Ourania link.net11/4/05


> Michael Plant wrote:
>
>
>> Hey, I thought were talking about the double walled sort. I wouldn't go for
>> the single walled. They don't make it. But, if they are plastic, they'll
>> make it longer than my doubled walled type, which, as I mentioned
>> previously, I have a graveyard full of.
>
> I bought the plastic "Best Chinese THERMOS Tea Pot Teapot in
> China" on eBay 7-8 months ago for $9.99 from the vendor (Yellow
> Mountain) mentioned up-thread, and I've found it to be a
> perfectly handy alternative brewing device. Although I'm usually
> reluctant to use plastic containers for tea, this one tolerates
> high temps very well without imparting any plastic-y tastes to
> the liquor. No drips or leaks, either -- as long as the top is
> screwed on properly.
>
>> Sasha, what about the Dostoyevski translation question? Did you read the
>> New Yorker article on this? As a yout, I read the Garnett translations, and
>> thought D's prose was pretty smooth, but it turns out, according to the
>> article, that the style I was actually enjoying was Victorian and Garnett.
>> I'm trying to find top flight translations of his novels.
>
> I'm not Sasha, I can't read Russian, and I haven't seen the New
> Yorker article you're referring to, but I've been a Dostoevsky
> aficionada for 40+ years and can highly recommend the translation
> team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Their
> English-language texts are splendid, and although Constance
> Garnett's work is reliably solid, the Pevear-Volokhonsky
> renditions are beautifully literary in their own right/write.
> The duo has also produced an excellent translation of (among
> other works) Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," in case
> you're interested.

Yes, thanks muchly, I'm very interested. Curiously, the author of the
article wrote that the Garnett translations clean up much of the rough edge
that Dostoyevski purposely placed into the prose, the mouths of his
narrators, while the Pevear-Volokhonsky versions maintain the rougher spirit
of the original. So, it's interesting to hear you refer to their
translations as beautifully literary. Did Dostoyevski drink tea? That is
the question. Why? That being the second question. Because without that
question *somebody* is sure to call us on irelevance and send us packing to
Dostoyevski.net. But, we'll refuse to go, right?

I'm about to embark on some Stone Orchard Scented Luk On (Liu An?) supplied
to a friend of mine by another friend of ours. So, here goes nothing.

Michael