Three Translations of V Parizhe

One story in three translations:Ivan Bunin’s V Parizhe

                         --Akella Charumati Ramdas

Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) was the first Russian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1933. Bunin had migrated to Paris soon after the Great October Revolution of 1917. In 1920 he left his motherland never to come back again.

Consequently, Bunin’s works could be classified into two categories: those written before 1920 (in Russia) and those written as an immigrant till his death (in Paris).

Bunin, though not very famous in Russia at that point of time, had a class of his own fans and readers. The readers were enchanted by his slow, classic, lyrical style and his love for description of minute details, depiction of the inner and outer worlds of not only human beings but those of animals and nature as well. In fact, Bunin's prose reads like poetry, what with rhyming jewels of words and universal generalisation and abstraction. Hence translating Bunin is a big challenge. How can one translate a picture, a portrait!

This particular story, V Parizhe "In Paris", was written in 1940 when Bunin had long settled in Paris. His love for minute details of everything that surrounded him makes the story unique. It reflects the psychology and life of immigrant Russians settled in Paris. So, Bunin, the master painter of life, includes both the Russian  and the French socio-cultural elements in the story. In fact, it can be termed a bilingual story freely using French words, expressions and proverbs making it even more challenging for the translator, who might not be familiar with the French language and the French culture.

The present paper is an attempt to analyze three direct translations of V Parizhe into English, Hindi and Marathi. While the English translation is a commissioned one (by Olga Shartse, published in 1988 by Raduga  Publishers, Moscow), the Hindi (by Prof J P Dimri) and the Marathi (by Prof V S Totawar) versions are the outcome of a workshop on Translating Bunin held at the CIEFL, Hyderabad, in 2002. These translations, published in 2003, are products of a collective effort.

1. A quick look at the story:

V Parizhe could be termed as an episode in the life of Nikolai Platonovich, who is a lonely Russian, deserted by his wife long back, settled in Paris.

The story opens on a gloomy note in the backdrop of late autumn. Throughout the story this gloom persists and it clears up only with the death of the protagonist in spring, when everything else is promising a young, everlasting life.

On a Thursday in autumn Nikolai Platonovich [For brevity, we will use NP hereafter] meets Olga Alexandrovna [OA hereafter] in a Russian restaurant. On Monday, they go to a movie and from there to Nikolai Platonovich’s flat from where Olga Alexandrovna never goes back. She quits her job and starts living with him. In winter he persuades her to take a locker (strongbox) in her name at the Lyons Credit Bank and deposit in it all the money he had earned.

On the third day of Easter, Nikolai Platonovich dies in the metro. He had been reading the newspaper, and then suddenly threw back his head and died…

The story ends on a sad note: Olga Alexandrovna, while cleaning the flat after the funeral, finds his old army great coat, she presses it to her face, and pressing it even closer sinks on the floor, jerking and shuddering from her sobs, begging someone for mercy.

In this paper an attempt is made to analyze the three translations in terms of a) proximity to the source text, b) translation of socio-cultural specificities of Russia and France, c) translation of linguo-cultural peculiarities like French- and Russian-specific words / expressions / proverbs, d) transliteration of proper nouns and e) the narrative style of the translation.

2. Proximity to the Source Text

All the three translations are very honest to the ST and have tried to stick to the style of the original, but the English version seems closer to the ST. The very first sentence of the story, which consists of six printed lines, tells about the approach of the translators:

ST:# Когда он был в шляпе, - шел по улице или стоял в вагоне метро, - и не видно было, что его коротко стриженные красноватые волосы остро серебрятся, по свежести его худого, бритого лица, по прямой выправке, высокой фигуры в длинном непромокаемом пальто, ему можно было дать не больше сорока лет.

Please note that this is just one sentence! Now let us have a look at the translations:

E:  When he was wearing a hat, walking down the street or standing in the car of the metro, and you could not see the silver threads in his cropped reddish hair, you would say he was not more than forty, judging by the freshness of his lean, clean shaven face and his tall, lean figure in the long mackintosh.

The English version has retained the length of the single sentence and properly retained the cause-effect relationship. The cause is wearing of a hat and the effect is looking young.

H: जब भी वह हैट पहनता, सड़क पर चलता या मेट्रो के डिब्बे में खड़ा होता, पता ही नहीं लगता कि उसके छोटे कटॆ हुए ललछौंहे बाल तेज़ी से सफ़ेद हो रहे हैं. हजामत किए चेहरे की ताज़गी और लम्बी बरसाती में लिपटी सीधी, दुबली-पतली क़द-काठी को देखकर उसे चालीस से अधिक का नहीं कहा जा सकता था.

Here the original sentence is split into two, and the reason for the hero's looking young too is lost. Here is another option suggested:

जब भी वह हैट पहने सड़क पर चलता या मेट्रो के डिब्बे में खड़ा होता और उसके कटे ललछौंहे बालों में चांदी के तार नहीं दिखाई देते तो हजामत किए उसके चेहरे की ताज़गी और लम्बी बरसाती में लिपटी सीधी, दुबली-पतली क़द-काठी को देखते हुए उसे चालीस से अधिक का नहीं कहा जा सकता था.

M: Interestingly, the Marathi translation, though done independently, follows a very similar pattern:

तो हैटमध्ये असो, की सडके वरून जात असो, की मेट्रोच्या डब्यात उभा असो, त्याच्या बारीक कापलेल्या लालसर केसांवरची स्पष्ट चंदेरी झाक लक्षात येत नसे. ताज्या, दाढी केलेल्या त्याच्या नाजुकशा चेहर्‍यावरून व मेणकापडाच्या लांब रेनकोटमधील सरळ, सडपातळ आणि ताठ अंगकाठीवरून तो अगदी चाळिशीच्या आतलाच वाटायचा. Here, the first part of the sentence is ‘whether he would be wearing a hat, or walking down the street or standing in the car of a metro, you could not notice the silver threads in his hair.’ Obviously it has deviated from the ST: the emphasis is on the non-visibility of silver streaks, while the ST clearly states that due to his hat, when the silver streaks were not seen, he looked much younger.

The breaking of the long sentence has resulted in the separation of cause and effect (when…then).  Such translation phenomena can be observed at many places in the two Indian translations: more in the Marathi version and less in the Hindi version. Obviously, the style looks deviating from the original. Bunin’s descriptive, painting-like style has been rendered nearer to explanatory narration thereby diluting the crisp, concise nature of narration of the ST.

3. Translation of socio-cultural specificities of Russia and France

As mentioned earlier, V Parizhe is a story written by a Russian writer settled in France. A good part of the action takes place in a Russian restaurant in Paris. The characters of the story are pretty familiar with French culture and use a lot of French words in their speech. These words and expressions are given in French in the ST, making it a bilingual story as mentioned earlier.  However, the Hindi and Marathi translators used a Soviet edition of Bunin's collected works,# in which all French expressions are explained in Russian in footnotes by P.L. Vyacheslavov.

In addition, there are many words specific to the Russian culture as well.

All the three translators have expressed these culture-specific words as per their own preferences.

The English version of V Parizhe gives French words in Roman script, without giving any explanation for them; but when it comes to the Russian words the translator has given their English translation, and, if the English equivalent is not available she has written the Russian word in Roman script, but has not provided any explanation.  In effect, the English version by Olga Shartse has become a trilingual story!

The Hindi translation gives the French words in Roman script and each word is explained in footnotes. The Russian words are expressed through their Hindi equivalents.

The Marathi version is inconsistent in this respect. Sometimes it gives French words/expressions in Devanagari transliteration, explaining the meaning in endnotes; sometimes it gives only a Marathi translation for the word. For Russian words, the translator gives their transliteration, which is not very accurate as exemplified below, and, their meaning - rather in too much detail - in the endnotes.

