It is gratifying to see a writer of the late Mikhail Bulgakov's stature being made available in English as soon as the Russian text appears in print. It is truly remarkable to see the English translation appear even before the Russian original (as did Heart of a Dog). These speedy translations acquaint the Western audiences with a fine author of the ’20's and ’30's who was virtually unknown to the West prior to the translation of The Master and Margarita; however, it seems that sometimes these translations are done in a hurry, and tend to become mistranslations and distortions. Translating is not easy. An ideal translator must know both languages perfectly, he must be an expert on the subject he translates, he must be endowed with an unerring aesthetic sense, and he must become so deeply involved in the original that he seems to metamorphose into the author in every way except in language. Neither man nor machine can be this ideal translator; however, approximations of this ideal are possible. A great deal depends on luck. The translator must be lucky. He must also realize that some things cannot be translated. The author too must be lucky. He has to find a translator who comes as close as possible to the above-mentioned qualifications.
It cannot be said that Mikhail Bulgakov has been lucky as far as translations of Michael Glenny are concerned. Glenny handles Russian words inattentively and disregards their lexical and stylistic coloring. He allows himself to edit, paraphrase, and add and omit words and phrases without regard for the intended meaning. He destroys what Roman Ingarden of Cracow has called the "individual identity of the work of art" ("On Translating" in The Art of Translating, ed. M. Rusinek [Wrocław, 1955], with an English summary). Ironically, all this malpractice of Glenny as translator was exercised upon the work of a Bulgakov, who refused to make changes in his manuscripts and did not comply with the demands of his censors and critics, preferring to write for himself and posterity rather than see his work printed in mutilated form. Bulgakov knew the full value of a word, "more precious than the thing itself" (to use a phrase from Gogol', one of Bulgakov's avowed masters). To substantiate my criticism I shall quote from both Glenny's and Ginsburg's translations as well as from the original, and compare all three.
In reference to his insufficient knowledge of the source language, the following examples can be cited: famous Russian foods like rasstegai are translated in Black Snow as "unbutton your coats" (p. 43). In order to make his translation plausible Glenny does not hesitate to distort the original: "Rasstegai podveli! – slyšalsja golos Izmaila Aleksandroviča. Začem že my s toboju, Baklažanov, rasstegai eli?" Glenny: "‘Tell people they can unbutton!’ I heard Izmail Aleksandrovic saying. ‘Why should you and I be the only ones eating with our jackets undone?’" The fact that narzan i kljukva become "seltzer and lemonade" (p. 135) and kil'ki “spiced sprats” are transformed into "tins of sardines" (to cite only two examples of mistranslation) might not be so horrible. But when the translator, disdaining dictionaries (though allegedly a scholar) translates the Russian ugodniki “saints” as "swines" (The Heart of a Dog, 19), this is as serious as it is unpleasant, the more so since "swines" serves Glenny as an English equivalent for negodjai and svoloč' in the same book. Sobac'e serdce contains another gem, which was discovered by Vjačeslav Zavalishin (Novoe Russkoe Slovo, 29 Sept. 1968, "O povesti Bulgakova i o ee perevodax"). Zavalishin noticed that Glenny translated the Russian word bélok (squirrels, accusative plural) as belók. Thus instead of a logical explanation that cats (strangled in The Heart of a Dog by the ex-dog Šarikov) will make fine fur collars for proletarians, Glenny has Šarikov say that cats will be turned into "protein for proletarians'' – a transformation even Professor Preobraženskij would not undertake. Now this very version made its way into a review by Patricia Blake (New Republic, 3 August 1968), thus misinforming the Western reader. Speaking of Preobraženskij, Glenny dabbles in etymology and renders menja osenilo “it dawned on me” (Black Snow, 81) as "the autumn drew on"; a simple Russian dantist “dentist” becomes "an expert on Dante" (p. 104). Glenny deliberately changes colors, numbers, names, omits whole sentences, adds others, as we have seen in the case with rasstegai, etc. For instance, "green" is changed into "yellow," "yellow" becomes "colorless" (The Heart of a Dog, 62), glubokie kaloši is rendered as "blue galoshes." Names, which are of such importance to Bulgakov, who is very sensitive and inventive as to both their sound and connotations, are often distorted for no apparent reason. Thus Feofil Vladimirovič becomes Dmitrij Vladimirovič, Flavian Fialkin is transmuted into Florian Fialkin, Dukasov is changed into Dukabasov, Vasnecova into Basnetzova, etc. A new Russian female name invented entirely by Glenny must be mentioned here, though it appears in The Master and Margarita. Russian vanna meaning bath and bathtub becomes a girl with the name Vanna: "Vanna, put him in No. 117 by himself" (The Master and Margarita, tr. by M. Glenny [Signet, 1967], 73) perhaps under the influence of T. S. Eliot's "Wanna Go Home, Baby?" ("Sweeney Agonistes"; kindly brought to my attention by my student Maša Vorobiova) but certainly not according to Bulgakov's text. Glenny's imagination sometimes makes Bulgakov's text slightly erotic, as when Bulgakov's krasavica s raspuščennymi volosami becomes "naked" in Glenny's rendering of The Heart of a Dog (p. 42), or dekol'tirovannaja ženščina is transformed into one with a "deep decollete." Ženskaja bolezn' na francuzskoj počve is rendered as "she's having her period" (p. 6). For some completely unknown reason Glenny also changes Bulgakov's simile into one of his own coinage: jubka ženščiny zapaxla kak landyš is translated as "woman's skirt smelled of carnation" (The Heart of a Dog, 16). Many more mistakes, omissions, additions and mistranslations in general could be added to those already cited here, but to anyone who still has doubts as to Glenny's malpractices I recommend comparing the first few pages of The Heart of a Dog with the original and with Mirra Ginsburg's translation, which shows only occasional errors, such as in the case of the difficult šljajka podžaraja, which Miss Ginsburg translated as a "skinny rail" (which does not make much sense). But on the whole Miss Ginsburg is faithful, accurate, and not only literate but literary at the same time. This is the third book of Bulgakov that she has translated, and she is now engaged in translating one of his dramatic works. She shows a fine taste and an Einfühlungsvermögen into Bulgakov's world which is rarely found in translators.
