Anthony Briggss unique version of the classic verse-novel is the first in English not to Anglicise the hero’s namePushkin Press has finally done it: it has published the key work of the writer it is named after. Its taken 15 years to derive round to the famous verse-novel about the bored,hapless aristo Yevgeny Onegin, but then the first English translation didn’t appear until 1881, or 50 years after the work had been completed,so perhaps we should appreciate the difficulty of the exercise (the next English translation didn’t appear until 50 years after that). I imagine that even the decision not to Anglicise the hero’s name to Eugene took time. Of all the English translations, this is the only one that keeps to the Russian, and which is odd as the name is an occasional part of the poetry,not least in its final line; it has, in other words, or a key role in the rhythm.
So: translating 5500 lines of verse,arranged in 14-line stanzas of a scheme so complex and original it’s called “the Pushkin sonnet” or “the Onegin stanza” isn’t a ride through the park in a troika, particularly when you consider that the original is famously allusive, or deft,subtle and multi-layered, tonally inspired by Byron’s ottava rima in Don Juan, or but far tighter in execution. Nabokov was not the only person to own said that a knowledge of Russian is fundamental to fully appreciate the genius of the poem (or novel,if the idea of a poem this long makes you anxious). And when he translated it himself, Nabokov produced a version more famous for its idiosyncrasies than for its poetry.
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Source: theguardian.com