Here are a few examples:

3.1 ST: Вроде гастрономического

E: Delicatessen of sorts

H: प्रोविजन स्टोर सा "a sort of provision store" M: गस्त्रोनोमवजा "a sort of gastronom" … The explanation given in the endnote is: खाण्या पिण्याच्या वस्तू विकत मिळण्याचे ठिकाण, गिर्‍हाइकाची इच्छा असल्यास या दुकानात बसूनही खाता येतं "a place selling food and drinks; if the customer so desires, he may even sit and eat in this store". Instead of such an explanation, simply ‘Food Stores’ would have been better.

3.2 ST: Рябиновка

E: Ash berry Vodka

H: ऐशवृक्ष की बेरियों से बनी ब्रान्डी "brandy made from the berries of ash tree"

M: रिबीनफ्का "ryabinovka"… (रिबीना नावाच्या आंबट गोड छोट्या रानफाळांपासून तयार केलेली दारू (वोद्का)) "liquor (vodka) made from small sour-sweet berries named ryabina"

3.3 ST: Блины

E: Pancakes

H: पैन केक "pancakes" M: ब्लिन्ई "bliny" (मैद्याची धिरडी. ही सहसा लोणी, जैम वा मुरांब्या सोबत खातात) "pancake made of maida. It is generally eaten with butter, jam or jelly" One more example, where the three versions differ significantly from each other:

3.4 ST: щи флотские

E: Sailors’ Schi

H:  श्ची "shchi" (foot-note: बंद गोभी, चुकन्दर तथा माँस के टुकड़ों से बना सूप) "soup made from cabbage, beetroot and meat pieces")

M: खलाशांचं आवडतं सूप "sailors' favourite soup"

3.5 ST: Борщ

E: Borsch (No explanation)

H: बोर्श्च "borsch" (बंद गोभी से तैयार किया गया सूप) "soup made of cabbage" M: बोर्श "borsch" (बीटरूट घालून केलेलं एक प्रकार चे सूप) "a kind of soup made with beetroot"

3.6 ST: Рассольник

E: Kidney Soup

H: खट्टे खीरों का सूप "(lit.) soup of sour cucumbers" (No mention of kidney … only  pickled cucumbers)

M: रस्सोल्निक "rassolnik" (endnote: खारावलेल्या काकड्या, मांसाचे तुकडे वगैरे घालून करण्यात येणारे आंबटसर चवीचे रशियन सूप "sour-tasting Russian soup made by putting pickled cucumbers, meat pieces etc." )

3.7 ST: Bonsoir, monsieur.

    (Добрый вечер, сударь.)

E: Bonsoir, monsieur.

    (No explanation given.)

H: Bonsoir, monsieur.

शुभ संध्या, श्रीमान! "Good evening, sir!" M: बों सुआर् म्स्यो. गुड इविनिंग, सर "Good evening, sir" Interestingly, the Marathi version gives the meaning in English, written in transliteration in Devanagari, but maintains no uniformity in this regard. Another example will illustrate this:

3.8  ST: Мерси

    (No explanation given.)

E: merci

    (No explanation given)

H: मेर्सी (Transliteration in Devanagari)

    धन्यवाद (फ्रेंच) "Thanks (French)". The explanation is given in the text of the story itself and not in the footnotes.

M: धन्यवाद "Thanks" (No transliteration, just translation given in the text of the story itself.)

One more example:

3.9 ST: caviar rouge, salade russe…deux chachlyks (Shashlik is a Russian word which is retained in this French expression).

    (красной икры, винегрета...два шашлыка.)

E: caviar rouge, salade russe…deux chachlyks

    (No explanation is given.)

H: caviar rouge, salade russe…deux chachlyks.

    लाल कैवियर, रूसी सलाद और बोटी कबाब (फ्रेंच) "red caviar, Russian salad and boti kabab (French)" (Interestingly, the Hindi translation does not say that it is two kababs that are ordered.) M: काविआर रूज्ह, सालाद र्‍यूस...द्ओ षाषलीक (Transliteration in Devanagari, but the meaning of this expression is not explained. Only caviar is explained in an endnote: कावियार–स्टर्जन माशाची अंडी. गाभोळी, लाल व काळ्या अशा दोन रंगात मिळणारी. ही अंडी रशियातच नव्हे तर संपूर्ण यूरोपात अतिशय खास पक्वान्न समजली जातात.) "caviar - eggs of the sturgeon-fish. Embryo and available in two colours: red and black. These eggs are considered an extremely special delicacy not only in Russia, but in entire Europe."

  

4. Expressing French- and Russian-specific words/ expressions/ proverbs

In the original, Ivan Bunin mentions that the protagonist Nikolai Platonovich had spent a few years of his immigrant life in Provence, heard more than an earful of biting Provencal jokes and, when in Paris, liked to insert them in his always-concise speech.  To be precise, there are six French proverbs in the ST. The translators have dealt with them differently.

The ST gives them in French (Roman script) and their meaning is given in footnotes in Russian.

The English version too gives them in French itself but explains the meaning of only four of them in English in the footnotes.

The Hindi version follows the same pattern of giving the French proverbs in Roman script and explaining their meaning in Hindi in footnotes. All the proverbs are explained.

The Marathi version just gives a translation in Marathi.

But it is interesting to see how the proverbs are translated. Quite a few variations are observed in the process. We will quote four of them below:

4.1. ST: Rien n’est plus difficile que de reconnaître un bon melon et une femme de bien.

    [Нет ничего более трудного, как распознать хороший арбуз и порядочную женщину.]

E: Rien n’est plus difficile que de reconnaître un bon melon et une femme de bien.

    [Nothing is more difficult than telling at a look if a water melon is ripe or a woman is virtuous.]

H: Rien n’est plus difficile que de reconnaître un bon melon et une femme de bien.

    [एक अच्छे तरबूज़ और शालीन महिला को पहचानने से मुश्किल काम दुनिया में और कोई नहीं है (फ्रेंच) "Nothing is more difficult in the world than to recognise a good melon and a decent woman"]

M: (Only a translation is given) चांगले टरबूज़ व चारित्र्यवान स्त्री ओळखणे याहून कठिण दुसरे काही नाहीं "Nothing is more difficult than to recognise a good melon and a woman with character"

So we see that un bon melon and femme de bien have been rendered as хороший арбуз and порядочная женщина in Russian; ripe water melon and virtuous woman in English, अच्छा तरबूज़ and शालीन महिला in Hindi and चांगले टरबूज़ and चारित्र्यवान स्त्री in Marathi. Of the three translations, the most  appropriate are the adjectives used in Hindi.

4.2. ST: L'eau gâte le vin comme la charrette le chemin et la femme - l'âme.

    [Вода портит вино так же, как повозка дорогу и как женщина душу.]

E: L'eau gâte le vin comme la charrette le chemin et la femme - l'âme.

    (Water spoils the wine as a cart ruins the road, and a woman the soul.)

H: L'eau gâte le vin comme la charrette le chemin et la femme - l'âme.

    पानी वाईन को उसी तरह ख़राब करता है जैसे गाड़ी सड़क को और औरत दिल को.     "Water spoils the wine just as a vehicle spoils a road and a woman spoils a heart."

M: (No French version is given; just the translation is given)

मद्याची चव जशी पाण्याने कमी होते आणि गाड्यांच्या रहदारीमुळे जसा रस्ता खराब होतो, तसं स्त्री मुळं चरित्र डागाळतं. "Just as wine's taste becomes weaker with water and the road's condition deteriorates with the movement of vehicles, deeds too get blemished due to a woman".

