Cover not available
Part of
Key Cultural Texts in Translation
Edited by Kirsten Malmkjær, Adriana Şerban and Fransiska Louwagie
[Benjamins Translation Library 140] 2018
► pp. 131–149

Chapter 8
Polish dance in Eugene Onegin

What can be found in translation

This article focuses on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel, Eugene Onegin as a key cultural text. I examine five translations into English, by Douglas Hofstadter (1999), Olivia Emmet and Svetlana Makourenkova (1999), Tom Beck (2004), Henry Hoyt (2008), and Stanley Mitchell (2008), using both paratextual and textual data related to one peculiar episode, the dance scene, part of Tatiana’s birthday party in Chapter 5, to exemplify the translators’ vision and the techniques they use to preserve the specific concepts and terms of Russian culture in their work and for sharing them with their English-speaking readers. Since these five translations have not been analysed before, my article makes a contribution to the almost two centuries worth of scholarship on Eugene Onegin in English.

Keywords: translation theory, the translator’s visibility, Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Article outline
  • 1.Introductory remarks
  • 2.The legacy of Eugene Onegin in English
    • 2.1The very beginning
    • 2.2Simmons’ review of the first translations of Eugene Onegin in English
    • 2.3Nabokov and Eugene Onegin
    • 2.4Leighton’s work on Eugene Onegin
    • 2.5From paper to online reviews: Murr’s evaluation of Eugene Onegin
    • 2.6Tarvi’s research on Eugene Onegin in English
  • 3.The translators’ vision of Eugene Onegin: What to bring to the reader
    • 3.1Emmet and Makourenkova: Pushkin as a Russian Shakespeare
    • 3.2Hofstadter’s study of Eugene Onegin
    • 3.3Beck’s Eugene Onegin: The importance of sounds in translating
    • 3.4Hoyt’s Eugene Onegin: An improvement on Nabokov’s translation
    • 3.5Mitchell’s Eugene Onegin: In quest of Pushkin’s style, vocabulary, rhyme and metre in English
  • 4.What can be gained in translation: The metaphor of the Polish dance in Eugene Onegin
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.140.08pon
References

Primary sources

Source texts

Pushkin, Alexander S.
1949[1837] Sochineniya. Moskva: izd-vo khudozhestvennoi literatury.Google Scholar

