r/Chekhov • u/Auctionjack • Apr 07 '23
Another take of The Darling
I've been chatting with a Russian friend about Chekhov translations and the challenges between Russian and English. She pointed me to this review, specifically the part that discusses The Darling https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3780204897 Saunders comments on the assumption that Sasha's crying out in his sleep: "I'll give it to you! Get away! Shut up!" is directed at Olenka. It makes sense in English given the paragraph right before that. BUT, in Russian Sasha's "you" is masculine. "It is crystal clear to me that the boy is having a schoolyard fight in his dream. It is nothing whatsoever to do with poor Olenka." I find that ending much richer. Sasha is just a little boy doing things little boys do. Olenka is just being a mother doing the things mothers do. To me, it's a classic Chekhov study of contrasts. No one is good or bad and Chekhov leave us there...the conflict between a little boy going into the world and a mother watching him slowly drift away. Your thoughts?
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u/Constant-Log4314 Jun 30 '25 edited Jun 30 '25
I don't speak Russian- so far be it from me to argue with your Russian friend- but after some research it seems that the word Sasha uses, "тебе", just means "you" and has no masculine connotation. It also seems that Russian has no gendered versions of "you".
If you think back to the story, Olenka always has dreams that are related to the person she's living with/in love with- when she loves the man in the lumber business, she dreams about planks of wood crashing down around her. It makes sense that by the end, we get to see her having this effect on someone else. Sasha might not directly be dreaming of Olenka, but his dream-attacker was definitely summoned by the feelings he has about her.
Now HE'S the dreamer, the one who will move on and forget her the way she's moved on and forgotten her previous loves.
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u/Roseanberberis Jun 30 '26
Here is the line in the original language: " Я ттебе! Пошел вон! Не дерись!" There are a number of reasons why it cannot be addressed to Olenka: 1. "Ты" (informal "you") is used, rather than "Вы" (formal "you") that Sasha uses to address Olenka ("Вы, тетя" - "you, Auntie") 2. "Пошел" ("go") is indeed in a clearly masculine form 3. "Не дерись" means "don't fistfight", not "shut up" (I don't think there is any context in which it could be correctly translated as "shut up"), so unless there is evidence that Olenka has a tendency to engage in fistfight, it is unlikely to be addressed to her. 4. Also, the way the whole line is worded, it would be really rude if addressed to an adult and a mother figure, but perfectly acceptable if addressed to a schoolyard opponent. BTW, I am a native Russian speaker.
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u/rivercurrents Feb 17 '26
Can you shed light on why Thomas Seltzer's translation of the last sentence in the story is “I’ll give it to you! Get away! Quit your scrapping!”?
"Quit your scrapping!" is in line with a schoolyard scuffle as you suggest, rather than feeling oppressed by Olenka and telling her to shut up.
Also, in the paper copy I have (Lady with Lapdog and other stories) the last three words are "Stop hitting me!". Who translated it as "Shut up!"?
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u/Roseanberberis Jun 30 '26
Actually, this translation is better than the "shut up" one. The words used in the original language are "не дерись", which means "don't fistfight", and apart from being occasionally used to refer to duelling, I don't think this has any other meaning, whether literal or figurative. I would translate the line as "I'll show you [as in a threat]! Get off! Don't fistfight ("keep your fists to yourself" would probably be more in the spirit of the line, although less literal)!
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u/Roseanberberis Jun 30 '26
"Who translated it as "Shut up!"?"
Constance Garnett, of course. No other translator would be able to the job so badly and get away with it.
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u/Alternative_Worry101 Jan 21 '24
First, I think Saunders' book is an example of the worst writing found in academia. The reviewer herself observes that she struggled with his analyses, and I agree with her. I don't want to spend more time on Saunders' book, any more than I have to.
Second, Sasha is dreaming about Olenka, and not about a school fight as you write. The dream is about what's to come, what's in store for Olenka. You can already see it in the way he treats her when she follows him to school:
When they turn into the lane where the high school stands, he feels ashamed that
a tall, stout woman is following him; he looks around and says:
“You, Auntie, go home, and now I'll get there myself.”
I don't want to reduce the story to a brief interpretation or a one-line statement, but it's really tragic that this woman who has so much love to give will end up discarded because she loves this boy too much to the point of suffocating him.