The construction has become passive and the word चरित्र which is the Hindi version of ‘character’, in Marathi actually stands for "actions, deeds, exploits, achievements, esp. of gods / heroes".चारित्र्य is the word for ‘character’ in Marathi.  But, there is a more serious deviation here: the main clause has been replaced by a subordinate one and vice versa.  In the Marathi translation, water spoiling the wine and vehicles spoiling the road are only examples to illustrate how a woman taints one's deeds (the latter has now become the main statement).  In the other 4 versions (the original French, Russian footnotes and the other two translations), the main clause is Water spoils the wine, which is exemplified by the other two.

It may be noticed that l'âme is given as душа in Russian (both of which mean "soul, spirit"), soul in English, दिल "heart" in Hindi and चरित्र in Marathi. It could have been आत्मा in Hindi as well as in Marathi.

Alas, a very important feature of the original has been missed by the modern translators: the wonderfully poetic harmony of the French expression with its rhyme, resonance and melody.  The one which comes closest to it is in the Russian rendering, which can be roughly transcribed as follows: [vada: po:rtit vino: ta:g zhe, ka:k pavo:ska daro:gu i zhe:nshchina du:shu].

4.3. ST: Le bon Dieu envoie toujours des culottes á ceux qui n’ont pas de derrière.

    [Милосердный господ всегда дает штаны тем, у кого нет зада.] Curiously, the Russian version says дает "gives" in place of the original envoie "sends".

E: Le bon Dieu envoie toujours des culottes á ceux qui n’ont pas de derrière.

    (No explanation is given.)

H: Le bon Dieu envoie toujours des culottes á ceux qui n’ont                           pas de derrière.

    परमात्मा पतलून उसे देता है जिसके कि चूतड़ न हों "God gives pants to the one, who has no bottom" M: (No French proverb is given but its meaning is conveyed through some other proverb in Marathi.)  चणे आहेत तर दात नाहीत, दात आहेत तर चणे नाहीत. "If there are nuts, there are no teeth, and if there are teeth,  there are no nuts".

This replacement may appear suitable for the target readers, but a literal translation could have given the readers information about the French proverb. (More about this follows below.)

4.4. ST: Qui se marie par amour a bonnes nuits et mauvais jours.

    [ Кто женится по любви, тот имеет хорошие ночи и скверные  дни.] ["He who marries for love has good nights and vile days"].

E: Qui se marie par amour a bonnes nuits et mauvais jours.

    (He who marries for love has good nights and bad days.) [A competent translation]

H: Qui se marie par amour a bonnes nuits et mauvais jours.

    जो प्रेम विवाह करता है उसकी रातें तो अच्छी होती हैं लेकिन दिन बुरे.(One who marries one's love has good nights, but bad days.) [Again a competent translation of the French original]

M: (The French proverb is not given, only its translation is given.)

    रात्री रंगीन आणि दिवस ओंगळ वाईट घालवायला आवडतात म्हणून लोक लग्न करतात.  (People marry because they like to spend colourful nights and bad vile days.)

It can be clearly seen that this is a translation of Vyacheslavov's Russian footnote. It reads as: [Бывает, что женятся из-за того, что нравятся хорошие ночи и скверные дни.] This calls for a critical comment. The original French expression is "He who marries for love has good nights and vile days", but Vyacheslavov has inexplicably turned it into "It does happen that people marry just because they like good nights and vile days".

Our Marathi translator, who actually knows French, has failed to see that the cause and the effect have been turned back to front. Several words have been added and, what's more, the all important information about 'love marriage' has been omitted.

5. Let us now see some other examples of misrepresentation.

5.1 ST: Он опять взглянул на нее: очень красив белый передник с прошивками на черном платье, красиво выдаются под ним груди сильной молодой женщины.

E: He looked at her again. The white pinafore with lace insets looked very pretty on the black dress, and beautifully shaped the breasts of the robust young woman. (A competent translation.)

H: उसने फिर उस महिला पर नज़र डाली: लेस से सजा हुआ एप्रन काली फ्रॉक के ऊपर बहुत अच्छा लग रहा था और उसके नीचे से सुडौल जवान औरत का ख़ूबसूरती से उभरता वक्षस्थल. "He glanced at that woman again: the apron embellished with lacework was looking good on the black frock and (as also) the beautifully emerging breastline of the robust young woman from under it."  The underlined से "from" could have been avoided here.

M: त्यानं परत तिच्याकडे बघितलं, लेसवजा भरतकाम केलेला पांढरा एप्रन काळ्या फ्रॉक वर फारच शोभून दिसत होता आणि फ्रॉक खालून त्या धिप्पाड तरुण स्त्रीचे उन्नत उरोज मोहकपणे बाहेर डोकावत होते. "He looked at her again. The white apron with lace-like embroidery was looking very attractive on the black frock, and, from under the frock, the high breasts of that tall and strong young woman were attractively peeping out."

It can be seen that the Marathi translation is rather too free.   Firstly, लेसवजा भरतकाम means lace-like embroidery; there is some avoidable addition here.  Secondly, धिप्पाड "tall and strong" does not convey Olga Alexandrovna's robust youth, on the contrary makes her somewhat masculine in appearance.  Similarly, the adjective उन्नत "high, tall; lofty" has been used for her breasts, whereas the original has no such qualifier.

5.2 Another example of misinformation:

When Olga Alexandrovna asks Nikolai Platonovich whether he too, like her husband, had participated in the White Movement, he answers:

ST: Да, участвовал и в великой и в гражданской войне.

E: Oh, yes, I fought both in the First World war and in our civil War.

H: हाँ, मैंने प्रथम विश्वयुद्ध एवँ गृह युद्ध में भाग लिया था. "Yes, I took part in the First World War and the civil war."

M: होय, मी ही घेतला होता. मी दुसर्‍या महायुद्धात व यादवी युद्धात पण भाग घेतला होता. "Yes, I too participated. I took part in the Second World War and in the civil war too."

Here मी ही घेतला होता "I too had taken" is extra.  दुसर्‍या महायुद्धात "in the Second World War" is wrong and exemplifies the pitfalls that every translator must scrupulously avoid. The story was written in 1940 and Russia was involved in the Second World War only after June 1941!  So, the translation should have been either महायुद्धात "in the world war" or प्रथम महायुद्धात "in the First World War". 5.3 Yet another pitfall for translators is mixing up dialogues, which may result in hilarious, if not outrageous, gender-swapping etc.

Nikolai Platonovich invites Olga Alexandrovna to a film on a Monday, which is a holiday for her. The dialogue goes like this:

ST:    -Ну вот и пойдем в понедельник. Нынче что? Суббота? Значит послезавтра. Идет?

    -Идет. Завтра вы, очевидно, не придете?

    -Нет, еду за город, к знакомым.

E:    “Well then, let’s go on Monday. What’s today? Saturday? That means the day after tomorrow. Agreed?”
    “Agreed. I take it you’re not coming here tomorrow.”
    “No, I’m going out of town to visit friends…”

H:    तो फिर सोमवार को चलेंगे. आज कौन सा दिन है? शनिवार? इसका मतलब-परसों. ठीक है?

    ठीक है. लगता है कि कल आप (यहाँ?) नहीं आएंगे?
    नहीं, मैं कल अपने परिचितों के पास शहर से बाहर जा रहा हूँ.

M:    तर मग सोमवारी जाऊया की! आज वार कोणता? शनिवार का? म्हणजे परवा जायचं. चालेल?     चालेल.     उद्या, अर्थातच, तुम्हीं कामावर येणार नाहीं.

    नाहीं. मी आमच्या ओळखीच्यांकडे चालली आहे जवळपासच्या एका गावात.

