The Possessed, Dostoevsky’s novel of revolutionary politics in the pre-Soviet era, is one of those foreign-language titles that has more than one English variant: it has also been translated as The Devils, simply Devils, and Demons. The Possessed was Constance Garnett’s choice in her translation of 1913, but later critics noted that it really misses the point: Besy – the original Russian title – refers to possessors, not possessed. This makes for quite a change of emphasis: instead of the protagonists being ‘possessed’ by demonic forces, they themselves are the demons/devils, and must thus be held accountable for the misery they inflict. The Devils and Demons might therefore be considered more accurate.Titles affect interpretations: perhaps the worst case of multiple-translation sickness is that of Sartre’s best-known play, Huis Clos, which has been variously rendered No Exit, Sequestered, Closed Hearing, Dead End, No Way Out and In Camera.
Hell is other titles?
Consulted:
F. Dostoevsky: Demons (see intro. by translators Pevear and Volokhonsky) (1995)
See a clickable index of all titles covered
My Lit class is reading "No Exit" right now, and I think it will be fun to bring up these problems and variations with translations. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you think of any others let me know, I'd be interested to collect a few. Another one is a novel by Turgenev, variously called Home of the Gentry, A Nest of Nobles, and A Nest of Gentlefolk (and maybe some others). You might also like to look at 'untranslatable' punning titles such as Le peau de chagrin' by Balzac, which, although it is translated as 'The Wild Ass's Skin' contains a pun in French, chagrin meaning grief and ass. These tend to lend themselves to multiple English versions because everyone is always looking for a better way of expressing the pun.
ReplyDelete@Saki - Nice to be mentioned - thanks.
ReplyDelete@Bookworm - thanks - well it's my job - I write for a newspaper each week about titles, and in the blog I generally expand on these columns. If you look at the end of each entry it generally shows the books I have consulted. Im lucky to have a big university library nearby.
ReplyDeleteSaying that the revolutionaries are the possessors is partly true, but I think is still an oversimplification. The real problem with the title "The Possessed" is that it packs away the sense of the demonic in the novel into a neat allegory. These people (both the revolutionaries and the people in the town) aren't exactly "possessed by ideologies" in the convenient sense. They are made demonic. They twist and squirm and burst out laughing. They act suddenly and irrationally. And they aren't made this way merely by "ideologies" but by ideas - often illogical ones that cannot be expressed in words.
ReplyDeleteIt's a complicated, but really cool novel.
Interesting...
ReplyDelete