Target texts

Arndt, Walter
2002 [1963]. Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin: A novel in verse. The Bollingen prize translation in the Onegin Stanza by Walter Arndt [1916–2011]. 2nd edition, revised. New York, NY: Dutton.Google Scholar
Beck, Tom
2004 Eugene Onegin. Alexander Pushkin. A New Translation by Tom Beck . Sawtry: Dedalus.Google Scholar
Cahill, Christopher
1999 Eugene Onegin. A Novel in Verse by Alexander Pushkin. A Prose Version of Chapter One by Christopher Cahill Based on the Literal Translation of Vladimir Nabokov. New York: The Stinehour Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Roger
2000 Eugene Onegin (in Prose). Complete Works by Alexander Pushkin (Volume 4) (pp. 231–368). Norfolk: Milner and Company Ltd.Google Scholar
Clough, Samuel D. P.
1988 [1980]. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”. A New Version with the Text by S. D. P. Clough. Oxford: (2 Lucerner Rd., Oxford OX2 7QB).Google Scholar
Deutsch, Babette
1969 [1936]. Alexander Pushkin. Eugene Onegin. A Novel in Verse. A New Revised Edition Translated by Babette Deutsch. Edited with an Introduction by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. Baltimore: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Elton, Oliver
1939 [1937]. Evgeny Onegin. Translated by Oliver Elton. London: The Pushkin Press.Google Scholar
Elton, Oliver and Briggs, A. D. P.
1995 Alexander Pushkin, Yevgeny Onegin. Edited with revised translation by A. D. P. Briggs based on a translation by Oliver Elton [1861–1945]. London: Everyman.Google Scholar
Emmet, Olivia and Makourenkova, Svetlana
2009 [1999]. Pushkin A.S. Evgenii Onegin. Na angl. i russk. yaz. 3-e izdanie. Moskva: Reka vremen.Google Scholar
Falen, James E.
1995 [1990]. Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse. Translated and with an introduction by James E. Falen. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hofstadter, Douglas
1999 Eugene Onegin: A novel in verse by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. A novel versification by Douglas Hofstadter [1945-]. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hoyt, Henry M.
2008 Eugene Onegin. A Novel in Verse. In the Original Russian and English Translation by Henry M. Hoyt. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing.Google Scholar
Johnston, Charles
1977 Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin. Translated by [Sir] Charles [ Heburn-Johnston [1912–1986] . London: Scolar Press.Google Scholar
Kayden, Eugene M.
1964 Alexander Pushkin. Eugene Onegin. A Novel in Verse Translated from the Russian by Eugene M. Kayden. Yellow Springs, Ohio: The Antioch Press.Google Scholar
Kozlov, Sergei N.
1998 [1994] Pushkin A.S. Eugene Onegin. Novel in Verse. Translated by Kozlov S. N. Moscow: RIF “ROY”.Google Scholar
Ledger, G. R.
2001 Yevgeny Onegin. Internet: [URL] Oxford: Oxquarry Books.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Stanley
2008 Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse Translated with an introduction and notes by Stanley Mitchell [1932–2011]. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Nabokov, Vladimir V.
1964 Eugene Onegin. A novel in verse by Aleksandr Pushkin. Translated from the Russian with a Commentary by Vladimir [Vladimirovich] Nabokov [1899–1977]. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Radin, Dorothea P. and Patrick, George Z.
1937 Eugene Onegin. Translated from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin by Dorothe Prall Radin and George Z. Patrick. Berkley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sharer, Michael
1996 A Rendition of Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”. A Novel in Verse. Los Angeles: Beamish Publishers.Google Scholar
Simmons, Bayard
1950 Eugene Onegin. A Romance in Verses by Alexander Pushkin. Done into English Verse by Bayard Simmons. The British Library: typewritten manuscript.Google Scholar
Spalding, Henry
1881 Eugene Onèguine. A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Alexander Pushkin. London: MacMillan and Co.Google Scholar
Belinskii, Vissarion G.
1955 Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v 13 tomakh. Tom 7. Moscow: Academy of Science.Google Scholar
Bethea, David
1984 Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin; Walter Arndt. The Slavic and East European Journal, 28(1), 112–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Briggs, A. D. P.
1992 Landmarks of World Literature. Alexander Pushkin Eugene Onegin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chandler, R.
2011 Stanley Mitchell: Scholar whose greatest work was his translation of “Eugene Onegin”. The Independent, November 4, 2011. Available online at [URL] (Accessed 15 December 2013).Google Scholar
Chukovsky, Kornei
2001 Sobranie sochinenii v 15-ti tomakh. T.3. Vysokoe iskusstvo. Moskva: Terra – Knizhnui klub. Available online at [URL] (Accessed on 15 December 2013).Google Scholar
Coates, Jenefer
1998 Changing Horses: Nabokov and Translation. In Jean Boase-Beier and Michael Holman (Eds.), The Practices of Literary Translation: Constrains and Creativity, (pp.91–108). Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Evgeni Onegin
: a Poetical Novel. By Alexander Pushkin. 6 vols. 16 mo. St Petersburg, 1825–1828. The Foreign Literary Gazette, and Weekly Epitome of Continental Literature, Sciences, Arts &c, no. 5. Wednesday, February 3 1830: 68–69.Google Scholar
Hofstadter, Douglas
1997 Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
1996 What’s Gained in Translation. The New York Times Book Review 8 Dec 1996, 47–48.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Nicolas
2011 Stanley Mitchell Obituary. The Guardian, Wednesday 30 November 2011 Jacobs, Nicolas [URL] " (Accessed5 July 2017).Google Scholar
Leighton, Lauren
1997 A New Onegin. The Slavic and East European Journal 41(4), 661–666. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1991 Two Worlds, One Art: Literary Translation in Russian and America. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Lotman, Yurii M.
2009 [1980]. Pushkin Biografiya pisatelya. Stat’i i zametki. “Evgenii Onegin”. Kommentarii. Sankt Peterburg: Iskusstvo-SPB.Google Scholar
McMillin, Arnold
2001 “Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse. A Novel Versification by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin; Douglas Hofstadter.” The Slavic and East European Review 79(2), 313–315.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Stanley
2010 “On Finishing My Translation of Eugene Onegin ”. Cardinal Points Literary Journal 12(1), 174–179. Available online [URL]Google Scholar
Murr
[pseudonym] 2010 “‘Eugene Onegin’ 5 Translations and A Commentary Part 1”. Available at [URL] (Accessed5 December 2013).Google Scholar
Simmons, Ernest J.
1938 “English Translations of Eugene Onegin”. Slavonic and East European Review, XVII, 49, 198–208.Google Scholar
1964 “A Nabokov Guide Through the World of Alexander Pushkin; Eugene Onegin”. The New York Times Book Review, June 28 1964: BR4.Google Scholar
Tarvi, Ljuba
2004 Comparative Translation Assessment: Quantifying Quality. Thesis. University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
2000 [2004]. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 [1995]. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wang, Allen
N.d. Perusing the Mazurka in Society, Literature, and Music. Published online at [URL] (Accessed 19 July 2017).