As can be seen, the Marathi version inexplicably split the second dialogue (rendered in E as “Agreed. I take it you’re not coming here tomorrow.”) into two and apportioned each of the two parts to the two characters. The result is that it is not Olga Alexandrovna, who is asking whether Nikolai Platonovich will not come the next day, but the other way round. And, it is she who is replying that she will be going out of town to visit some acquaintances! And, to accommodate this comedy of errors, the Marathi translation is forced to use the feminine ending of the verb for her: चालली! As if this were not enough, an extra word has been added to NP's question, implying that OA will not come to work the next day, leaving the Marathi reader to understand that she is going to the country to visit her acquaintances - and not NP - whereas the ST mentions just the opposite.  Similarly, the expression जाऊया की! (with an exclamation mark and an additional की!) which can be roughly translated as "Come on, let's go!" expresses NP's thrill which is not the case with the ST.

In addition to the above, a close look at the three translations reveals as follows:

Bunin's очевидно 'obviously' has been rendered in English using 'I take it that …', in Hindi using लगता है कि "It seems that…" and in Marathi using अर्थातच "obviously".

Another instance when the Marathi translation is more appropriate than the other two is in the case of NP's question and OA's positive reply: "Идет? Идет". The English version used "Agreed? Agreed." and the Hindi  version rendered it as "Is it alright? It is alright."  The Marathi version, on the other hand, makes use of an exact equivalent: चालेल? चालेल. "Will it go? It will go."  In Hindi too, it could have been चलेगा? चलेगा.

The English translation replaced Bunin's знакомые "acquaintances" with 'friends', while the other two retained the original word.

Curiously, all 3 translations have converted Olga Alexandrovna's question, whether Nikolai Platonovich will not come the next day, into a statement!

While doing so, the English translator has added the modifier 'here', whereas the Marathi translation has interpolated a confusing "to work", as described above.

5.4 Let us now look at another example:

ST: Бывший участник белого движения

E: He was an officer in the white movement

H: श्वेत आंदोलन के भूतपूर्व सदस्य "a former member of the White movement". This is an exact translation and श्वेत आंदोलन is explained in the footnotes as गृह युद्ध के समय क्रांति विरोधी आंदोलन "an anti-revolution movement during the civil war".

M: ते व्हाइट आर्मीचे सदस्य होते व त्यांनी व्हाइट चळवळीत भाग घेतला होता. "He was a member of the White Army and had taken part in the White movement". व्हाइट आर्मी "White Army" is explained in the endnotes as रशियन क्रांति व कम्युनिस्तांविरुद्ध लढा देणारी रशियन झारशाही व सरंजामशाहीची पुरस्कर्ती संघटना. या संघटनेचे बरेचसे सदस्य रशिया सोडून निघून गेले किंवा लाल सैन्याकडून मारले गेले "the leading Russian tsarist and state service force that fought against the Russian revolution and the communists. Many members of this force left Russia or were killed by the Red Army". Many such details are poured into the text as well as the endnotes impeding clarity and readability.

5.5 Here is another example of mistranslation:

NP and OA meet at the metro station. OA is wearing a long evening dress. They decide to go to a restaurant. While going in a taxi NP notices her knees outlined by the evening dress. The extract:

ST: Он увидел её крупные колени под вечерним платьем.

E: He saw her knees outlined by the black evening gown.

H: वह देखता रहा काली इविनिंग ड्रेस के नीचे उसके सुडौल घुटनों को. "He went on looking at her strong knees under the black evening dress." Here, the perfective aspect of the original verb has been replaced by the imperfective aspect, turning a one-time action into a long process.

M: इविनिंग गाऊन खालून तिचे जाडजूड गुडघे दिसत होते. "Her fat knees were visible from under the evening gown."

6. Transliteration of proper nouns

It is rather easy to render Russian proper nouns in English since both Cyrillic and Latin scripts are alphabetical in nature and the transliteration can be almost letter-to-letter.  Not so with Indian scripts, which are syllabic in nature. Devanagari, which is used for both Hindi and Marathi, is an especially difficult script in this respect. To represent the Russian soft consonants, the stressed and unstressed vowels, the short vowel at the end of a word, etc. in Devanagari is a formidable task for the translator.   

The English version of V Parizhe accomplishes the task rather easily, giving a phonemic transliteration of Russian proper nouns.   The Hindi version too sticks to the conventional phonemic transliteration, though it represents a distinctly distorted pronunciation, e.g.  ओल्गा अलेक्सान्द्रोव्ना, निकोलाई प्लातोनोविच, एकातेरिनोदार.

Perhaps keeping in mind the above mentioned problems and/ or perhaps in the interest of achieving precision, the Marathi translation under consideration tries to give a phonetic rendering of not only Russian proper nouns, but also French words / proper nouns, e.g.

ओल्गा अलिक्सांद्र्व्ना, निकालाइ प्लातोनविच, एकाचेरिनादार्स्कच्या मुलीला;  बों सुआर् म्स्यो, आमी! फाम द मेनाज्ह

Unfortunately, this only creates a new set of problems. The transcription given is not always accurate (e.g. the last consonant in सुआर् should be silent, the town एकाचेरिनादार्स्क does not have any affricate in its name at all, the name निकालाइ should not end in a vowel at all). In any case, the pronunciation still remains far from satisfactory, and, the readers are most likely to long to revert back to the phonemic rendering: they were at least used to it!

7. Narrative style

Although Ivan Bunin's writings are a century old, his narrative style and language are as modern as any.  Of course, whenever necessary, Bunin uses different registers to bring out the various traits of his characters.  The translator needs to be alert to such usage and translate in the most appropriate way possible.

While the English and the Hindi versions have to a large extent succeeded in maintaining the style of the ST, the Marathi version falls short of it. In an attempt to convey Bunin's use of certain outdated expressions, the Marathi translation took recourse to slang, which defeats the purpose.

Here is an example:

7.1 ST:    -Как вас величать прикажете?

    "lit. How would you order me to address you by your patronymic? = What is your patronymic?" (In Russian, a combination of the first name and the patronymic is the most respectful form of address.)

    -Ольга Александровна. А вас, позвольте узнать?

    "Olga Alexandrovna. And you, let me know?"

In using the outdated величать "call by patronymic" and прикажете "you will order", NP is trying to impress upon OA that he only has the greatest respect for her and no mean intentions at all.  And OA too is responding suitably by using a highly formal позвольте узнать "permit me to know".

Unfortunately, this has proved a hard nut to crack for all the three translators, cf.  

E:    May I know your name?

    I am Olga Alexandrovna. And you?

     This is rather too informal and completely fails to convey Bunin's use of a special register.  In fact, NP's use of величать прикажете is precisely to avoid such a mundane question as "May I know your name?"; he wants to show to OA that he is placing her on a high pedestal of respect.

H:    आपको कैसे पुकारूँ? "How shall I call you?"

    ओल्गा अलेक्सान्द्रोव्ना. और आपको? "Olga Alexandrovna. And you?"

    This is syntactically closer to the ST, but far from satisfactory from NP's point of view: he really does not want to say, Как вас звать? "lit. How to call you? = How should I call you?"

M:    आपणास कोण्या नावानं बोलवावं गरिबाने?

    "lit. By what name should a poor fellow call you(r majesty)?"

    ओल्गा अलिक्सांद्र्व्ना. आणि आपलं नाव सांगायची कृपा कराल?

    "Olga Alexandrovna. And will you do the favour of telling your name?"

    This turns out to be a concoction of registers and has the potential to belittle both NP and OA in each other's eyes as well as the readers'. For one thing, NP never intended to be thought of as a 'poor fellow', much less call himself so. Slang forms like कोण्या and बोलवावं precisely defeat the purpose for which NP is avoiding the usual, though standard, replicas.

To conclude, it must be said that all the three translations have attempted as close and faithful a rendering of the ST as possible. However, the Marathi translation turned out to be more free than the other two, mainly because of overreaching.

