 pm

Wilf,

seeing you here is making me think I really should read Master and Margarita next. It has been close to the top of my TBR pile for a long time but I have been resisting it a bit. I would love to take part in a thoughtful discussion.

The translation I have is by Mirra Ginsburg, with a very short translator's intro, no notes, no afterword.

It begins with

At the hour of sunset, on a hot spring day, two citizens appeared in the Patriarchs' Ponds Park. One, about forty, in a gray summer suit, was short, plump, dark-haired and partly bald. He carried his respectable pancake-shaped hat in his hand, and his clean-shaven face was adorned by a pair of supernaturally large eyeglasses in a black frame. The other was a broad-shouldered young man with a mop of shaggy red hair, in a plaid cap pushed well back on his head, a checked cowboy shirt, crumpled white trousers, and black sneakers.

The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, editor of an important literary journal and chairman of the board of one of the largest literary associations in Moscow, known by its initials as MASSOLIT. His young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev, who wrote under the pen name of Homeless.

10polutropos
Lug 26, 2009, 5:46 pm

Hi Gene,

I am just joining the ranks of the aforementioned fools, known as literary translators. I have not engaged in any arguments yet, though I certainly have strong feelings about the qualities of various translations.

As far as the deity is concerned, I am always greatly reassured by the belief that She has a great sense of humor.

If anyone, incidentally, is interested in reading translations of the great Czech Nobel Prize-winning poet Jaroslav Seifert, I have recently posted three of my translations on my thread Polutropos's Polyphony, Part Ptwo, in ClubRead2009. I would love to hear your comments.

11WilfGehlen
Lug 26, 2009, 6:34 pm

Gene (#8), Bez was raising a puppy at home. That's why his trousers were chewed. Actually, I just made that up. My bad.

I took a Hebrew class hoping to get closer to the original scriptural text. Found that there's a lot there that no one knows the meaning of. Interpretation comes from the oral tradition and commentary, not from a literal, solo reading of the text.

My favorite takeaway about the kosher laws is that there is a single species of locust which is kosher (all other insects are not). But nobody knows which one because the meaning of the Hebrew is lost. So don't eat any locusts, even if a swarm just ate your crops and locusts is all there is to eat.

Actually, that may not be fair. A prime tenet is, choose life, l'chaim. Just make sure the locust is transubstantiated before eating. (Just kidding about the transubstantiation).

Getting back to Bezdomny, Pevear translates it as Homeless and explains in the notes that such pen names are common with Russian writers. An English reader may not think to search for the translation while a Russian reader would know the meaning and make any inferences necessary. Why did he choose Homeless? That is, why did Bulgakov choose Homeless as the pen name for Ponyrev?

The pen name may not be so important, but keep Bezdomny in mind as you read on.

12WilfGehlen
Lug 26, 2009, 6:49 pm

Andrew (#10), glad you can be more active now and applaud with wild enthusiasm your poetic translations.

Don't know about your assessment of the deity, though. Jung has written a wonderful psychoanalysis of Yahweh in Answer to Job, based on the dreams (or revelations) of his prophets. Humor didn't enter into it. Nor did justice.

Jung's take was that Job showed moral superiority over Y, that Y wanted to become man to see what the other side was about, at which point we pick up the story in Master and Margarita. (Whew! Worried about that segue back to MM for a moment).

13Cecilturtle
Ago 15, 2009, 2:27 pm

I have just picked up the Mirra Ginsburg translation at the library. I wanted to get a French but it was not available - it would have been interesting to see what type of cultural interferences might have popped up.
I'll probably start my reading tomorrow. I'm currently finishing Ritournelle de la faim by Le Clézio.