Take for example the proverb "The good Lord always sends pants to those who have no rear" rendered in Marathi as दात आहेत तर चणे नाहीत, चणे आहेत तर दात नाही "If there are teeth, there are no nuts; if there are nuts, there are no teeth".  The liberty taken by the translator here is completely uncalled for.  Not merely because it is nowhere close to the ST whether in meaning or in rhyming. There is a far more important reason. The intelligent, witty, philosophical, bitingly sarcastic and poetic (!) proverb of the ST has been replaced by a mundane utterance that sounds like commonplace whining. The result is gross injustice to the author, Bunin, and his protagonist, NP. Recall how Bunin had - just a few minutes earlier! - told us that NP  had learnt some biting / pungent Provencal / French jokes / proverbs and would habitually insert them in his always-concise speech.  The Marathi translation has lost all that satire and the Marathi reader is left wondering whether the complaint about teeth and nuts is the kind of pungent French proverbs that NP learnt.

The important lesson to learn from this is that, before attempting any liberties from the original, especially when it is literature (as opposed to scientific-technical texts), to which the translator really wants to be faithful, she must acquaint herself thoroughly with the author's intentions, the very plot of the story, its background, the characterisation of the protagonists, the 'reference to the context' et al.  The point is that no translator should misrepresent the original author. Otherwise, the translation ceases to be a translation.

Adding up all the changes made, the elaborate explanations given and the extraneous words inserted and considering the detailed endnotes, it can be seen that the Marathi translation is more like classroom teaching of literature rather than translation.  In the process, Bunin's precise, concise style is lost.        

A point to note is that the process of translation seems to get greatly influenced by the professional background as well as the gender of the translator.  The Hindi and the Marathi versions have been produced by male translators, who are both linguists by profession with little experience in translating literature. Their translations tend towards a 'scientific' (read word-to-word) account of the episodes, robbing the story of its artistic charm and cohesion.  The English version has come from an experienced female translator. Not much is known about her professional background, but her experience in translating literature can be seen throughout the story.  Being a woman, she could beautifully convey the scene depicting OA's first meeting with NP as also that of her first visit to NP's apartment.     And, she made no mistake in understanding and conveying how OA's dresses are made and what they reveal and what they cannot!

References

1. БУНИН И.А., 1986, Легкое Дыхание (Повести и рассказы). Изд. Саратовского Университета,

2. BUNIN IVAN,1988 Light Breathing and Other Stories. Tr. by Olga Shartse, Moscow, Raduga Publishers,

3. BUNIN IVAN, 2003, लुब्ध वियोग (Lubdha viyog), selected stories in Marathi, Pune, Rohan publishers.

4. BUNIN IVAN, 2003, चुनी हुई रचनाएँ. Selected works in Hindi, New Delhi, Prakashan Sansthan.

Discussion on Master&Margarita - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

This chapter begins with Margarita’s departure from her magnificent flat, her old life and ends with her coming back to Moscow, to the house of unknown foreigner.

We have seen that she has become a witch. She is full of energy and curiosity…ready to face any challenge that may befall her way.

She does not yet reach his house, but all other formalities, like giving her a ceremonial bath, welcome dance by witches accompanied by a beautiful orchestra are completed. She is now physically and mentally ready to plunge into a new life!

It is still Friday night. We seem to forget count of time…so many things happening in such short duration of time…the mysteries of nature unfolding before Margarita…

On her way to the river on the brush, Margarita stops at a few places. She destroys everything in Latunsky’s flat. She was able to fly invisibly …she was entering various flats in the building of writers and dramatists….her anger is thus slowly dissipating…after complete devastation of DRAMLIT, she calms down a little…well, she had punished those who had tortured her Master.

On her way to river she meets Natasha as well, who too has become a witch like Margarita. She was riding a big boar, who was none other than Nikolai Ivanovich. Nikolai Ivanovich had gone upstairs to return the shirt that Margarita had thrown upon him while flying out of her flat.

On entering Margarita’s bed room he finds Natasha who was completely naked and flying in the room. She had smeared the remaining cream on her body. Nikolai Ivanovich tells her that he loves her, calls her Venus. Natasha smears some cream on his bald head and he gets converted into a boar. Natasha was riding on his back. Nikolai Ivanovich was holding his briefcase with important papers in his mouth…

Margarita reaches river bank…she is accorded traditional welcome ….and she is taken to the foreigner in a car!

Bulgakov describes very beautifully different shades of Margarita’s mood….He simply mesmerizes the readers with his description of Margarita’s flight…the lonely full moon accompanying her…the magical rivers resembling swords, when Margarita  looked at them from the sky…the forests of maples…the calm and quite river bank. As a jarring note to this serene atmosphere reverberates Natasha’s laughter and her answer that she too has the right to fly like her mistress, that is why she had applied cream on her body. The cheerful, naked, fat man from Enisei helps us to know that Margarita is known to all those witches and other extra-terrestrial creatures as Queen Margo. Her mannerism too gets modified in a very dignified way.

The meeting with the mysterious foreigner takes place in next chapter and many unbelievable things are going to happen…

  

We shall be with Margarita…

One Story, Two Translations: A.S.Pushkin’s BARYSHNYA-KRESTYANKA

One Story, Two Translations: A.S.Pushkin’s BARYSHNYA-KRESTYANKA

-A. Charumati Ramdas

A.S.Pushkin’s works have been translated into many languages of the world. I have selected a Hindi and an English translation of BARYSHNYA-KRESTYANKA and compared them to show how much deviation from the original has taken place in both these translations, how do they differ stylistically, how the translators have translated the culture specific expressions and what sort of liberty is enjoyed by them.

But before I come to the actual comparison, it would be nice to have a look at the story and a few related facts.

BARYSHNYA-KRESTYANKA – LADY INTO LASSE in its English version and PREM MILAN in its Hindi avatar – happens to be the last in “The Tales of Ivan Petrovich Belkin”. It is a simple love story with some elements of adventure.

 Pushkin starts in the ‘Romeo-Juliet’ way to describe that the fathers of Liza and Alexei – Muromsky and Berestov respectively, though neighbours, hated each other. When young Alexei came to the village, Liza, who had heard a lot about him, could not restrain herself from meeting him; but aware of the enmity between the fathers, she meets him in the guise of a village-belle Akulina. They both fall for each other, and surprisingly, the enmity between Muromsky and Berestov turns into friendship. They even decide to marry off their wards. Unaware of the true identity of Akulina, Alexei decides to tell Liza the truth that he was in love with someone else. He comes alone to Muromsky household and sees that his Akulina is Liza indeed. Thus, the story ends on a happy note.

Pushkin has conveyed this romantic episode in his beautiful, lucid, vivid, picturesque style. As was the fashion those days, here and there some phrases in French, English and Latin are inserted; the works and characters of literary works of famous Russian writers cited; some events, depicting the judicial and educational practices of those days also find reflection in the story. Let us see how the two translations have dealt with these.

The English translation ( by IVY and TATIANA LITVINOV) was published in 1954 by FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE, Moscow, which was again published by Progress Publishers, with very few modifications here and there, in 1974, but  here, the name of the translator is missing. The same Progress Publishers brought out the Hindi Translation in 1982. Translator is Dr. Madan Lal ‘Madhu’. While the English translations clearly mention that they are translated from Russian, the Hindi translation does not mention that it is directly translated from Russian. The English version bears the title LADY INTO LASSE, while Dr ‘Madhu’ calls it PREM MILAN.  It is obvious that both these versions of the title are far from the original: BARYSHNYA-KRESTYANKA. Probably “Lady into Rustic” for English and “Malkin – Dehaatin” for Hindi would have conveyed the idea of the story in a better way.

English, Hindi and Russian, being languages of the same family, both the translations seem quite honest, nearer to the original and the translators do not seem to have taken much of liberty during the process of translation. But there are certain differences in both these versions; sometimes they even deviate from the original. Let’s have a look at few of them.

There are two types of dresses mentioned in the original: Srtyuk and Sarafan.  The word Sertyuk  is not found in any dictionary, it is a long shirt or coat like thing; but Sarafan  is found in dictionaries and its meaning is given as a long dress which peasant women wear over the blouse with full sleeves. It could even be likened to modern maxie or Choga. But both the translators have used frock-coat for Sertyuk and Sarafan for Sarafan without explaining them in the foot notes which are in abundance in the Hindi version and a few in the English one. Similarly Samovar is also retained as Samovar in both these translations, while Samovar needed an explanation.      

The noun Opekunsky Sovet,  which means ‘Council of Trustees’ is rendered in English as ‘Court of Chancery’ – the translator has made it a proper noun and converted it into a British Judiciary organ; the Hindi version describes it as ‘Sanrakshan Parishad’ which is nearer to the original.

Versta – a measure of distance in old Russia which was equal to 1.06 kms – is retained as ‘versts’ and ‘versta’ respectively by both the translators. Here, a foot note, explaining ‘versta’ would have been better.

Tatiana Litvinov has translated Russian word зойло as a proper noun Zoilus: he dubbed the rural Zoilus a bear and a provincial; while Dr Madhu preferred to replace it by आलोचक. The original meaning of ‘зойло’ is one who wishes evil to someone; Pushkin calls him своего зойло.  So, here both the versions have failed to give correct word. Perhaps evil-wisher and अशुभ चिंतक would have been a better choice of words.

While describing Liza Pushkin has used adjective Балованное, which means:

1)   Pampered and 2) Spoilt.

Both the translators have used both these meanings at once, and thus depicted that their heroine as spoilt and petted and लाड़ प्यार से बिगड़ी हुई. This has given a negative trait to her character, while Liza was a well-educated, well mannered, obedient, adventurous girl. Pampered and लाडली would have done justice to the beautiful and naughty Liza.        

Dr. Madhu has even changed ‘oh’ into ‘Ari’. Pushkin gives the dialogue as, «Да нет, нехорошо....Ах, Настя! Знаешь ли што? Наряжусь я крестьянкой!» 

Да нет, нехорошо is given in English as Oh, that would never do! And in Hindi it is given as अरी नहीं, ऐसा करना अच्छा नहीं होगा. Both of them had to use long, unnecessary sentences. In addition to that अरी shows as if Nastya is Liza’s friend, while, on the contrary, she was her servant. Oh, no, it’s not good! and नहीं, ये ठीक नहीं है would probably be nearer to the original. Madhu is always using अरी and प्यारी for Nastya which changes the relationship between the two characters.

Dr Madhu also seems to have developed his own style, while the English version is in the bookish (high) style, even the word order of Russian is disturbed in the least. Dr. Madhu uses double nouns and phrases even where not necessary: Свет и жизнь is translated into English as ‘Life & Society’ and in Hindi as दीन-दुनिया; Навык света as ‘Ways of Society’ and ऊँचे समाज के रंग-ढंग; Стройный стан as graceful figure and सुघड़-सुडौल काठी; Белилась as ‘enameled her cheeks and चेहरे को चिकनाती-चमकाती etc. The effect created by Dr. Madhu takes the reader away from Pushkin’s style.

Dr. Madhu is also very liberal in giving foot notes. He has explained quite a few socio-cultural events, which the reader, according to him, would not have properly understood. The first foot note is about the 18^th century poet Bogdanovich, this is explained even by Tatiana Litvinov.

Describing Alexei, Pushkin has written that he wanted to join armed forces while his father wanted him to join the civil services. Neither of them would give in and in the meantime, Alexei lived the life of a gentleman at large, cultivating a moustache so as to be ready for any exigency. Pushkin himself does not give any explanation regarding this exigency, nor does Tatiana Litvinov; but Dr Madhu writes in the foot note: उस ज़माने में सरकारी कर्मचारियों के लिये दाढ़ी-मूँछ रखने की कड़ी मनाही थी, किंतु सैनिकों के लिये मूँछें रखना अनिवार्य था. This foot note helps readers to understand the reason for Alexei’s having moustache.

Then there is a foot note regarding the German romantic writer John Paul Richter, and another about the authorship of ‘Pamela’; yet another about the Lancaster Method of education and two more about famous Russian writers of early XIX century: Karamzin and Fonvizin. It is note-worthy that all these foot notes are missing in the English version. Dr. Madanlal Madhu deserves appreciation for the same.

The English version does not give even those foot notes which are present in the original. A.S.Pushkin has used certain expressions in French, Latin and English in the text of the story, which are explained in the original in Russian. Dr. Madhu has explained one Latin and four French expressions into Hindi in the foot notes, he even went to the extent of translating ‘My Dear’ in his foot notes saying this is an expression of English which means मेरी प्यारी. I think this is the height of his understanding of an Indian reader’s educational level. The English version has avoided all these foot notes except the one in Latin.

The paper won’t be complete if I don’t mention Dr. Madhu’s use of dialect in the Hindi translation.

When Liza, in the guise of Akulina, meets Alexei, she speaks in the local dialect. But Pushkin does not give Akulina’s speech in that dialect, nor did Litvinov try to do so, but Dr. Madhu probably thought that this would enrich the text and so, he inserted a dialect (of course, of his own) into Akulina’s mouth, but it has horribly spoilt the beauty of the original. Here are some examples of how this dialect reads like:

देखत तो कैसो डरावनो, फेर मो पर झपटत exclaims Akulina, scared of Alexei’s dog. Please note the forms of the two verbs: She uses the form देखत for second person, which is addressed to Alexei (“look, how dreadful it is”) and she uses the same form of verb as झपटत with reference to the dog which is obviously in the third person.

Again, when Alexei seeks permission to accompany her she says: सड़क सभी की होत, जो चाहे चलत, about herself she says, वासिली लुहार की बेटी, खुमिया बटोरन जात. At various other places too, it is observed that the verb in Dr. Madhu’s dialect always has the suffix –त, no matter whether it is in the present tense or past; whether the sentence is in imperative or nominative mood; the subject is in singular or in plural; masculine or feminine! Except for the verb, all other words in her sentences are from modern language. For example: कुंज में साहब के साथ अकेली बोलत-बतियात; कसम खावत, पावन सलीब की कसम खावत, ऐसो वचन भी देवत कि जो मिलन हम नियत करत, वा के अतिरिक्त मिलन ना करन चाहत. Obviously, कुंज, कसम, मिलन, वचन, अतिरिक्त do not belong to the same register. The situation is made very ridiculous by this dialect. It would have been better to avoid it.

On reading both these translations, I got the impression that I am reading Tatiana Litvinov and Madanlal Madhu’s creation! Pushkin’s original style, flow of language, simplicity, vividness of description has disappeared.

I feel that a translator should also try to preserve the style of the author, in addition to being honest to the original, otherwise the author’s style would lose its identity and get converted into translator’s style and the aim of acquainting readers with the alien culture, style and other specialties of a foreign author would not be achieved.

   

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Discussion on Master&Margarita(English) - 20

Chapter 20

It is Friday, and Margarita was looking impatiently at the clock. As soon as it was 9.30 pm, she opened the little box and looked at the yellowish cream. Then she took out some cream from the box and started rubbing it into her forehead and cheeks.

The cream spread easily and, as it seemed to Margarita, evaporated at once. Having rubbed several times, Margarita glanced into the mirror and dropped the box right on her watch crystal, which became covered with cracks. Margarita closed her eyes, then glanced once again and burst into stormy laughter.

Her eyebrows, plucked to a thread with tweezers, thickened and lay in even black arches over her greening eyes. The thin vertical crease cutting the bridge of her nose, which had appeared back then, in October, when the master vanished, disappeared without a trace. So did the yellowish shadows at her temples and the two barely noticeable little webs of wrinkles at the outer corners of her eyes. The skin of her cheeks filled out with an even pink colour, her forehead became white and clear, and the hairdresser's waves in her hair came undone.

From the mirror a naturally curly, black-haired woman of about twenty was looking at the thirty-year-old Margarita, baring her teeth and shaking with laughter.

Having laughed her fill, Margarita jumped out of her bathrobe with a single leap, dipped freely into the light, rich cream, and with vigorous strokes began rubbing it into the skin of her body. It at once turned pink and tingly. That instant, as if a needle had been snatched from her brain, the ache she had felt in her temple all evening after the meeting in the Alexandrovsky Garden subsided, her leg and arm muscles grew stronger, and then Margarita's body became weightless.

She sprang up and hung in the air just above the rug, then was slowly pulled down and descended.

'What a cream! What a cream!' cried Margarita, throwing herself into an armchair.

The rubbings changed her not only externally. Now joy was boiling up in her, in all of her, in every particle of her body, which felt to her like bubbles prickling her body all over. Margarita felt herself free, free of everything. Besides, she understood with perfect clarity that what was happening was precisely what her presentiment had been telling her in the morning, and that she was leaving her house and her former life forever.

She writes a small note to her husband asking him to forget and forgive her.

We come across two more characters in this chapter. Margarita’s servant, Natasha and Nikolai Ivanovich, who stayed in the ground floor apartment of her building.

We can see that Margarita treats Natasha as a human being: she is friendly and kind to her. She asks her to pick up all her dresses ….and keep them in her room.

But Nikolai Ivanovich seems boring to her. She mocks at him. Nikolai Ivanovich too seems to be an influential officer, because every morning the official car takes him to the office and drops back home in the evening.

Azazello calls her at 10 pm and instructs how to fly. She is ready to fly!

Suddenly a sweeping broom with its brush up enters the room. Margarita climbs on the broom and flies out of her apartment…..ready to enjoy her new found freedom…looking forward to meet her love.

We shall be with Margarita…

Discussion on Master & Margarita - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

This chapter marks the beginning of second part of the novel. While the first part mainly depicts arrival of Voland and his team in Moscow, and the way they punish people connected with the theatrical world and Housing Society; an ugly picture of literary world is also shown; the second part deals with the fate of Master and Margarita.

I shall deal only with the important points of this chapter.

Bulgakov begins with the emphasis that ‘the true love’ really exists in the world and that he is going to show it to the readers.

Bulgakov, unlike in most of the literary works, does not introduce the main protagonist in the first few pages of the novel; he introduces Master only in Chapter 13, that too from the point when Master’s life is almost over (as he thought)! Through Master’s story we come to know about his beloved. Master, who was madly in love with her, does not disclose her name; that we come to know in chapter 19.

 Her name was Margarita Nikolaevna. She was very beautiful and intelligent; her husband was a very influential, prominent specialist, he adored her; he had made a very important discovery of State importance. Margarita had never known the hazards of living in community flats, she had never even touched a primus stove. She was very rich. She was thirty years old.  Bulgakov asks, was she happy? And answers, “Not for one minute! Never, since the age of nineteen, when she had married and wound up in this house, had she known any happiness.”

Let us stop for a while and ponder over this much information.

How old was Margarita? Thirty years. The novel, its plot, was conceived in 1928. In chapter 13 we had seen that the age of Master was that of Bulgakov himself at that point of time. Margarita’s age is thirty years, but pay attention to the information that she had come to stay in this palatial house when she was 19, that takes us to the year 1917; may be, we can say that Margarita is the product of Revolution; staying with an influential proletarian engineer and loving an intellectual. Later, it is shown that Margarita had royal blood in her veins. That makes it an interesting combination: the mutual relationship between the Royalty, Proletariat and Intelligentsia. That gives an answer why she was unhappy and where was she looking for her happiness.

Coming back to action in this chapter. It is Friday, when all those unbelievable things were happening in Moscow.

Margarita, who had been suffering a lot since Master disappeared, got up late in her palatial house.

She had cursed herself a lot for leaving Master alone on that fateful night. Bulgakov tells the readers that even if she had stayed back, nothing would have changed…because , the midnight-knock at the door spells misfortune and nobody could have stopped the inevitable.

Margarita had Master’s passbook, the unburnt part of his novel about Pontius Pilate, and a dried rose with her. She had kept all these things very carefully.

On Friday too, she spent some time with this treasure. Her maid, Natasha, told her about yesterday’s horrible magic show and then Margarita left for a walk.

On her way to the Alexander’s Park, in trolleybus, she overheard some people talking about a funeral, they were shocked to learn that the head of the deceased disappeared from the coffin. Margarita does not pay much attention to this.

She was in an excited state of mind today. She had a strange dream last night. What was it? Well, you must have read about it, but no harm in quoting it here:

The dream that Margarita had dreamed that night was indeed unusual. The thing was that during her winter sufferings she had never seen the master in her dreams. He released her for the night, and she suffered only in the daylight hours. But now she had dreamed of him.

The dream was of a place unknown to Margarita - hopeless, dismal, under the sullen sky of early spring. In the dream there was this ragged, fleeting, grey sky, and under it a noiseless flock of rooks. Some gnarled little bridge, and under it a muddy spring runlet. Joyless, destitute, half-naked trees. A lone aspen, and further on, among the trees, beyond some vegetable patch, a little log structure - a separate kitchen, a bathhouse, devil knows what it was! Everything around somehow lifeless and so dismal that one just longed to hang oneself from that aspen by the bridge.

Not a puff of breeze, not a movement of the clouds, and not a living soul. What a hellish place for a living man!

And then, imagine, the door of this log structure is thrown open, and he appears. Rather far away, but clearly visible. He is in tatters, it is impossible to make out what he is wearing.

Unshaven, hair dishevelled. Sick, anxious eyes. He beckons with his hand, calling her. Gasping in the lifeless air, Margarita ran to him over the tussocks, and at that moment she woke up.

This dream means only one of two things,' Margarita Nikolaevna reasoned with herself. 'If he's dead and beckoned to me, it means he has come for me, and I will die soon. And that's very good - because then my suffering will soon end. Or else he's alive, and then the dream can only mean one thing, that he's reminding me of himself! He wants to say that we will see each other again...

Yes, we will see each other very soon!'  

Kitchen in dreams indicates towards hell. So, Margarita got some inkling about Master’s condition, but she is not very sure whether he is alive or not.

In the park she encounters Azazello, who has come to invite her to a foreigner’s place.

Margarita, like any other Soviet citizen is apprehensive about the foreigner, but Azazello assures her that she will benefit from this opportunity. She agrees, saying that she is taking the risk for the sake of her love.

Azazello gives her a small box of some cream and asks to apply all over the body at nine thirty in the evening and wait for his instructions.

Many unbelievable things are going to happen now to Margarita. ….

We have to accompany her when Azazello is going to call her on Friday night!

Discussion on Master&Margarita - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The title of this chapter is ‘Hapless Visitors’. This chapter at introduces a few new characters and exposes quite a few unwanted practices in the Soviet Union.

You, probably, remember that in chapter 3, when Berlioz decides to go out of the Patriarchy Park and inform the authorities about the mysterious professor, the thin checkered man accosted him and asked whether he should send telegram to his uncle in Kiev. The tall, thin man, as you know was Koroviev and this uncle is going to be one of the main characters of this chapter.

Berlioz’s uncle, Maximilian Andreevich Poplavsky was an industrial economist. He was staying on the Institute road in Kiev, was a well-known intellectual of Kiev. For the past few years he was thinking of changing his base to Moscow. He tried to exchange his flat in Kiev with any flat in Moscow, gave advertisements to this effect in the newspapers, but didn’t succeed in getting a flat in Moscow. And now, suddenly, he gets a telegram from his wife’s nephew, ‘Just run over by tramcar funeral on Friday at 3.00 pm come – Berlioz’.

Poplavsky thought over the telegram for a long time: the sender was Berlioz, he says that he is crushed by the tramcar, then how is he sending the telegram; and if he is no more, how does he know that the funeral is going to take place on Friday at 3.00pm.

The Uncle, we must confess, was not very sad at the sudden demise of his wife’s nephew. An idea flashed into his mind: this was a chance to occupy the three rooms of nephew in Moscow; such chance will never come again; he has to go to Moscow and prove that he is the sole legal heir and is obliged to take possession of the three rooms occupied by Berlioz in flat No. 50 of 302B; and hence he decided to  go for the funeral.

Poplavsky reaches Moscow on Friday. He goes to the Sadovaya, Building No. 302 and enters the Housing Committee’s office.

We know that President of the Committee, Nikanor Ivanovich is in Stravinsky’s clinic, the Secretary too is missing and the sole member of the Housing Committee, who is very worried and frightened, is suddenly called out by a visitor and he too disappears.    

Poplavsky goes directly to the flat and he is received by Koroviev, who was crying so inconsolably while narrating description of the accident that Poplavsky started suspecting whether this man has designs on Berlioz’s flat. To Poplavsky’s question, ‘who sent him the telegram?’ the cat Begemoth said that it was he who sent the telegram. And asks Poplavsky, ‘So what?’ He demands Passport, and Poplavsky, with his hands trembling, hands over the passport to him.

Begemoth comments, “Who has issued this Passport? Office No 412? There they issue passport to anybody… I would have looked at your face and never given you any passport!”

Poplavsky is categorically informed that his presence at the funeral is cancelled; he should go back to Kiev and live without dreaming about any flat in Moscow. His briefcase is thrown down the stair case, he is pushed out of the flat and pushed from the stair case.

Poplavsky was really intelligent; he could assess the might of these ‘elements’ and having done that thanks God that his life was spared.

He was pushed so hard from the staircase that he flung out of the window on landing and found himself sitting on a bench in front the store room of this building.

Suddenly, a sickly, melancholy man asks him where is flat No 50. Poplavsky gets curious, he wanted to know how this man will be treated by those goons and so, he decides to wait till he comes back.  

However, the man from Kiev had to wait longer than he supposed. The stairway was for some reason deserted all the while. One could hear well, and finally a door banged on the fifth floor.

Poplavsky froze. Yes, those were his little steps. 'He's coming down ...' A door one flight lower opened. The little steps ceased. A woman's voice. The voice of the sad man - yes, it's his voice...

Saying something like 'leave me alone, for Christ's sake ...' Poplavsky's ear stuck through the broken glass. This ear caught a woman's laughter. Quick and brisk steps coming down. And now a woman's back flashed by. This woman, carrying a green oilcloth bag, went out through the front hall to the courtyard. And the little man's steps came anew.

'Strange! He's going back up to the apartment! Does it mean he's part of the gang himself? Yes, he's going back. They've opened the door again upstairs. Well, then, let's wait a little longer ...'

This time he did not have to wait long. The sound of the door. The little steps. The little steps cease. A desperate cry. A cat's miaowing. The little steps, quick, rapid, down, down, down!

Poplavsky had not waited in vain. Crossing himself and muttering something, the melancholy little man rushed past him, hatless, with a completely crazed face, his bald head all scratched and his trousers completely wet. He began tearing at the handle of the front door, unable in his fear to determine whether it opened out or in, managed at last, and flew out into the sun in the courtyard.

The testing of the apartment had been performed. Thinking no more either of the deceased nephew or of the apartment, shuddering at the thought of the risk he had been running, Maximilian Andreevich, whispering only the three words 'It's all clear, it's all clear!', ran out to the courtyard.

A few minutes later the bus was carrying the industrial economist in the direction of the Kiev station.

Who was this thin melancholy man? He was Andrei Fokich, manager of the restaurant at the Variety. He came to see Voland and reported that in yesterday’s magic show the currency notes picked up by public had turned into wrappers of some bottles. The restaurant had sold various items to the audience, who had given him these notes. As a result of their disappearing, he had suffered a huge loss, and he had come to complain about the same. But when Fokich showed these wrappers to Voland, they had again turned into currency notes.

But Voland scolds Fokick, saying that the things in his restaurant are horrible: the tea is just hot water, the cheese was very stale….he emphasised that the eatables should be extremely fresh.

Fokich was given some freshly roasted meat with lemon squeezed over it in a gold plate, while he was offered a seat, the chair broke down, the wine from the glass spilled on Fokich’s trousers and made them wet.

Fokich was scolded on another account as well. About the gold coins and currency notes treasured below the floor of his apartment. Begemoth declares that all this will be of no use, as he is going to die of cancer of liver after nine months in the government hospital.

Fokich comes out, but he remembers that he has forgotten his hat in apartment No50; when he goes back he is given back his hat by Hella; as soon as he puts on the hat on his head, it turns into a kitten, who scratched his head and jumps away from there.

Fokich goes to the doctor and pleads to save him from this cancer.

Bulgakov introduces two doctors as well in this chapter. Dr Bouret and Dr  Kuzmin.

 The doctors are depicted in a dignified way. Prof Kuzmin refuses to take any extra money from Fokich, examines him thoroughly and declares that as of now, he has no trace of any cancer in his body.

But Bulgakov teases the doctor as well…..the currency notes left by Fokich on his table turn into a kitten, then into a sparrow who was dancing on one leg and winking at the professor.

Professor Kuzmin tries to call Prof Bouret, to find out what is the meaning of all this,  but instead of calling Bouret, called a leech bureau, said he was Professor Kuzmin, and asked them to send some leeches to his house at once.

Hanging up the receiver, the professor turned to his desk again and straight away let out a scream.

At this desk sat a woman in a nurse's headscarf, holding a handbag with the word 'Leeches' written on it. The professor screamed as he looked at her mouth: it was a man's mouth, crooked, stretching from ear to ear, with a single fang. The nurse's eyes were dead.

'This bit of cash I'll just pocket,' the nurse said in a male basso, `no point in letting it lie about here.' She raked up the labels with a bird's claw and began melting into air.

Two hours passed. Professor Kuzmin sat in his bedroom on the bed, with leeches hanging from his temples, behind his ears, and on his neck. At Kuzmin's feet, on a quilted silk blanket, sat the grey-moustached Professor Bouret, looking at Kuzmin with condolence and comforting him, saying it was all nonsense.

What made Bulgakov punish the doctor; I am not able to guess. The dancing sparrow had broken the photograph showing the batch of ’94 pass out students from the medical college….may be something had gone wrong in the Kiev Medical Institute? Well, Bulgakov graduated from there….

If you can enlighten me on this account, I shall be very happy.

So, we see that Poplavsky was punished for his greed, his desire to possess the flat in Moscow; Fokich was punished for adulteration in food items. Bulgakov had shown this pathetic situation of Dining Halls and restaurants in some other works also.

Many more incidents took place in Moscow on that night, on Friday. We can say that Voland and his team was in full form to punish those who deserved punishment for various social misdeeds.

Bulgakov does not mention all of them in this chapter as he is in a hurry to visit Margarita.

We shall follow him…..